TEN rural communities will get faster broadband thanks to a multi-million pound project in Lancashire.

Rapid progress of the Superfast Lancashire project means 52% of the county can now get access to high-speed fibre broadband when BT's commercial roll-out of fibre broadband is also taken into account.

This takes the total number of premises passed with fibre across the county to date to more than 350,000, said Lancashire County Council.

Engineers have also begun planning and building the next phase of the Superfast Lancashire project – providing a further 21,500 homes and businesses with access to superfast broadband by the end of March.

Once this phase of the roll out is complete, this will take the total number of premises able to access faster broadband as a direct result of the project to more than 39,000.

Some tens of thousands of more premises will follow over the coming year under subsequent phases of the roll out.

As part of this latest deployment, 10 communities beyond the reach of commercial fibre will now have access to superfast broadband for the first time.

Steve Edwards, BT's regional director for Next Generation Access, said: "This is a great achievement, particularly with all the challenges that rolling out a fibre network in such rural and remotely populated county like Lancashire brings."

He added: "Superfast broadband will open the doors to countless business opportunities in the county, boosting the rural economy and supporting thriving local communities."

The Superfast Lancashire project aims to extend high-speed broadband to 97% of the county's homes and businesses by the end of 2015.

Communities being connected in this latest phase include; Earby, Kelbrook, Foulridge, Trawden, Wilpshire, Langho and Old Langho, Mellor, Hest Bank, Freckleton and Warton.

This latest phase will also see substantial investment to extend access to faster broadband in a number of Lancashire communities where fibre is already available, including around 1,200 premises in Bacup and a further 10,000 premises in Blackpool.

To date, the project has completed work on over 130 new fibre broadband cabinets with a further 100 built or in progress.

Engineers are expected to complete the latest phase by the middle of March this year with homes and businesses able to start ordering a service from their broadband provider by the end of March.

Residents can look forward to download speeds of up to 80 megabits per second and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps.