RURAL villages in South Gloucestershire are being given access to fibre broadband following more investment.

The fibre to the premises (FTTP) scheme covers villages from Elberton to Littleton-Upon-Severn after South Gloucestershire Council was able to secure an additional £1.49m investment.

FTTP offers superfast broadband speeds over a reliable, fibre connection straight to the subscriber's premises.

BT will carry out the necessary surveying work over the coming months and we anticipate this phase of the build to be completed by December 2017.

The partnership between South Gloucestershire Council, BDUK and BT has already made faster fibre broadband available to over 18,000 homes and businesses across the district since it began in 2013.

This will take superfast broadband coverage from 93 per cent to 95 per cent coverage across the region by the end of 2017.

Councillor John Goddard, chair of council's resources sub-committee, said: "This is new technology which we've not deployed before."

It would "provide the best solution for small, rural communities over a wide geographical area," said councillor Goddard.

He added: "We are committed to providing the widest coverage we can within the available funding to ensure that as many residents and businesses are able to benefit from better broadband."

The council will launch an invitation to bid for a contract to provide further coverage to parts of South Gloucestershire not included in the current rollout.

Bidding would be open to any company or organisation to bid on the contract, said councillor Goddard.

For more information on the broadband rollout visit www.southglos.gov.uk/broadband.