BRITISH TELECOM has announced that Tavistock will be among 24 South West communities to benefit from faster 'next generation' broadband by 2011.

Some 53,000 homes and businesses in Devon are included in the latest roll-out plan for BT's pioneering 21st Century Network (21CN).

St Marychurch in Torquay, Totnes, Bideford, Sidmouth and Honiton will also benefit.

The BT investment makes broadband speeds of up to 24 Mb/s available — more than double the maximum speeds previously available to the majority of UK homes and businesses.

BT intends to roll-out these higher speed services to exchanges serving around 75 per cent of the UK — 20 million homes and businesses — by spring next year. 

More than 300 UK exchanges will be upgraded in this phase of the programme, representing another 2.8 million homes and businesses.

The network is available on an open, wholesale basis to all companies providing broadband services.

More than half of all South West lines have already been upgraded. The faster speeds are delivered over copper lines.

Jon Reynolds, BT's South West regional director, said: 'This faster broadband service will play a major role in helping our region attract and retain inward investment.

'It is a major step forward offering numerous improvements and opportunities — and faster broadband for many customers in Devon.

For householders, the service supported the growing demand for high-speed access to a range of online services —including HD television, online gaming and a range of other internet and communications services.

For businesses, it enabled smaller firms to operate like bigger companies, quickly responding to changes in the market in a way once only available to much larger enterprises.