LONDON -- Superfast broadband is coming to nine communities in East Cornwall at least three months early as the first major phase of the pioneering Superfast Cornwall initiative kicks off ahead of schedule.

The high-speed technology is expected to start to become available in Liskeard, Callington, Launceston, Dobwalls, Bude, Kilkhampton, Marhamchurch (near Widemouth Bay), Drakewalls (near Gunnislake) and North Hill (near Coads Green) by December. None of these areas had previously been due to ‘go live’ before the end of March 2012 – and Dobwalls had actually been scheduled for 2013.

The upgrading of the nine communities is just the beginning of the first major phase of the roll-out, which will see the high-speed technology becoming available to a total of 90,000 Cornish homes and businesses by the end of March.

Superfast Cornwall, the partnership between BT, the European Union, Cornwall Council and Cornwall Development Company responsible for constructing the new network, has dubbed the huge engineering operation the ‘Big Build’. The Big Build includes the laying of 130,000 kilometres of optical fibre, the upgrading of 100 telephone exchanges and the installation of about 500 new green roadside cabinets to make Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly one of the best connected places in the world.

BT Group plc (NYSE: BT; London: BTA)