PARTNERS bringing high-speed internet to Dorset communities are celebrating a significant milestone as it hooks another village.

The multi-million pound Superfast Dorset partnership has announced its 500th fibre broadband cabinet has gone live.

Winterborne Houghton, near Blandford, is the latest community in the county to receive superfast broadband, with fishing rod maker Tom Regula among those who could benefit.

Delivering fibre to the fourth and final cabinet in the Winterborne Valley proved difficult because of the village’s location. A route had to be used through private land, farms and woodland to protect a local Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The partnership – funded by councils, central Government and BT – is moving closer to achieving its goal of connecting 90,000 homes and businesses to Dorset’s fibre network by the end of 2017.

Speeds don’t improve automatically – customers need to contact their service provider to order a fibre service.

Engineers from BT’s network business, Openreach, overcame challenges in delivering fibre to the new cabinet so that locals and business people including Mr Regula can reel in the benefits of the service bringing up to 80Mbps.

With more than 40 years’ experience, he crafts high-end fly fishing rods using the finest materials from his workshop in Winterbourne Houghton.

The handles are made from spectacularly figured old wood joined with Portuguese cork. With clients as far afield as Alaska lining up for one of his bespoke rods, superfast broadband may even allow Mr Regula to cast his line even further afield.

He said: “Faster broadband means I’m saving time on the computer when sourcing materials and video calling when liaising with clients, which means I can spend more time behind my workbench, crafting more rods while my business grows.”

The technology not only offers growth for business, but enables better online learning and entertainment for households, granting digital freedom to the otherwise typically rural community.

District councillor Audrey Burch said: “This is such an important development in the life of our villages. It will greatly increase the connectivity to their properties and hopefully give small businesses the confidence to start up in North Dorset.”

Paul Coles, South West regional manager for BT, said: “This highly successful partnership is overcoming the engineering challenges posed by rural areas to get superfast fibre broadband to some of the county’s more remote locations. The arrival of this exciting technology is a major boost for local communities because whatever you do online, you can do it better with fibre broadband.”

With over 90 per cent of Dorset now able to upgrade to superfast fibre , Digital Economy Minister Ed Vaizey said: “Our rollout of superfast broadband in Dorset continues at pace, and it’s great to see the fantastic achievement so far from the Superfast Dorset team. Nine out of ten UK homes and businesses can now get superfast speeds, and we are on track to reach 95 per cent of the UK by 2017.”

To check if you can make the switch, visit dorsetforyou.com/superfast, where you can also sign up for regular updates and to be notified when fibre is available in your postcode.