THE British government's pledge to give 95 per cent of the UK access to superfast broadband has been met, Culture Secretary Matt Hancock has said.
Citing the latest figures from independent advice website thinkbroadband.com, he said millions more homes and businesses could get online at speeds of at least 24mbps, with his manifesto pledge to reach all but five per cent of premises before the end of 2017 was achieved in December.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport estimated the £1.7 billion roll-out had created 50,000 new jobs and generated an extra £8.9 billion in turnover in the economies of the areas which benefited between 2013 and 2016.
According to thinkbroadband.com, speeds of 24mbps or faster are available to around 27.5 million out of 28.9 million premises in the UK.
But Northern Ireland, which once claimed to be the UK's best-connected region, came bottom of the pile at those speeds.
In England 95.5 per cent of properties can get those speeds, while the figure dips to 94.2 per cent in Wales, 93.4 per cent in Scotland and just 86.7 per cent in Northern Ireland, the website's data shows.
The DCMS said 2.25 million homes and businesses have taken up superfast broadband in areas covered by its Broadband Delivery UK projects.
BT Openreach, which looks after the country's broadband network, aims to deliver broadband for every home and business which is fast enough to allow multiple video streams on one connection by 2020.
