MORE than 23,000 homes and businesses across County Durham will soon benefit from faster broadband thanks to a new programme of improvements.

Households in Frosterley, Trimdon, Shildon , Seaham and Beamish are the latest in the county to benefit from upgrades as part of the roll-out of BT’s next generation broadband service delivered over copper lines.

BT claim the investment will make available download speeds of up to 20 megabits per second – more than double the fastest speed previously available from the company.

The faster broadband is already available in more than 30 locations across the county including Crook , Sedgefield , Lanchester and Stanley .

By next spring about 90 per cent of homes and businesses in the North-East will be served by an exchange which has been upgraded to deliver the higher speeds.

Alan Napier, deputy leader of Durham County Council and portfolio holder for resources, said: "We are delighted with this latest announcement which brings our aim of faster broadband for every resident of the county a significant step closer."

Farooq Hakim, BT’s North East regional director, said: "Faster broadband is touching the lives of everyone - from small businesses and homeworkers, to internet shoppers, students, families and online gaming enthusiasts – and transforming the way we do things, for the better.

"We are committed to making the technology available to as many homes and businesses as possible, as quickly as possible.

"Around 83 per cent of North East homes and businesses now have access to faster broadband and within less than a year we expect this will have increased to about nine out of 10 premises in this region.

"But there is still much work to be done and we want to work with local authorities to find ways of getting to even the most challenging locations."

This investment in the copper network is in addition to BT’s £2.5b roll-out of fibre-based broadband, which the company claims will bring even faster speeds to around two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014.

Fibre-based broadband is already available in 18 locations in County Durham including Ferryhill, Consett , Chester-le-Street and Durham City.