HIGH-SPEED fibre broadband is now available to the first homes and businesses in Abergavenny, BT has announced.

More than 7,000 local householders and firms in the town are joining the high-speed revolution as engineers complete planned local upgrades in the coming weeks.

This latest development will help take the number of premises in South East Wales with access to fibre broadband to 115,000 by spring 2013. Chepstow, Caldicot and much of Newport has already been upgraded.

The BT investment is expected to give a major boost to the local economy. A recent report by Regeneris Consulting predicted that over the next 15 years the technology could give the economy of a typical town a £143 million boost, create 225 new jobs, 140 new start-up businesses and 1,000 more homeworkers.

BT's local network business, Openreach, aims to make the high speed technology available to around two-thirds of UK homes and businesses by the end of 2014 by using a mixture of fibre to the cabinet and fibre to the premises technologies.  Both offer speeds much faster than those currently available to many UK homes and businesses.

Ann Beynon, BT director for Wales, said: "The advent of fibre broadband in Abergavenny is a massive fillip for businesses and households in the area. It will enrich people's lives and bring a much-needed boost to businesses in these economically challenging times. They're joining ten million UK premises, which are now passed by one of the world's fastest growing fibre networks.

"Fibre broadband will offer local firms and households new ways of working flexibly and allow large data and video files to be sent and received almost instantly.

"Other benefits include access to high quality videoconferencing and better back-up of computer systems. No-one is doing more than BT to bring faster broadband to Wales."

Nick Ramsay, Assembly Member for Monmouth, said: "This is great news for Abergavenny. Fast broadband is a vital tool for local businesses to remain competitive and I've no doubt it will be a catalyst for the creation of new jobs. It will also transform the lives of local families, whether they're using the technology for social networking, entertainment or education."

At home a family could be simultaneously downloading a movie, watching a TV replay service, surfing the internet and playing games online.

For further information on Openreach's fibre broadband programme visit superfast-openreach.co.uk.