THIS month has seen the announcement by Worcestershire County Council that it has reached its target of 40,000 homes and businesses able to access superfast broadband ahead of schedule with six cabinets upgraded to superfast fibre in Tenbury.

Ninety-five per cent of premises will be connected by the end of 2017. This is good news for many county residents, but I am also aware that a good proportion of those who are currently missing out live in rural areas in my West Worcestershire constituency.

We are blessed to live is such a beautiful part of the world but one of the downsides is that the topography – those beautiful rolling hills and woodlands – make it difficult for people to access services like fast broadband and decent mobile coverage.

More and more people use online services and farmers, for example, now depend on a good internet connection to keep their businesses running.

I hosted a broadband summit for local parishes to help them understand the challenges ahead – communities must band together to lobby internet providers to bring services to remote areas. Companies like Airband are already bringing innovative solutions to Tenbury and its surrounding areas. There is also a £3,000 voucher scheme which allows businesses to club together to get their premises connected.

During the summer, the Digital Minister, Ed Vaizey, announced that the Government aims to get everyone able to access fast broadband by the end of the decade and although this will be a huge challenge, I will continue to work towards finding innovative solutions to deliver on this ambition. The Government has also promised £5 billion to mobile phone companies to boost their rural service provision and hopefully in the coming months and years those people who aren’t able to connect to superfast fibre will be able to access a superfast mobile internet service.

But it is important to remind everyone that internet service providers will be more willing to deliver solutions where they know there is demand. If you haven’t done so already, let the county council know that you want a superfast fibre service and sign up on the website at www.superfastworcestershire.com.

If communities can show that, together, they all want this important new utility, then the county, and I, will work hard to secure a solution to help you get connected as quickly as possible.