THOUSANDS of homes across Hampshire will now have access to super-fast broadband speeds.

Virgin Media O2 added thousands of homes in Romsey and Andover to its gigabit network, including rural villages that now has access to broadband speeds 20 times faster than the regional average.

Virgin Media’s Gig1 broadband service, with average download speeds of 1,130Mbps, is the fastest available from any of the major broadband providers in the UK.

As part of today’s gigabit switch-on, Virgin Media O2 has upgraded thousands of homes in Andover, Michelmersh, North Baddesley, Romsey, and Timsbury including other rural locations across the region to gigabit speeds.

More homes in the area will be connected to gigabit broadband over the coming months.

This includes the 12 villages that make up Test & Dun Valley, which saw residents benefit from an innovative and first-of-its-kind scheme for Virgin Media to connect them to ultrafast broadband. In less than two years, villagers in the areas have gone from broadband speeds as low as 2Mbps to 1,130Gbps – 570 times faster than previous connectivity.

Caroline Nokes, MP for Romsey and Southampton North said: “I know how much fast broadband matters to local residents, as well as being able to choose who supplies to them. Virgin Media O2 has worked really hard on their initiatives in this area to bring faster broadband to some of the villages.”

Lutz Schüler, chief executive officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “We are upgrading the UK to next-generation connectivity and today we’re hitting another important milestone with more than half of our network now able to access gigabit speeds.

“As the UK’s largest gigabit broadband provider today,we’ll be delivering most of the Government’s broadband target ahead of schedule.”