A TRIAL by BT Openreach to bring fibre optic broadband to many homes currently without the service in North Swindon is continuing to grow.

Last month, the first homes were connected in Haydon Wick and now a further 277 homes in Taw Hill are going to be included in the project.

There has been a campaign for several years by residents in North Swindon as thousands of homes do not have access to superfast broadband.

In February, BT announced the trail and workers have been seen laying cables for it Fibre-to-Premises scheme, which means homes can be upgraded in a few hours and delivers speeds of up to 300Mbps.

Locals who are already connected have spoken of the improved service, as many more have signed up to the BT website to signal demand in the area.

One of the first customers to benefit from the trial is resident David Stevens, who works from home. He said: “We had standard broadband before which gave us around 2Mbps in speed.

“I work from home and rely on a broadband connection for things like Skype calls, sharing files or data transfer. If anyone else in the house was online at the same time the signal would drop out, which is very frustrating.

“Now I’ve got ultrafast I no longer suffer dropouts in signal and haven’t had anyone tell me they can’t understand me or that I sound like a Dalek so that’s been great.”

Vice Chairman of Haydon Wick Parish Council Damon Bower said: “Just five and a half weeks ago we were discussing plans for Fibre-to-the-Premises in the village, and now the first customers have been connected. It’s fantastic that in that time we have an active network delivered and working.

“All the engineers on site have generated a real buzz in the area. The trial will cover 500 homes so we can look forward to even more residents being connected in the near future.”

Openreach will continue to build on the trial in Haydon Wick with the number of upgraded lines ramping up over the coming weeks and months.

Swindon Borough Council has signed up with UKB Networks to provide a wireless service in areas without superfast broadband.

While it has been welcomed in some rural areas, many in North Swindon have campaigned against the move saying fibre optic broadband is the only viable option.