Residents in Rivenhall are celebrating getting up to speed after the first homes were connected to new superfast broadband cables installed last month.

The village was one of the first communities in the county to benefit from the rollout of superfast broadband when a live fibre cabinet was unveiled in June.

Peter Hope, of Rivenhall End computer company Speedy Broadband, said homeowners who have signed up to a superfast service are now enjoying speeds of up to 70 megabytes per second.

Mr Hope said: “It will certainly be of great benefit to those who find the current speed almost unusable because of multiple users in the house.”

The launch of the broadband cabinet in Church Road, near the junction with Rickstones Road, was supported by Braintree Council, Rivenhall Parish Council, and Rivenhall CofE Primary School.

Howard Bills, vice chairman of Rivenhall parish council, said: “A lot of people are working from home now and it is going to make a huge difference to them.

“And young people use the internet all the time for their studies.”

Essex County Council is leading a £24.6 million programme in partnership with BT to make fibre broadband available to more than 87% of premises in the county by the end of summer 2016.