More than one million homes in rural and hard-to-reach areas will have broadband built to them in the first phase of a £5 billion infrastructure project.
Available speeds will see a boost to more than 1,000 megabits or one gigabit per second under the government plans.
Contracts for these first areas will go to tender in the spring with spades in the ground in the first half of 2022.
Projects will prioritise areas that currently have slow connections, including large swathes of the countryside long impacted by sluggish speeds.
The Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme is also being relaunched with up to £210m to give people in eligible rural areas financial help to get gigabit speeds.
Announcing the plan today (19 March), Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "Project Gigabit is the rocket boost that we need to get lightning-fast broadband to all areas.
"This broadband revolution will fire up people’s businesses and homes, and the vital public services that we all rely on, so we can continue to level up and build back better from this pandemic."
The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) called the announcement an 'important moment in levelling up the countryside'.
"Too many rural businesses are put at a disadvantage by poor connectivity," said Mark Bridgeman, the rural group's president.
"The rural economy is 16% less productive than the national average, largely due to poor infrastructure," he said, adding that the gap's closure would grow the economy by at least £43bn.
"This is a good start, but if government is serious about levelling up then it’s foot needs to stay on the accelerator until the job is complete.”
