SOME households in Clackmannanshire will be able to get a faster internet connection thanks to fibre broadband.

Another 26,000 premises across the country can now access it through the £428 million Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband rollout.

Due to the programme, more than 870,000 premises are able to connect to the new network, which has reached Pool of Muckhart for the first time and also expanded in Alloa.

To help promote it in the Wee County the Digital Scotland team caught up with Clackmannanshire Council's depute provost Donald Balsillie outside the town's Speirs Centre.

Cllr Balsillie said: "It was great meeting up with members of the Digital Scotland team I am delighted that more areas across Clackmannanshire can now access fibre broadband thanks to the programme.

"Whether it's kids doing their homework or downloading a box set fibre broadband can make it happen easily if you sign up."

Each week the programme, one of the largest broadband infrastructure projects in Europe, reaches more remote and rural areas.

Across the country around 4,355 new fibre street cabinets are now live and more than 10,000km of cable has been laid by engineers from Openreach, Scotland’s digital network business.

Fibre broadband offers fast and reliable broadband connections at speeds of up to 80Mbps and there are many suppliers in the marketplace to choose from.

Local people need to sign up for the new, faster services with an internet service provider, as upgrades are not automatic.

Robert Thorburn, Openreach digital partnership director for Scotland, said: "The Digital Scotland rollout to is a huge success story, especially given the significant extra work and unique challenges posed by our vast geography.

"At the start of the Digital Scotland project we said we’d reach an additional 750,000 premises on top of our commercial investments, and we’ve gone well beyond this.

"More than 2.5 million Scottish households and businesses now have access to high speed broadband over the Openreach digital network.

"Of course there’s more to do and our engineers are keeping up the pace to reach even more remote and rural communities during 2018."

Delivered through two projects, led by Highlands and Islands Enterprise in its area and the Scottish Government in the rest of Scotland, funding partners also include the UK Government through Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), BT Group, local authorities and the EU via the European Regional Development Fund.

MSP Fergus Ewing, rural economy secretary, said: "Once again it is very positive news knowing that more premises than ever before now have fibre broadband available to them.

"However, these upgrades are not automatic. I would encourage more people to check whether they are eligible on the DSSB website and contact a service provider of their choice to start receiving faster broadband.

"I am not complacent – I am aware that those who do not have access are at a disadvantage and our job is not done until everyone is connected. We are now focusing on the next steps to achieve 100 per cent coverage by 2021."