Gloucestershire and Herefordshire councils have signed a shared rural superfast broadband deal worth £56.5 million.

The contract is the largest to be announced under the BDUK program, with investment of £18.17 million being provided by the delivery project.

The superfast broadband contract with BT is designed to increase private and business broadband speeds across the two council districts.

The contract will cover a four year period up until 2016 with speeds greater than 24 Mbps being widely available by 2018.