Engineering work started this month to connect more than 3,800 homes in Hadleigh to full fibre broadband - part of a £27 million rural infrastructure boost for Suffolk.

The work is being carried out by broadband provider Gigaclear to extend its full fibre network to underserved market towns and rural communities in the county.

Residents will begin to have access to the service by the end of the year, with the work due to be completed by spring 2024.

Delivery director Tony Smith said: "There are many great benefits to living in rural communities such as Hadleigh but having access to the fastest broadband speeds is not necessarily an obvious one.

"That's because people living in large towns and cities, on average, enjoy much faster speeds than people in rural locations. However, Gigaclear's mission is to address this gap.

"We're investing more than £27 million in rural Suffolk to make sure residents living in communities such as Hadleigh are just as able to work from home, stream online entertainment, scroll and gameplay as people living in more urban areas."

During the engineering work, Gigaclear will be utilising existing Openreach ducts and poles wherever possible in order to minimise disruption.

For more information, visit www.gigaclear.com