Thousands of homes in Great Yarmouth have been touted for new ultrafast broadband by providers Virgin Media.

The company has announced that work will begin this month to increase the broadband capacity of 5,000 homes and businesses in the town to allow for speeds of up to 300Mbps.

Currently the average download speed is 20Mbps, meaning this would offer a considerable increase to those that take the service up.

However, there will be a wait for this to come fully into effect, with work not expected to be completed until the end of 2019.

Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth said: 'It is fantastic that residents and businesses in Great Yarmouth will be able to benefit from new superfast broadband services, and this is also a great boost to the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft Enterprise Zone.'

The expansion is part of a £3b national investment from Virgin Media to extend its ultrafast broadband network.