The UK’s first Internet “fibre town” could go online in the autumn, delivering Internet speeds of about 100Mbps (megabits per second) to consumers’ homes via new fibre optic networks.

Fibre firm ‘H2O’ provides super-fast broadband via the sewers; saving costly and disruptive road digging, and either Bournemouth, Northampton or Dundee will be offered the service first. These three have been selected because ‘H20′ has already installed its fibre service to local council buildings.

Last month BT announced that its own ‘fibre-to-the-home’ trial at Ebbsfleet in Kent would see the first homes connected by August of this year but this will initially be limited to around 600 new houses. The development will eventually have some 10,000 homes connected via fibre with speeds of up to 100Mbps but the project will take until 2020 to complete.

The current telecommunications system was never designed to carry large amounts of data and many have called for an urgent fibre upgrade. The mega-fast service will have instant appeal for consumers, and local businesses (i.e. for regular server updates between offices, etc).