THOUSANDS of Enfield households are among the first in the country to be hooked up to super-fast broadband.

Around 36,000 customers in Enfield North and Edmonton will now be able to benefit from the advanced fibre optic technology.

BT has chosen the borough, alongside Canonbury, Chingford, Thamesmead and Tottenham, to kick start its £1.5 billion groundwork project.

More than 100,000 households and businesses in the areas will be upgraded over the next few weeks, and the company hopes to give 40 per cent of the UK population access to the faster connection by 2012.

Exchanges in Ponders End and Winchmore Hill are planned to go live in September and December of this year respectively, benefiting a further 21,000 customers.

BT’s London regional director, Duncan Ingram, said: “Edmonton is among the first places in the UK to benefit from BT’s fibre broadband and we are very keen to show local people the internet as they’ve never seen it before.

"As online services advance and evolve, BT’s fibre-based broadband will really make the difference in local homes and businesses.”

Residents and businesses witnessed the new broadband in action on July 30 when the BT Infinity double-decker bus rolled into Edmonton Green Shopping Centre.

New download speeds of up to 40Mb/s and uploads of up to 10Mb/s will allow multiple users to do more online at the same time.

Consumers will benefit from high-quality streaming of video content from websites like iPlayer and YouTube, as well as much faster music downloads and online games.

Speaking after seeing the technology in action, Edmonton MP Andy Love said: “The arrival of super-fast broadband represents a significant investment in the area.

"I’m pleased that local households and businesses get to be some of the first to benefit from this new technology.

"Most importantly, I hope it helps makes the internet more accessible to all.”