MORE villages in Worcestershire and Herefordshire have the opportunity to surf the internet at a greater speed.

British Telecom has announced that 15 villages in both counties have been set a "trigger level".

This means that once a certain number of residents in each area have registered an interest in the service installation of the broadband exchanges, which can cost up to £200,000 per exchange, can begin.

The communities of Birtsmorton, Hanbury, Rock, Elmley Castle, Hanley Swan, Colwall, Powick, Ombersley, Leigh Sinton, Hartlebury, Eckington and Broadway have all been set targets of 150 registrations of interest.

Upton-Upon-Severn has been set the trigger target of 200 and Wythall and Wolverley have 500 each.

However, people in these villages are luckier than those living in the Warndon Villages area of Worcester.

Tina Weston says no one in that area is able to connect to broadband.

"We have to go to the central Worcester exchange which is a long way from here.

"There's an extended reach trial from BT which increases the distance you can be from the exchange but most of our lines up here are such poor quality that we fail on that anyway, even though we're now technically no longer out of range," she said.

A spokesperson from BT said they are taking technical steps to improve the availability of broadband and that people in Wardon Villages would eventually be connected to the network.