MORE than 40,000 homes are to be given a high-speed boost as the latest phase of a £410million scheme is rolled out.

The Superfast Broadband programme will give thousands of homes and businesses across Glasgow and the West of Scotland access to faster internet.

More than a dozen areas in Glasgow have been targeted in the latest phase of improvements, including Bridgeton, Langside and Springburn.

Govan, Bishopbriggs, ­Bearsden and Croftfoot will also receive access to the rapid technology for the first time.

The new infrastructure will mean that multiple users in a home or business will be able to access the internet and download and share large files at the same time and more quickly than ever before.

The boost will see premises across Glasgow as well as East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire, East and South Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire able to benefit. Locals who sign up to the service should expect to receive broadband speeds of up to 80Mb per ­second from spring 2015.

The latest Glasgow figures released by uSwitch last month showed the city's current average speed at both 5am and 9pm as 15.4Mb.

Council leader Gordon Matheson said: "The social and economic benefits of using the latest technology are well-documented, and I look forward to greater superfast broadband coverage coming to Glasgow through this programme.

"Our own partnership with BT Scotland has brought free Wi-Fi to the city centre and other areas, so we appreciate what superfast broadband offers our residents and businesses."

The aim of the government scheme is to provide 85% of premises across the country with access to fibre broadband by the end of 2015/16 and 95% by the end of 2017/2018.

Nicola Sturgeon, Deputy First Minister, said: "This ­latest announcement marks another important milestone for the West of Scotland and the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband partnership."

hannah.rodger@eveningtimes.co.uk