West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has welcomed latest figures which show that 33,000 premises are now connected to superfast fibre in her constituency. A further 3,800 properties are expected to be upgraded over the next two years as the Worcestershire County Council broadband team focuses on delivering connections to rural areas. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport yesterday launched a national internet postcode checker which will allow people to identify when they are expected to get superfast broadband. The checker can be found at http://gosuperfastchecker.culture.gov.uk/. Harriett commented: “Large areas of the county have now been connected to superfast broadband including most of Malvern and Pershore. That means that by 2017, 85 per cent of my West Worcestershire constituency will be switched on and able to get high speed broadband and it is currently ahead of schedule. “Superfast broadband will be of huge benefit to people who are able to work from home, taking pressure off the congested transport network. “I encourage people who are connected to sign up for a high-speed broadband service and those who don’t yet have access can register their interest too. “There is still much work still to do to help the rural areas which suffer from both poor broadband connections and also poor mobile phone service and I will continue to fight for funding to help these communities. “The Government has allocated money to help to fund innovative broadband projects which will help connect communities which can’t be reached by the BT and I hope that very soon, everyone across the county will be able to access much faster internet speeds.”