Homes in nine Kent towns are set to get "ultrafast" broadband as part of a major investment.

Around 85,000 buildings in the county are to get increased speeds as Openreach rolls out a wider programme across the UK.

The investment is set to total around £15 billion across the country, of which £34 million will be spent on nine new exchanges in Kent.

The firm says its plan will be fundamental to the government achieving its target of delivering "gigabit-capable broadband" to 85% of UK by 2025.

Its latest announcement means that residents in Ashford, Chatham, Margate, Strood, Hoo, Birchington, Edenbridge, Westgate and Dover can look forward to faster speeds before the end of 2026.

Openreach has already pledged upgraded speeds for rural areas in the county, bolstering 26 of its remote exchanges across five years.

Kieran Wines, Openreach’s regional director for the south east, said: “Nobody in the UK is building Full Fibre faster, further or at a higher quality than Openreach.

"We’re reaching more communities than ever and our team of highly skilled engineers, alongside our build partners, are working hard to deliver some of the fastest and most reliable broadband available anywhere in the world.

“Just last month we announced 134 rural and hard to reach locations across the South East were to benefit, so it’s great that we’re able to reveal another huge broadband boost for the region with these additional 72 locations.

"The latest details and timescales are available on our website as the build planning progresses.”

As part of the nationwide project to boost connection speeds in rural locations, 1,000 extra jobs are being created.

The full-fibre networks will provide equal upload and download speeds of gigabit services up to 10 Gbps (10,000 Mbps) - which is 10 times faster than the average home broadband connection.

Openreach's announcement comes after Netomnia pledged to boost broadband speeds for 90,000 homes and businesses in Canterbury and Ashford.

Read more: All the latest news from Kent