Thousands more business and households across the county are set to take advantage of high speed access to the Internet and digital communications.

Telecoms giant BT has revealed five further exchanges - Wantage, Wallingford, Thame, Rowstock and Headington - are to be equipped with the latest ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) broadband technology.

Broadband involves a high speed digital line which boosts download speeds by up to 40 times that of a normal modem.

As well as the Internet and corporate intranets, it it also a faster way of accessing digital audio-visual material.

The announcement is part of a national, multi million pound initiative to install ADSL at a further 100 UK exchanges by the end of May. The five Oxfordshire exchanges due to receive the new equipment currently have a total of more than 4,000 business and 35,000 residential conn- ections.

Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale, said: "The work in these exchanges is our response to customer demand. People have told us, in sufficient numbers, that they want broadband services."

Broadband technology is becoming cheaper with BT announcing price reductions.