The first customers have been connected to super-fast broadband in Cornwall, which was launched in the Truro area this morning.

The sophisticated technology is now available to more than 1,000 homes and businesses in the Chiverton Cross and Chacewater areas.

And by Thursday super-fast broadband is also expected to have ‘gone live’ in St Agnes, St Day, Portreath, Devoran, Leedstown, Stenalees and Par, offering the high-speed service to another 14,000 customers.

They are part of a pilot scheme run in advance of the main £132 million super-fast broadband scheme for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, which in its early phases will focus particularly on South East Cornwall.

About six months after the signing of the contract for the scheme, engineers from BT’s local network business Openreach have already installed more than 150 kilometres of optical fibre cable – equivalent to more than the length of Cornwall.

It means a music track can be downloaded in just two seconds, a whole music album in 30 seconds and a feature length HD movie in ten minutes.

Upload speeds are the fastest in the UK, allowing large videos and data files to be sent almost instantly and activities, such as uploading hi-res photos to Facebook, to be completed in seconds.

Carolyn Rule, Cornwall Council cabinet member for economy and regeneration, said: “The Superfast Cornwall programme is certainly living up to its name. We are very pleased with its progress and the fact that this key milestone in the programme has been reached right on schedule. Super-fast broadband is already available to the first customers about six months after the scheme was first announced. It is a great achievement.”

The scheme is being managed by the Cornwall Development Company – Cornwall Council’s economic development company.

The high-speed network will be available on an equal basis to all firms providing broadband services.

By 2014 the programme, funded by BT and the European Regional Development Fund Convergence programme, is expected to have delivered super-fast fibre broadband to at least 80 per cent of households and businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Among the first customers to be connected has been the Britannia Hotel, a pub in a 19th century listed building in the centre of the village of Chacewater.

Michael Owen, who took over the Britannia Hotel with his wife Sheila last year, said super-fast broadband had “transformed” the services offered by the pub.

“Super-fast broadband is fantastic,” he said. “I had high expectations, but it has been even better than I imagined. Downloading of films, for example, takes no time at all and when I send a video it just flies. It really is amazing.

“We are the first super-fast pub in Cornwall and because we offer free wi-fi to our customers, people can experience super-fast broadband first hand while enjoying a pint of real ale. Our customers have been blown away by it.

“More businesspeople are coming in now with laptops. We have a printer on the bar, which customers are welcome to use free of charge. So people can drop in, do their work and print it off while enjoying a drink or a spot of lunch.”

A BT spokesperson said that while most premises in the eight pilot areas would be able to access fibre-based broadband immediately, a minority would not be able to do so.

People not able to benefit initially would in future receive faster speeds than today through a mixture of technologies expected to include wireless, satellite broadband, advanced copper and a further extension of the fibre network.

Customers can find out more about the programme at www.superfastcornwall.org Details of the full roll-out programme across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will be announced in May.