Virgin and Surf Telecom have begun a trail to send super-fast broadband to the village of Crumlin in Caephilly, Wales by the connection of fibre-optics to the electrical distribution network there.

The solution, providing a 50 mb fibre-optic cable, is the first time it has been done in the UK.

The villagers, most of whom have never used internet before will get access to Virgin's on-demand TV service that can supply around 5,000 hours of TV programming.