BT’s network subsidiary Openreach is close to a deal with the Government to deliver broadband upgrades to more than a million rural homes and bring them up to speed with the rest of the country.

Openreach is in advanced negotiations over a deal to spend hundreds of millions of pounds to meet a new Universal Service Obligation (USO) designed to ensure no premises receives less than 10 megabits per second. Around 5pc, or 1.4m, cannot receive what Ofcom calls a basic decent service.

In a Sunday Telegraph interview, Openreach chief executive Clive Selley said: “I hope that we make decisions really quickly now.”