BRITISH Telecom bosses cannot guarantee bringing superfast broadband to some South Oxfordshire villagers who were expecting to get the service after winning a national competition.

In January last year, residents in five villages beat more than 2,500 rivals in the Race to Infinity poll to get the Blewbury exchange upgraded, which will take place later this month.

Villagers knocked on more than 1,200 doors to boost support for their bid, with residents from Blewbury, Upton, West Hagbourne, Aston Tirrold and Aston Upthorpe voting for the upgrade.

But residents in West Hagbourne, who helped with the winning bid, will not be getting superfast broadband because they live too far away from the Blewbury exchange. BT spokesman Emma Littlejohn said: “BT cannot guarantee that it will deliver superfast broadband to West Hagbourne.”

Village resident Hugh Lewis, also a parish councillor, said: “It is rather difficult to understand why we have been left out.”

Superfast broadband offers internet download speeds of up to 40Mb a second – up to 10 times faster than a regular broadband connection.

Ms Littlejohn added: “We clearly stated that when an exchange is enabled, there will be some premises not able to receive fibre.

“However, we expect every premises attached to the exchange will see an increase in their broadband speeds.”