A number of communities across the UK are to receive free wireless broadband services after they won a major competition.

Public Wi-Fi network Freerunner has announced that 46 areas have won its community competition, which means they will receive free internet for a minimum of three years regardless of their current levels of connectivity.

Around 500 entries were received as part of the competition, which selected the winners by deciding the areas that would get the biggest boost from the service.

Owen Geddes, Chief Executive Officer of Freerunner, said: "We wanted to start with those most in need so we put the call out and the response was pretty overwhelming.

"It is incredible to think that a small piece of relatively low cost technology is going to fundamentally change nearly 50 communities across the UK."

Last month, it was announced that Freerunner has provided public Wi-Fi services in 450 Phones 4U stores across the UK.