Virgin Media O2 completes its gigabit upgrade across 15.5M premises

Virgin Media O2 has completed its gigabit upgrade across its entire network of 15.5 million premises.

The most recent switch on delivered gigabit speeds to an additional 1.1 million homes. Any customer on the company’s Gig1 plan can now access ultrafast speeds with an average download of 1,130Mbps—22 times faster than the national average.

While such speeds are excessive for most of today’s applications, the network will speed up things like increasingly large game...

7 December 2021 | Broadband

Virgin Media hits 2.2Gbps speeds in latest broadband innovation trial

Liberty Global-owned Virgin Media has successfully completed a broadband innovation trial in which it achieved multi-gigabit speeds.

In the trial, Virgin Media achieved speeds of 2,200Mbps in Manchester and Southampton—around 40 times faster than average local connections.

Jeanie York, Virgin Media’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, said:

“We invest more than £1 billion into our network every year to deliver leading connectivity today, but our...

20 April 2021 | Broadband

Virgin Media trials Infinera’s XR Optics to deliver multi-gigabit speeds

Virgin Media is trialling Infinera’s XR Optics technology with the possibility of using it to deliver multi-gigabit speeds to customers.

Jeanie York, Chief Technology and Information Officer at Virgin Media, said:

“Our next-generation network already offers gigabit connectivity to more than seven million homes, but with data use and demand for hyperfast speeds surging, we’re continually investing in our network to prepare for whatever the future...

3 March 2021 | Networks

MPs reckon the UK will miss even its lowered broadband and 5G targets

A parliamentary committee believes the UK will miss its broadband and 5G targets, despite revising them lower just weeks ago.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee published a report this week which said that the industry had “no genuine belief” the UK will hit its targets.

Nationwide gigabit broadband was a key pledge made on the steps of Downing Street when Prime Minister Boris Johnson took office. Initially, the government planned for nationwide...

22 December 2020 | Legislation & Government