Tag Archives: Virgin Media

Broadband Speed for Virgin Media Will Double

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Posted by Admin on January 20, 2012 – 2:23 pm
Filed under Broadband News

Virgin Media will upgrade the speed of its broadband service from February. The speed will double for up to 4 million customers. The companies top speed will also increase from 100mbps to 120 mbps.

The upgrade is expected to be completed by mid 2013 and will cost the company £110 million. Virgin Media’s chief executive Neil Berkett was reported as saying ” The internet has become an integral part of our social, work and family lives, so we think our customers are going to love this ” ”We want to make sure that our consumers have access to the best value broadband service and that means a superfast connection. ”

In a statement, Prime Minister David Cameron said  ” I welcome this announcement from Virgin Media. It will provide a great boost for the economy and change the way many households, consumers and businesses use the internet. Rolling out superfast broadband across the country is a crutial part of our plan to upgrade the UK’s infrastructure and build a new and smarter economy.”

Customers currently signed up for 10mbps with Virgin will be upgraded to 20 mbps free of charge. Users currently on 20 mbps and 30 mbps will both be boostered to 60 mbps. Anyone on 50 mbps will be  increased to 100mbps and anyone on the current top speed of 100 mbps will find themselves on an amazing speed of 120mbps. Broadband usage limits will be doubled to accommodate the increased speed.

It is unlikely that customers will even notice the upgrades actually taking place and there will be no charge fro any of the work. However some customers who have old modems will need more up to date equipment which will also be free of charge.

Virgin Media to Upgrade Broadband Networks

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Posted by Admin on November 21, 2011 – 6:11 pm
Filed under Broadband News

Virgin Media have announced that they are working towards upgrading their broadband networks. They intend to offer the fastest broadband speeds to their subscribers and revealed at the beginning of November that they are now offering 100Mb broadband connections to a third of the UK.

Virgin has been rolling out fibre optic broadband since the beginning of 2011 and expect the project to be completed by mid 2012. This should see and extra four million homes having access to superfast broadband speeds.

Virgin Media have announced that they will create a new innovation lab which will produce new products and services for superfast broadband.They will be working alongside Londons ‘Silicon Roundabout’ startup incubator. They plan to have members from TheCube trying out new products and services via superfast broadband networks.The first project will be trialed throughout next year.

Virgin will be competing with BT Broadband who are constantly making headlines as they upgrade networks throughout the UK. Only last week they reported that broadband speeds in Somerset will be doubled.   

Virgin Media seem determined not to be outdone.

100Mb Broadband for Trowbridge.

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Posted by Admin on March 22, 2011 – 5:58 pm
Filed under Broadband News

Trowbridge is set to be one of the first towns in the South West to receive the Uk’s fastest broadband with speeds of 100Mb which is nearly 20 times the national average.

The 100 Mb broadband service, which will be offered to residents by Virgin Media, will be on sale in Trowbridge making it one of the fastest internet locations in the whole of the UK.

Executive Director at Virgin Media Jon James was reported as saying ” We know residents in Trowbridge will be blown away by what 100Mb can deliver and the real impact this can have on  day to day life, be it uploading family holiday videos to share with friends or downloading an entire music album in a matter of seconds.’

The new service will allow users to download a high definition film in about seven minutes, a television programme in 30 seconds and an album in five seconds.

76,600 New Customers For Virgin Media

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Posted by Admin on February 23, 2011 – 2:52 pm
Filed under Broadband News

2010 was a good year for Virgin Media. They attracted 76,600 new customers and in the fourth quarter reported net income moved £37.1m into the black.

Revenues were up 5.8% to £3.8bn although the number of new customers who signed up to TV fell to 12,100 in the fourth quarter. Total revenues reached £1bn in the fourth quarter , which was the first time that this had happened in any quarter.

Although Virgin media reported a net loss of £141.4m in 2010 this was a big improvement over the £357.8m loss  reported in 2009 ( adjusted after the sale of Virgin Media TV and BSkyB last July).

Broadband subscribers were up by 44,100 which was considerably less than the 204,000 announced by Sky and 188,000 by BT. Neil Birkett of Virgin Media reportedly said that it was unfair to judge rival telecoms providers. He said” You can’t compare BT’s and Sky’s service to ours. We sell proper broadband.”

Virgin Media  now has 1.5 million subscribers to HD which is approximately 39% of its customer base  and it made a net income of £2.6 million in the fourth quarter from its 50% stake in UKTV. Virgin is said to be close to selling its stake to US broadcaster Scripps. Its mobile phone contract customers grew by 27.5% to 1.2 million.

The number of customers who subscribed to fibre optic broadband packages with speeds of 20Mbps or more rose by 40% which was a huge increase .

Gordan Browns Broadband Tax Scrapped.

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Posted by Admin on April 7, 2010 – 5:53 pm
Filed under Broadband News

The 50p per month broadband tax planned by the Government has been scrapped in a last minute rush to get key legislation through before Parliament is dissolved next week.

The other two taxes to be scrapped are tax releif on holiday homes and the 10% tax increase on cider.

The £6 per year tax which would have affected all households with a land line was expected to raise roughly £170million per year in a bid to bring high speed broadband to rural areas that companies such as BT and Virgin Media could not reach.

The Conservatives planned to scrap the tax if they win the General Election. They have plans to use some of the TV license fees set aside for digital switchover. The tax has been labelled unfair as the people paying the tax would not benefit from it.

The future of super fast broadband for all is now un-certain although if Labour win the election next month it may well be re-instated.

Virgin to Trial Telegraph Poles for Broadband

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Posted by Admin on March 25, 2010 – 12:37 pm
Filed under Broadband News

Virgin is to run a six month trial in a bid to deliver fibre optic high speed broadband over telegraph poles.

The trial will take place in Woolhampton in Berkshire and should deliver 50Mbps broadband. Fibre optic cables are generally run through underground ducts although some companies have also experimented with running cables through sewer networks.

Virgins’ Chief Executive Neil Berkett reportedly said ”’The trial would allow the firm to understand the possibilities of aerial deployment and may provide a new way to extend next generation broadband services’. 

The Government hopes to ensure that everyone in the UK has access to a broadband speed of 2Mbps by 2012 and high speed broadband by 2017 and they have earmarked £200m to extend broadband coverage to 15%of homes here in the UK who currently do not receive broadband at 2Mbps.

Virgins are trying to bring broadband to people who currently live out of reach of their current network.

Virgin to Roll Out 100Mbps service.

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Posted by Admin on March 17, 2010 – 1:24 pm
Filed under Broadband News

 

Virgin has stepped up its broadband speed battle with BT by declaring that it will roll out its 100Mbps by the  end of the year.

The company signed up over 63,000 new customers over Christmas and claimed that over a third of the new customers had taken the more expensive 50Mbps service. There will clearly be a demand for  an even faster speed. 

The fiber-based 100 speed network will allow users to download a music album in 5 seconds and a hour long TV show will only take 31 seconds.Virgin has also announced that it will extend the testing of a 200Mbps service to other parts of the UK after initial testing  was announced in May 2009. 

Virgin Media provides broadband, TV,phone and mobile phone services  to around 4 million homes in the UK currently offering services of 10Mbps,20Mbps and 50Mbps. Already some customers are using the 50 Mbps service to its full capacity as some homes use different services such as watching high definition TV and downloading music at the same time.

It seems there is nothing that these new fibre optic cable networks can do and the days of the 2Mbps services are numbered.

BT Launches Fibre Optic Broadband For Businesses

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Posted by Admin on January 31, 2010 – 6:00 pm
Filed under Broadband News

BT’s new fibre optic broadband service for businesses was launched last week. It offers up to 40mbps download speeds and a special ‘fast lane’ which gives right of way  to businesses at busy times.

Prices start at £30 per month with a 24 month contract and upload speeds of up to 2 Mbps. While up to 10Mbps speeds and a 24 month contract will cost £45 per month.  

12 month contracts are more expensive. £35 for BT Business Total Broadband Fibre and £50 for the advanced package.

Each package will include 500 minutes of BT’s Openzone Wi-Fi network, 24 hour technical support, 50MB of web space and 10 e-mail addresses.

BT expects the 10 Mbps upload speeds to be very attractive to small businesses wishing to send bigger  files. BT’s biggest competitor is Virgin Media who believe that their upspeeds are faster than BT’s but BT of course dispute this.

BT plans to make fibre optic broadband ( FTTC ) available to 4 million businesses and homes by the end of 2010 and available to 10 million businesses and homes by mid-2012.

Mobile Broadband Speed Doubled By Virgin Media

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Posted by Admin on December 5, 2009 – 4:36 pm
Filed under Broadband Speed

Virgin MediaVirgin Media has released a new mobile broadband which they say will double the speed of the mobile broadband previously offered.

The new USB modem will offer speeds of 7.2Mbps on a range of contracts. Mobile broadband is becoming more and more popular for people on the go. If you are not near a wireless connection and are away from home mobile broadband is now considered vital by some people.

Customers are given the option of a one month rolling contract or a full 18 months with a choice of 1 GB or 3 GB data limits per month.

The deals are now available and monthly payments range from £10 to £15. The modem will cost £24.99 on the 1 Gb contract and £49.99 on other options.

Bt Promises Broadband Speeds Of Up To 100Mpbs

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Posted by Admin on November 7, 2009 – 4:40 pm
Filed under Broadband News

BT BroadbandBT has promised to double the number of households that will have access to its super fast broadband network where speeds could reach up to 100Mpbs. They promise  to set up 10 % of Britains households ( at least 2.5 millions homes) with ultra fast speeds by 2012. The network will allow their customers to watch streaming HD television whilst surfing the web and downloading music on their PC’s.

The first trials will take place in Bradwell Abbey in Milton Keynes and Highams Park in London where up to 20,000 cutomers will receive the high speed connections by March 2010. 

 Due to a revision of plans BT will have the new fibre optic network passing through 10 million households although much of the network will be FTTC  (fibre to the cabinet) which means it will be connected to the green boxes outside on the streets rather tha plugging directly into peoples homes. Because of this speeds will be slower- maybe 60Mpbs slower- as the final part of the connection to the house will just be a traditional copper phone line. Most ot the new technology will take place in the brownfield sites that already have copper broadband infastructure rather than greenfield areas.

BT is competing with Carphone Warehouse, Virgin Media and BSkyB to bring out high speeds. Virgin Media has already launched broadband at 50Mpbs and is testing 100Mpbs services.

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