Virgin Media O2’s Gigabit broadband now reaches 12.8 million UK homes
Virgin Media O2 has today announced one of its largest-ever gigabit broadband switch-ons with its high speed service now reaching a total of 12.8 million homes across the UK, equivalent to more than three-quarters of the company’s network footprint.
As part of today’s gigabit switch-on, Virgin Media O2 has upgraded its network with 2.5 million extra homes gaining access in towns and cities including Brighton, Colchester, Derby, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Southend, Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Wakefield and many others.
Virgin Media’s next-generation Gig1 broadband service, with average download speeds of 1,130Mbps, is the fastest available from a major broadband provider in the UK – 22 times faster than the national average, claims Virgin.
As well as preparing homes for the technologies and applications of tomorrow, gigabit speeds enable consumers to do more online – from working, streaming, socialising and gaming – all at the same time and on multiple devices.
Virgin Media is already the UK’s largest gigabit provider in the UK and by the end of this year the company hopes to deliver gigabit broadband speeds across its entire network of 15.5 million homes.
Says Lutz Schüler, Chief Executive Officer at Virgin Media O2:
“Our continued investment means more than three-quarters of our network is now gigabit ready, offering millions of households across the country access to future-proof services and the fastest broadband available from any major provider.
“We’re continuing with our mission to upgrade the UK and connect our entire network to gigabit speeds by the end of the year – a pace unrivalled by any other provider.”
As part of its mission to upgrade the UK, the company has committed to invest at least £10bn over the next 5 years in the UK and, building on the success of its existing fibre network expansion activity, is actively exploring options to go further and faster by deploying fibre to millions of additional homes across the country.
Last month, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport – using ThinkBroadband data – revealed that more than 50% of UK homes now have access to gigabit broadband. Virgin Media O2 has also recently announced its intention to upgrade its fixed network to full fibre to the premises (FTTP) with completion in 2028. This technology is capable of delivering symmetrical 10Gbps download and upload speeds.
