Broadband News

Virgin Media announces speed upgrades

(28-01-08) - Cable provider Virgin Media has announced that customers on its 4Mb L broadband package are to be upgraded to speeds of up to 10Mb for free.

The company revealed its upgrade plans - which are due to be completed by the summer - while announcing the success of its 50Mb trials in Ashford, Folkstone and Dover.

Virgin Media (www.VirginMedia.com) currently offers a top speed of 20Mb, but this will be increased to up to 50Mb - available to over nine million homes - by the end of 2008.

Neil Berkett, acting CEO of Virgin Media, said: “Virgin Media’s cable network gives us a natural superiority over other broadband services and we’re delighted to reward our customers with this free upgrade. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with our cable network, and we will continue to look for new ways to satisfy the growing demand for even faster broadband in the UK. We’re proud to be leading the country’s superfast broadband revolution.”

According to the UK’s second largest provider, L package customers will be able to download a music track in just four seconds, an album in under a minute and a TV show in around five minutes once they have been upgraded to the 10Mb speed.

However, Michael Phillips, BroadbandChoices.co.uk product director, reminded customers that even with a cable connection they would not receive their full advertised speed.

“Virgin Media customers receive around 50 per cent of their advertised speed on average. However, this is still higher than the vast majority of its competitors, and overall, cable always beats ADSL by around 10 percentage points.

“While there’s no doubt that a free upgrade from 4Mb to up to 10Mb will be welcomed by all Virgin Media customers, those considering switching to the 50Mb service should wait and see what performance levels look like.

“Even ISPs like Virgin Media, which overall, regularly tops our speed tester table, fall a lot shorter when it comes to ‘superfast’ broadband. In 2007, Virgin Media’s top 20Mb package averaged only 7.3Mb - but this was still faster than other ‘superfast’ packages - Be Broadband (www.BeThere.co.uk) advertised up to 24Mb but customers only got an average of 5.2Mb and Sky Broadband (www.Sky.com) offered up to 16Mb, but customers only enjoyed an average of 4.7Mb.

“You have to ask yourself if these actual speeds, and the even faster speeds that will emerge in 2008, are worth the price that providers are asking,” he concluded.

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