Broadband News

Virgin Media customers flock to superfast broadband

Wednesday 8 February, 2012

By Duncan Heaney

More than a quarter of Virgin Media broadband customers now have 20Mb or above.

Virgin Media has announced its financial results for 2011. The provider gained almost 92,000 new cable broadband customers last year. In addition, it’s gained almost 28,000 new copper-based broadband customers.

However, the biggest customer gains in its broadband division come from superfast fibre connections. During 2011, more than half of new broadband subscribers chose speeds of 30Mb or more. According to the company, it added 579,000 superfast broadband users over the course of the year, and 133,000 in the last three months alone.

More than a quarter (28%) of Virgin Media’s customer base is now using broadband tiers of 20Mb or above. Approximately 700,000 users subscribe to speeds of 30Mb or above, and 200,000 have taken 50Mb or 100Mb packages.

Virgin Media also announced that 10 million homes now have access to its 100Mb service, and this number should increase as Virgin continues its roll-out this spring.

With people using more and more internet-connected devices - such as laptops, smartphones and tablets - and the growing popularity of on-demand TV and film services, it’s not surprising to see superfast broadband gain traction among Virgin Media customers. It’s a fact seemingly not lost on the company - in January, it announced plans to double broadband speeds for four million customers.

Neil Berkett, Virgin Media’s chief executive officer, said: “Our confidence in the growing mainstream demand for next generation digital services has recently led us to announce the roll-out of an ambitious programme to double the broadband speeds of over four million customers.

“This marks a step change in the migration to superfast speeds and, combined with the continued evolution of TiVo, further differentiates the Virgin Media customer experience.”