Virgin Media Commence Broadband Speed Doubling
# 1 March 2012, 18:29 by cfteam
Today sees the commencement of the first phase of the Usain Bolt fronted Broadband speed doubling programme. Over the next couple of months an initial 1.5million homes in cabled areas will be able to access the new speeds.
The complete upgrade rollout to a network covering some 13 million homes and with a current 4 million broadband subscribers will take some 18 months. Once the programme is completed all cable broadband services will be at “Superfast” speeds, a term that the Government’s Broadband Delivery Office has recently defined as being in excess of 24mbps download.
The speed upgrades will mean the following changes:
- 10Mb increased to 20Mb
- 20Mb and 30Mb increased to 60Mb
- 50Mb increased to 100Mb (then 120Mb when service rolls out)
- 100Mb increased to 120Mb (when 120Mb service rolls out current 100Mb customer will also see a price drop)
www.virginmedia.com/doublespeed allows customers to check the expected upgrade dates for their service upgrade.
There is a slight sting in the tail. In their press release, Virgin Media remind us that their services are subject to traffic management policies. Customers will enjoy increased peak time allowances to match their faster speeds. We are also advised that they will be “trialling a variety of different approaches to traffic management over the coming months to make the system more intelligent and flexible”.