Virgin Media said work will start this week to connect 20,000 homes and businesses in Manchester to broadband speeds of 152Mb.
152Mb means at least twice as fast as the fastest speeds available from Virgin Media rivals such as BT, TalkTalk and Sky.
Virgin Media U.K. aims to tap the growing potential in the data market. Data usage on the Virgin Media network is growing at 60 percent every year which, if this trend continues, will be 10,000 percent higher in ten years.
Manchester will be the first city in the U.K. to benefit from Project Lightning, unveiled earlier this year by Virgin Media. Virgin Media aims to offer ultrafast broadband connectivity to 4 million premises over the next five years. It will be the single largest investment in the UK’s broadband digital infrastructure for more than a decade, Virgin Media claims.
Virgin Media, a part of Liberty Global, is celebrating with a High Speed Selfie photo booth experience in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.
The broadband company will cover up to 150,000 Manchester premises. An additional 150,000 premises benefit from ultrafast broadband for the first time as Virgin Media expands its network based on demand from consumers and communities which register their interest at virginmedia.com/cablemystreet.
Virgin Media expects to connect more premises in neighboring postal towns prioritized according to demand from consumers and businesses.
Tom Mockridge, chief executive officer of Virgin Media, said: “Our message is simple: help us to cable your street. If you want to switch to broadband speeds twice as fast as you can get today, simply register with Virgin Media to cablemystreet.”
Virgin Media delivers ultrafast broadband to over half of all UK homes, with speeds of up to 152Mb, as well as market leading connectivity to thousands of public and private sector organizations across the country.
Together Virgin Media and Liberty Global serve 27 million customers across 14 countries.
editor@telecomlead.com