Virgin Media, a part of Liberty Global, today announced its plans to invest £3 billion or $4.6 billion towards Capex in UK to expand fiber network to nearly four million additional premises over the next five years.
Taking on BT, which recently acquired the 4G telecom operator EE, the Capex plan will enable Virgin Media to increase the coverage to nearly 17 million premises by 2020.
Households connecting to Virgin Media for the first time will benefit from broadband speeds of 152Mb, at least twice as fast as the fastest speeds available from BT, TalkTalk and Sky.
“Millions of homes and businesses will be able to benefit for the first time from broadband speeds at least twice as fast as those available from the other major providers,” said Tom Mockridge, chief executive officer of Virgin Media.
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This investment called Project Lightning can stimulate a combined £8 billion of economic activity and consumer benefit. It has the potential to create 6,000 new jobs. It will increase the number of apprenticeships created by Virgin Media to 1,000 over the next five years.
Project Lightning will be the single largest investment in broadband digital infrastructure in the UK for more than a decade.
Liberty Global is doing trials of DOCSIS 3.1 technology – that can offer up to 10Gb speed — across Europe later this year.
Prime Minister David Cameron said: “Together with this Government’s rollout of broadband which has now reached more than two million UK homes and businesses, this additional private investment will create more opportunities for people and businesses.”
“Our fiber networks reach 50 million households across Europe, enabling our customers to discover and experience the endless possibilities of the digital world. Project Lightning is a significant investment that demonstrates the confidence we have in Virgin Media and the UK as a place to do business,” said Mike Fries, chief executive officer of Liberty Global.
Sixty percent of Virgin Media customers now have at least three devices connected to their home broadband, up from 37 percent a year ago. Data usage on the Virgin Media network is currently growing at a rate of around 60 percent every year which, if this trend continues, will be 10,000 per cent higher in ten years.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
