High speed broadband from Virgin Media
The new 50 Mbps broadband connection was launched on December 15 by Virgin Media.
The new connection shall be made available to all 12 million of its customer before the end of next summer.
The new service will be made available to up to 40% of Virgin Media Broadband users by the year end.
Virgin Media has reported that areas of Scotland, the Midlands and South London will be able to sign up for the new high speed broadband within the coming two weeks.
The chief executive of Virgin Media, Neil Berkett has cited this new connection as a “historic moment” for both the company and the UK. He was quoted as saying, “As the first ISP to roll out next-generation broadband access, our 50Mbps service represents the dawning of a new era of high-speed services in the UK, and is just the beginning of what we hope to offer our customers over the coming years.”
The new connection blends use of both fibre optics and coaxial cable technologies.
Virgin Media makes use of a coaxial connector to connect the home to a cabinet but a fibre-to-the-home set up connects using a fibre optic cable.
This will invariably increase the broadband speed and will be a tough competition for companies like BT whose connections are a bit slower.
The new FTTH which would be available to around ten million homes by 2012 is faster than this and will be difficult to compete with.
BT has planned to invest around £1.5 billion on developing this service all throughout the UK.
Broadband analyst for Jupiter Research, Ian Fogg has said that unless someone builds a fibre network the latest offering from Virgin Media, its 50 Mpbs connection will still remain the fastest connection in the UK.
The UK has a long way to go before it can match the speeds of broadband internet in Japan where the average speed is said to be 64 Mpbs.
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