Virgin Media UK Extend FTTP a Little in Blackburn and Darwen
Broadband ISP and TV operator Virgin Media have just completed a small extension of their gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network in the Lancashire (England) towns of Blackburn and Darwen, which now covers an additional 1,200 homes.
The deployment forms part of the operator’s £3bn Project Lightning build, which originally aimed to add an additional 4 million premises to their UK coverage by 2020 but has so far only completed 2.3 million. The operator tends to use a mix of FTTP via Radio Frequency Over Glass (RFoG) and also Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) technology – both methods make use of the DOCSIS standard so as to harness the same consumer hardware.
Meanwhile Virgin Media is also rolling out their latest DOCSIS 3.1 network upgrade across the United Kingdom, which by the end of 2021 aims to have made download speeds of 1Gbps+ possible across their entire network (here). Outside of those areas you can expect average speeds of up to 516Mbps from their existing EuroDOCSIS 3.0 based packages, which will soon rise to 600Mbps via their top Ultimate Oomph TV bundle.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Forgive my ignorance, but is their actual FTTP rollout replacing existing cable infrastructure? or is it only for new areas?
It’s an extension, going to new areas beyond their existing network.
Virgin are no good in to provide fast broadband to Flats which I live in I’m in East London area E3
That is why I’m lucky enough to have Three 5G broadband its not official from Three network that my area is 5G what they told me and on the website they are expanding in my area but they are testing it that’s why I get 5G signal
Assuming your renting it would of been down to landlord or developers to work with Virgin to connect them to the network.
Virgin aren’t going to start putting in service where it can’t, landlords don’t like people running cables where they haven’t.
Pretty sure VM won’t install in those areas as it’s quite expensive. Hyperoptic etc are the ones that normally install in flats in East London.
Good luck to the residents. I made contact with Virgin Media on 9 October and am still waiting, after 15 days, for my promised call back to join their service. Their customer service team, based overseas, needs shaking up. On Monday, I am going to ditch my efforts and take up a new service with Vodafone instead. There seems little point in Virgin Media improving their infrastructure when they can’t get the basics of customer service right.
Hahaha, good luck with Vodafone. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have call centre in the same building as Virgin while hiring the same people for this. I switched from Vodafone to Zen because it was nearly impossible to contact someone alive in their customer support.
When will come to Hull 5G home
Thanks for this article Mark
Is there any information as to why the Virgin roll-out is behind schedule? Is this about prioritising the DOCSIS 3.1 network upgrade?
“4 million premises to their UK coverage by 2020 but has so far only completed 2.3 million”
This stems from 2017. https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2017/03/virgin-media-admits-overstating-uk-cable-network-expansion-progress.html