Virgin Media rolls out 100Mbps broadband

Fibre broadband

Virgin Media has begun its roll out of 100Mbps broadband, albeit to only four locations so far.

The lucky broadband subscribers in Heckmondwike (West Yorkshire), Farnborough, Colchester and Barry (South Wales) can now sign up for the connection, which also boasts upload speeds of 10Mbps.

As well as faster broadband, subscribers will receive an "energy efficient" modem and wireless router, which has the capability to carry 400Mbps connections for future advancements.

A statement from the company claimed a "typical family" could get the speedy connection from 35 per month with a telephone line or from 45 for the broadband service alone.

IT PRO asked Virgin Media to confirm what it meant by typical and it explained the term "referred to the high penetration of bundled products [Virgin Media] has with families."

Whether a nuclear family or not, however, it may be some time until all Virgin Media customers can reap the benefits of the new speeds. The company said full roll-out of 100Mbps across the UK would not be achieved until mid way through 2012.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.