A new business-to-business telecoms firm has launched, formed through the merger of Virgin Media O2 Business and Daisy Group.

The new company, O2 Daisy, will have a large customer base - 45.8 million broadband, mobile, phone and home subscribers - and scaled fixed and mobile networks of Virgin Media O2.

This will be combined with the platforms, product sets, and business-to-business experience of Daisy Group.

The company will be led by Matthew Riley as chairman and Jo Bertram as CEO.

“Today we start on our mission to shake up the market and provide the technology needed to make every business better. With the launch of our new standalone company, we’re putting our focus on what really matters - helping businesses of all sizes connect and grow," said Bertram.

"By bringing together two experienced teams and supercharging them with scaled networks, agile systems and comprehensive products, we’re ready to deliver exceptional outcomes for our customers.”

O2 Daisy will target businesses from Small Office Home Office (SOHO) outfits to large enterprises and public sector organizations. It will, right from the start, be the UK’s second-largest small and medium-sized business (SMB) solutions provider.

Teams have been merged by the two firms, with O2 Daisy now having bases across the country, including hubs in Nelson, Sheffield, Manchester, London, Reading, and Bournemouth.

What to expect from O2 Daisy

The company will start out with around £1.4 billion in annual pro forma revenues and earnings of £150 million, with a customer base spanning hundreds of thousands of SMBs, large enterprises, public sector bodies, and indirect partners.

From today, it will offer a broad product portfolio that includes data and Wi-Fi solutions, workplace tools, 5G private networks, cloud-based services, cybersecurity offerings, and O2 Motion movement insights.

This includes an expanded range of products, such as cloud-based products and Teams Phone Mobile, as well as other on-net connectivity services. More solutions are expected to be released in the coming months, according to Virgin Media O2..

Similarly, the new firm will continue to use its existing brands during the integration phase, with further brand and operational updates expected in the coming months. For the time being, there’s no change to any services and all help and support contacts remain the same.

“This is an exciting day for O2 Daisy, as we officially launch and bring together two highly successful companies into one powerhouse team. In a fast-changing world, growth is inextricably linked to the ability to access world-class IT and communications infrastructure," said Riley.

"Driven by the entrepreneurial spirit we’re known for, O2 Daisy will revolutionize the telecommunications and IT landscape, by creating connectivity offerings fit for UK businesses of all sizes – underpinning their own growth stories.”

MORE FROM ITPRO

• How Virgin Media O2 saved “millions” by enhancing data center efficiency
• Virgin Media O2 Business overhauls its approach to partner development
• Virgin Media O2 cuts data center cooling costs by £1 million per year

Lackluster technology investment among British enterprises has cost the economy billions, according to new research from Virgin Media O2 Business.

A study from the telecoms giant found that if UK-based firms had begun increasing their use of digital technology in 2021, they could’ve helped deliver a £111 billion increase in turnover by 2023.

Similarly, increased tech adoption between 2021 and 2023 could have created 676,000 new jobs, the study found, including over 313,000 new roles in small and medium-sized companies.

Nina Skero, CEO at Cebr, which carried out the survey on behalf of the firm, said the research findings underline the high stakes for both businesses and the broader UK economy.

"Our findings clearly illustrate how digital leadership is directly linked to higher turnover, increased productivity and better performance across every economic metric,” Skero said.

"By prioritizing cultivating a strong digital culture, organizations can unlock their full potential and drive sustained growth for the UK economy and wider society."

The report found that three-quarters of UK firms identify as having a “strong digital culture”, with enterprises using a wider array of technologies today than they were in 2021. Notably, 77% said they have increased technology spending across this period and virtually all identified operational benefits as a result.

However, fewer than half said they have implemented regular digital skills programs, only a third are increasing their use of collaboration tools and platforms, and only four-in-ten are implementing better data and cybersecurity measures.

Strong digital cultures deliver success

Workplace culture consultant Bruce Daisley said firms are “sitting on a huge opportunity” and must seize the initiative to capitalize on potential gains.

“The data shows that many businesses have already made significant investments in digital technology, but now they just need to put it to work by focusing on building a stronger digital culture," said Daisley.

"This isn’t just about buying tools — it’s about integrating them effectively into everyday practices. Businesses have dazzling new opportunities to maximize their tech, but we’re seeing that many firms have been slow to implement permanent changes."

Companies with a strong digital culture typically embrace technologies and tools to boost performance and financial results at higher rates, helping to enhance customer and employee satisfaction, the study found.

Four-in-five organizations with a strong digital culture feel their workforce is well-prepared for the future, compared with only 43% of those with weaker digital cultures.

Organizations actively investing in digital solutions also saw turnover growth of 12%, compared with only 5% for the digital followers. Similarly, on average these firms more than doubled the productivity growth of those lagging in digital adoption.

Meanwhile, Gross Value Added (GVA) grew by 8% for digital leaders, while their peers saw no growth at all.

"Digital innovation has the power to spark economic and social progress," said Jo Bertram, managing director at Virgin Media O2 Business.

"By building a strong digital culture and embracing new tools, businesses can unlock an £111bn boost to the UK economy, creating new jobs and growth for companies across a range of sectors."

NHS staff are eager to adopt new technology, saying it could help them treat millions more patients per year.

A survey from Virgin Media O2 Business of 1,000 senior decision-makers in public healthcare across the UK found that three in five believe new digital tools could help the NHS to reach 3 to 5% more patients – potentially benefiting at least 51,000 more people every day.

According to the report, nearly nine out of ten believe that digital technologies such as electronic health recording and Internet of Things (IoT) devices for monitoring vital medicine could significantly reduce the workload of frontline staff and decrease patient waiting times.

The report notes that the introduction of Integrated Care Systems across England in 2022 has already led to progress, with 98% of respondents acknowledging it has positively influenced hospital technology adoption in their local area.

"The introduction of integrated patient care has already had a positive impact on digital progress across the NHS," said Mark Burton, health and social care lead at Virgin Media O2 Business.

"However, our findings demonstrate there is still a huge untapped opportunity to use technology to drive operational efficiencies for patients and staff across the UK."

The report did find, however, that the variety of NHS structures across the UK has brought about a regional divide in terms of levels of digital maturity.

For example, more than four-fifths of surveyed staff in London, Belfast and Edinburgh agreed current connectivity solutions effectively support efficient patient care, while this number drops to 65% of staff in the South East, South West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

"As the NHS becomes increasingly digital, prioritising digital skills and confidence for staff, fostering open communication and adopting a strategic approach to technology investment will be critical to continued progress," said Burton.

"Public-private partnerships can help here, playing a significant role in delivering robust connectivity for an NHS that is ready for anything."

A report earlier this year from the Health Foundation charity found that the technologies most likely to save staff time were AI-based clinical documentation tools and software for analysis of images.

However, it warned, productivity gains will come not just from technology itself but from how well it is used.

"We found the biggest barriers staff face in using technologies effectively in their work include underlying IT and digital infrastructure and capability, as well as challenges with implementation and usage," wrote the researchers.

"Specifically, we identified considerable frustrations about the lack of IT support, lack of funding to implement new technologies and poor-quality connectivity and equipment."

Among the technology-related plans in Labour’s 2024 manifesto, the party pledged to transform the NHS app, making it easier for patients to manage their medicine, appointments and health needs; it's also said it plans to digitise the NHS 'red book' used by parents for their children’s medical records.

Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) has announced it will cut as many as 2,000 jobs this year - a move that one expert said could be the start of much wider cost-cutting measures being taken across the telecoms industry.

The telco giant, which reported a boost in revenue in its Q2 2024 results, will fire as much as 12% of its workforce by the end of the year.

VMO2 said that the cuts include some 800 redundancies that had already been reported. It also pointed to the relative stability of its workforce since the Virgin Media O2 merger went ahead in 2021.

The organization also refuted claims that employees would be made redundant as soon as Monday, as reported by The Telegraph, and said it is in open dialogue with unions.

“There’s no way of dressing this up,” said Paolo Pescatore, founder and TMT analyst at PP Foresight, to ITPro.

“It is not good news for UK plc and we can expect to see further cost-cutting measures across the industry.”

Pescatore said next-generation networks like 5G continue to push up network operator costs, and that better revenue opportunities should be identified alongside efficiency measures.

The pattern of job cuts could become routine within the industry, he indicated, likening the move to the annual price rises that businesses and consumers have come to expect.

“As we continue to integrate and transform as a company, we are currently consulting on proposals to simplify our operating model to better deliver for customers, which will see a reduction in some roles this year,” said a VMO2 spokesperson.​

“While we know any period of change can be difficult, we are committed to supporting all of our people and are working closely with the CWU and Prospect along with our internal employee representatives as we have open and honest conversations on the future direction of our business.”

VMO2 reported [PDF] a 6.2% year-on-year rise in transaction-adjusted revenue in its Q2 results, even as B2B fixed revenue fell by 7.8% across the same period.

This was offset by clear growth of 4.7% in its mobile revenue, which totaled £1.5 billion ($1.93 billion) to June 30 and was driven by consumer price rises.

News of the layoffs comes amid other large changes in the UK telco landscape.

Vodafone and Three are set to merge in a move that could significantly increase investment in the sector over the next decade and could drive down costs for end-users. 

Pescatore also said that the proposed Vodafone and Three merger was very likely to result in more mass layoffs.

In May, Vodafone announced its largest-ever round of redundancies, with 11,000 people across its workforce to lose their roles over the next three years as the firm continues to struggle with financial underperformance.

Virgin Media O2 has saved “millions of pounds” in costs by enhancing data center efficiency through the introduction of flash storage drives, according to a senior company official. 

Ajit Sharma, business optimization manager at the telecoms giant, told attendees at Pure Accelerate 2023 that the integration of the devices in data center operations followed a deal with Pure Storage to adopt its FlashArray//X drives. 

This move, Sharma said, delivered significant operational and financial benefits, including a 98% reduction in its data center footprint. 

The integration of flash drives also resulted in a 96% reduction in power consumption, Sharma said while hailing the improvements made to the company’s data architecture. This has enabled the firm to reduce the impact of rising energy costs amid the cost-of-living crisis. 

“In the UK we’ve seen our power costs increase by nearly five to ten times depending on who you’re co-locating with in the data center space,” he explained.

“We don’t have our own property, but most of our own data centers are co-located with Equinix and other companies. Unfortunately, we’re at their mercy due to what’s going on across the sector as well as what’s going on across the world as well.”

A survey of data center professionals from Aggreko last year found that 60% reported energy bill increases of up to 40%. 

Given the rise in energy costs over the last year, Sharma said that by reducing power consumption, the company has experienced a “huge reduction in costs”. 

Maximizing data center space

As part of the transformation program, Virgin Media O2 reduced its storage racks from 42 to three, and runs its storage on a select number of flash arrays which are able to handle over four petabytes of data. 

A key factor in the firm’s ability to reduce its footprint lies in the compact nature of flash storage drives compared to traditional storage devices, such as hard disks, Sharma said. 

Reducing this footprint represents a long-term strategy and was more than about delivering immediate cost savings. Looking ahead, this will cut the need to invest in additional data centers across the country. 

“The UK is a much smaller country in terms of size,” he said. “So by being able to re-use and improve sustainability, we don’t need to go and build new data centers.”

“So we’re helping the UK and the community to ensure that we’re not using more space than is required. We’re saving millions of pounds by not building new data centers.”

Re-investing cost savings

The cost savings from this data center transformation strategy means that Virgin Media O2 has also been able to reduce e-waste levels and re-invest in other areas of the business, creating a positive cyclical process of optimization, cost savings, and re-investment. 

This has been especially critical for the firm as it prepares for the eventual roll-out of 6G technologies, Sharma added. 

“In the last year alone we got rid of over 48,000 tons of e-waste,” he said. “What we’re seeing from the money that’s being saved in e-waste and the ability to reduce our data center costs, is that it’s been refunded into other parts of the business.”

“We’ve seen 4G and 5G, and 6G is going to be out soon as well. So we need to invest our money in the right places - this helps us on that journey.”

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Virgin Media, one of BT's biggest rivals, has joined the company in battling against a possible Openreach split.

Running in national broadsheet newspapers, a joint ad campaign will focus on the fact that the average download speed in Britain is faster than in many other EU countries.

It also adds that broadband speeds in the UK have "more than quadrupled" over the past five years, claiming that this is thanks to investments of over 15 billion by the two companies.

"BT and Virgin Media may be commercial rivals but we both have a proud track record of investing billions of pounds in the UK's digital infrastructure," BT CEO Gavin Patterson told The Telegraph.

"It's important post-Brexit that we don't talk the country down and that the right climate exists for further investment."

Together, BT and Virgin Media own and operate the entirety of Britain's broadband cable network. Aside from Virgin, all other internet service providers piggyback on BT's Openreach network to provide internet access to their customers.

Communications regulator Ofcom called for the division to be reformed, outlining proposals in July that would see Openreach become a "ring-fenced, 'wholly-owned subsidiary' of BT Group, with its own purpose and board members". By doing this, Ofcom hopes to remove any possibility that BT could bias against its rivals who rely on the network.

This legal separation, Ofcom claims, would give it more control over its investments and make the market more competitive "without incurring the costs and disruption... associated with separating the companies entirely."

Rival companies that currently depend on Openreach cables say that if Openreach and BT separate, they will be able to invest in upgrading the network, meaning better speeds and increased reliability.

IT Pro has approached both BT and Virgin Media for comment, but had received none at the time of publication. Ofcom's proposals are open to public consultation until 4 October.

Virgin Media is to spend 3 billion to expand its UK fibre optic network.

The move is expected to connect four million households to the network as well as created 6,000 jobs and 1,000 apprenticeships by 2019.

Dubbed Project Lightning, Virgin Media is to link at least a quarter of the four million homes via Fibre to the Premise. Overall, around 17 million premises should be connected to its UK network by 2019, making it one of the biggest investments in the UK's broadband infrastructure in the last ten years.

The firm has already started the rollout of FTTP in Cambridgeshire and Leicestershire with work expected to start soon in West Yorkshire, Devon and East Sussex. It is using a techniques called narrow trenching. This means that FTTP can be deployed at lower cost and more quickly in areas where demand is high.

Tom Mockridge, CEO of Virgin Media, said: "Our 3bn investment to bring ultrafast connectivity to more parts of the UK is not just about better broadband, it's about future-proofing the country's network infrastructure with the best and most modern technology.

"While some companies talk a good game, Virgin Media is putting its money where its mouth is and laying fibre to the premise alongside our superior HFC network - delivering the fastest widely available broadband speeds.

"In just over one year we've laid enough new cable to stretch all the way from Land's End to John O'Groats, reaching a quarter of a million more homes and businesses - and there's much more to come."

Rival fibre optic network firm CityFibre recently started offering full fibre offerings in UK towns and cities such as Bristol, Bradford and Exeter, offering a 1Gbps service.

Three more UK internet service providers (ISPs) have shown their support for Net Neutrality plans by signing the Broadband Stakeholder Group's (BSG) voluntary code, it has been revealed.

EE, Virgin Media and Vodafone were the last hold outs following BT, BSkyB, KCOM, giffgaff, O2, Plusnet, TalkTalk, Tesco Mobile and Three all signing the Code of Practice in support of the Open Internet. As a result, all of the UK's leading ISPs have now backed Net Neutrality.

Matthew Evans, BSG CEO, said: "Unlike some countries where net neutrality has become a controversial topic for discussion, the UK benefits from a fiercely competitive market and high levels of transparency which together offer the best assurance of an Open Internet.

"The Code now provides an even stronger and more effective foundation, whilst also allowing for an environment where new business models for internet-based services which benefit consumer choice can thrive."

The code was first launched in 2012 by the BSG and, by signing, the ISPs are agreeing to conditions that include ensuring users can access all legal content, not discriminating against content providers for commercial reasons and remaining transparent about traffic management policies.

"The Code usefully supports open access to the internet and builds on previous commitments by ISPs to provide transparent information to consumers about their traffic management policies," Chair of the Communications Consumer Panel, Jo Connell, added.

"We are delighted that EE, Virgin and Vodafone have now agreed to become signatories. The Code has gained significant interest internationally as a positive example of industry responding to a developing consumer need."

Passengers travelling on London's tube lines can now enjoy free Wi-Fi at 150 different stations courtesy of Virgin Media's own underground network.

Six stations were added to the network prior to the announcement: Wimbledon, Richmond, Morden, East Ham, Barking and Upminster.

Director of Broadband at Virgin Media, Joe Lathan, said: "This is a milestone moment for Virgin Media with 150 Tube stations and more than two and a half million devices now connected to Wi-Fi on London Underground.

"Tube passengers have loved the Wi-Fi service ever since we launched in time for London 2012. Now they can benefit from live travel information, news and social media in Tube stations across the capital."

Free access to the Wi-Fi is available to mobile customers with O2, EE, Three, Vodafone and Virgin Media, or non-members can pay 2/day for access.

It is claimed that more than 2.5 million devices are registered with the service and that more than 3TB of data are being consumed by them each day.

Meanwhile, King's Cross St. Pancras is said to be the busiest station, with 50GB of data downloaded by passengers each day.

Gareth Powell, London Underground's director of strategy and service development, added: "Wi-Fi on the Tube is one of many ways we're improving our customers' journeys and the service has moved from strength-to-strength since it launched in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games."

Virgin Media is to test a new style of rolling out superfast broadband that could cut costs by a third and time taken to install the technology by half.

The firm is trailing the innovation in the Cambridgeshire village of Papworth. Dubbed narrow trenching, the technique reduces the width of the trench used to lay fibre cables from around 40cm to just 10cm and enables engineers to cover up to 100m in a day, making it twice as fast as other methods.

The village will be used as a testing ground for the firm's 1Gbps service. It said that it would be in contact with eligible residents to see if they are interested in having the service.

Nicola Debnam, head of local infrastructure and street management at Cambridgeshire County Council, said the project would complement the county's Connecting Cambridgeshire partnership programme.

This aims to improve the county's digital infrastructure to encourage economic growth and ensure businesses, residents and public services have better access to digital resources.

"Rolling-out fibre broadband is a complex engineering challenge and the Council welcomes the development of the new trenching techniques such as these being trialled by Virgin Media and John Henry Group, which can help to minimise disruption to highways and the environment while improving the network," she said.

Secretary of state for Culture Media and Sport Sajid Javid welcomed the efforts of Virgin Media.

"Virgin Media's continued investment in the expansion of their network, together with Government's own rollout of superfast broadband to rural areas, is already playing a significant role in driving the UK's economic growth," he said.

Virgin Media recently announced plans to expand its network to another 100,000 homes in East London as part of its 13 billion UK network expansion plans.

Mobile operator Three has confirmed it will allow users to access free Wi-Fi on the London Underground, thanks to a new deal it's struck with Virgin Media.

Three users will join the likes of Vodafone, O2 and EE who have been able to access Wi-Fi services via Virgin Media's network on the Tube for some time now.

The service was installed by Virgin Media ahead of the 2012 London Olympics and now covers 137 stations on the tube in ticket halls, corridors and platforms.

Before this announcement, Three customers who wanted to use the Wi-Fi underground had to pay 2 per day for the privilege.

Three's director of customer strategy Danny Dixon said: "Giving our customers access to free Wi-Fi on the London underground is another step towards them being able to enjoy the benefits of being connected no matter where they are.

"Our customers will also have the added benefit of being able to use our new Three InTouch app, which means they will be able to surf the web, as well as make and receive calls and texts when they are in Wi-Fi enabled London tube stations."

Joe Lathan, director of broadband at Virgin Media, said every major network operator was now signed up to its Wi-Fi network on the London Underground at no extra cost to their customers.

"Our unique fibre optic network has enabled us to bring connectivity to even the deepest Tube stations and we're looking forward to getting even more parts of the capital online next week," he said.

The Wi-Fi network will expand by seven stations at the end of the month. These are: Shepherds Bush; Bow Road; Ealing Broadway; Edgware Road (Bakerloo line); Hammersmith (Hammersmith and City line); Harrow-on-the-Hill and West Brompton.

However, free access is still not available to customers of virtual networks such as GiffGaff, TalkTalk Mobile and Tesco Mobile.

Three is also in talks with Carphone Warehouse to enable the retail giant to run its own-branded network in the UK. Talks are said to be in an advanced stage, according to reports from the Financial Times.

EE has once again been hailed as the UK's most complained about broadband provider.

New figures published from Ofcom found that it had generated the most complaints for broadband as a proportion of its customer base during the first quarter of this year 0.42 per 1,000 customers.

According to the watchdog, complaints were primarily driven by service faults, billing and issues with changing provider.

BT and TalkTalk also had above average complaints about their broadband, at 0.33 and 0.24 per 1,000 customers respectively.

Sky and Virgin Media received fewest complaints. Virgin Media's service garnered 0.07 per 1,000 customers, while Sky received 0.09 per 1,000 customers.

At 0.12 per 1,000 customers, EE's pay-monthly mobile complaints volumes were double the industry average and mainly driven by problems over complaints handling, billing and issues with changing provider.

In a statement, EE told IT Pro that it would be working to cut complaints and improve the service it gave customers.

"We are committed to improving service levels and have plans to return over 1,000 customer service roles to the UK from overseas call centres, the first phase of which will see two new UK call centres open in the next few weeks," a spokeswoman said.

She added that the firm was "disappointed" over the figures, but would be "taking on board the findings of this latest Ofcom report as we strive to offer our customers the best-possible service."

TalkTalk generated the most complaints about its landline service. During the first quarter of 2014, it received 0.28 complaints per 1,000 customers. BT also generated complaints above the industry average for landlines at 0.23 per 1,000 customers in Q4 2013.

A spokeswoman for TalkTalk said that complaints about broadband were two-thirds lower than three years ago and that it was seeing far fewer complaints about landlines.

"We've continued to make significant improvements while building a TV business of over one million customers in just under 18 months. We set out to do this in a careful and managed way, which is reflected both in high levels of customer satisfaction and the low numbers of complaints for such a fast growing business," she said.

Moves to combat online film and music piracy with the help of the ISP community have been criticised for being too lenient.

The big four ISPs - BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media are close to striking a deal with the BPI and the Motion Picture Association (MPA) to clamp down on individuals who illegally download music and films online.

As part of this, repeat offenders will receive "educational" letters from their ISPs that will reportedly point them in the direction of sites offering legal download services.

Individuals will receive a maximum of four such alerts, in the form of either a written letter or email, but they will face no further action from their ISP after this point.

The ISPs will only be allowed to send out 2.5 million of these warnings per year, although this number is expected to go up if other ISPs decide to join the scheme.

The first letters are expected to be sent out next year.

According to a report on the BBC, the original draft proposals suggested these letters should warn people who repeatedly download illegal content about the legal implications of their actions.

The BPI and MPA had also originally requested access to a database listing details about repeat offenders, so that they could pursue legal action against them.

However, the final draft of the proposals which have been four years in the making contain no mention of either of these measures.

In a statement, the MPA and BPI said: "Content creators and ISPs, with the support of government, have been exploring the possibility of developing an awareness programme that will support the continuing growth of legal creative content services, reduce copyright infringement and create the best possible customer experience online."

Andrew Goode, COO of ad tech provider Project Sunblock, hit out at the plans, claiming the ISPs' proposed letter writing campaign will not stop people downloading content illegally.

"Sending out letters to consumers won't come close to quelling the tide of illegal downloads from sites like the Pirate Bay. Letters issued by ISPs will be entirely unenforceable and without threats of punitive measures, like internet throttling, it simply won't work and, even worse, the initiative targets the wrong side of the illegal download exchange," he said.

"Instead of targeting consumers, what's needed is to cut off the flow of advertising revenue that fuels these copyright infringing sites. These sites are funded almost exclusively by ad revenue, which in many cases comes from some of the UK's biggest brand names."

Therefore, he wants to see more being done to cut the flow of ad revenue to the sites that facilitate illegal downloads.

"Advertisers must act in collaboration with the police and other enforcement bodies in order to make any real impact; otherwise, letters from ISPs will fall on deaf ears," he added.

Virgin Media has apologised after a botched attempt to notify customers about forthcoming changes to its services resulted in some receiving hundreds of unsolicited emails.

Users of the firm's Google-powered virgin.net email service were emailed yesterday by a third-party supplier about changes being made to the service.

In particular, from the end of this month, customers will no longer be able to use their virgin.net addresses to log into Google services, including YouTube.

However, customers who clicked "reply-all" to that message will have sent a response to everyone on the Virgin Media mailing list, sharing their email address with them in the process.

Virgin Media claim the issue only affected a small subset of its 135,000 virgin.net subscribers, but some customers caught up in the blunder claim to have received hundreds of emails.

"For a short time yesterday afternoon, a small proportion of our customers received a service email from one of our suppliers, which, if they replied-to-all, it was sent to a wider group," Virgin Media said in a statement.

"The issue was quickly fixed and we apologise for the inconvenience caused."

However, many users have expressed their dissatisfaction with the firm over its handling of the issue on social networking sites, including Twitter.

Meanwhile, The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has confirmed that it has been alerted to the matter by customers and will be looking into it.

In a statement on the data protection watchdog's website, an ICO spokesperson said: "We have recently been made aware of a possible data breach relating to emails sent out by Virgin Media.

"We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken," it added.

If the organisation decides to take enforcement action against the firm, it could be prosecuted and fined up to 500,000.

It wouldn't be the first time Virgin Media has felt the wrath of the ICO. In 2008, the company came under fire after an unencrypted CD containing the personal details of several thousand customers was lost.

Virgin Media and network provider LN Communications have announced they will be rolling out business fibre-optic broadband to rural Yorkshire in a deal worth more than 350,000.

The upgrade will cover 12,000sqkm giving customers access to Virgin Media Business' high-speed fibre-optic broadband and Wi-Fi services and will affect five million people across the county.

The area will cover eight sites by the end of April 2015, including Castle Howard, Darlington, Barlby, Darley, Kettleworth, Bradley, Northallerton and Stokesley.

"Our partnership with Virgin Media Business gives us a connectivity boost that enables us to provide superfast broadband in areas that have historically been difficult to reach," said Simon Hayhurst, managing director at LN communications.

The fibre-optic broadband will offer both businesses and consumers consistent coverage, better connectivity and its high speed means customers will have the ability to use data-intense services they were previous unable to take advantage of.

With the scalable solution businesses in particular will no longer be hindered by bandwidth issues, making it perfect for those using data-intensive services.

Mario Di Mascio, executive director of sales at Virgin Media Business, added: "This partnership with LN Communications brings the UK one step closer to its goal to provide 95 per cent of the population with high-speed connectivity by 2017. The internet is a gateway to the global economy and we're glad to open it up for the people and businesses in Yorkshire as digital technology is a key driver of growth for the UK economy."

The government's plans to ensure 90 per cent of the UK is covered by high-speed broadband (over 24Mbps) by the end of 2015 and 95 per cent by 2017 is currently behind schedule according to the National Audit Office. The programme is predicted to complete its rollout 22 months later than planned with only nine out of 44 local projects expected to reach their target of providing 90 per cent superfast coverage by May 2015.

Last week, rural broadband rival BT came under attack for not revealing sufficient information about the broadband supplier's fibre rollout plans.

Virgin Media launched new broadband connectivity running at speeds up to 152 Mbps, billing the new option as the fastest connection speed available in the UK right now.

Virgin has also upped the entry-level speed to 50 Mbps, 10 times faster than regular broadband from BT and Sky. It claims its new top-level connection is 19 times faster than the competition.

Other speed plans across the board will also receive a boost, the company confirmed. 30 Mbps customers will be boosted to 50 Mbps, 60 Mbps to 100 Mbps, and 120 Mbps to 152 Mbps.

The company hopes its new connections will better handle increased internet traffic. It claims peak internet use by Virgin Media customers has grown by 55 per cent in the past year and by a jaw-dropping 1,000 per cent since 2007.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller greeted the news positively.

"Faster, safer home internet from Virgin Media is great news for families across the UK," she said. "Higher speeds will enable the whole family to use the internet at the same time."

The service changes also include Web Safe parental controls to assist parents in censoring content. The filters work at the network level, affecting all devices connected to the internet.

Virgin is rolling out the service to customers throughout 2014 and will offer it to all new customers. Existing customers can sign up at any time.

Web Safe comes with Switched on Families, an interactive guide to help parents make informed choices about online content and potential dangers.

"Parenting in a digital age is a constantly evolving challenge," said Vicki Shotbolt, CEO of The Parent Zone. "The advice on this site will help empower parents to figure out what works for their family and how to best support their kids as they grow up."

The announcement follows the release of a leaked letter from David Cameron to the four major internet service providers asking them to commit to "default-on" web filters.

Web provider BT responded last December by implementing the filters by default for new customers. It will present the service to existing customers as well during 2014.

Some UK ISPs have faced criticism for their implementation of the filters. BT offers "sex education" and "gay and lesbian lifestyle" as blockable content, earning the ire of gay rights groups.

Virgin Media has developed broadband, TV, mobile and home phone services since its founding in 2007. Its fiber-optic cable network delivers broadband connections to more than half of all UK households and 131 London Underground stations.

Ten more London Underground stations have installed Wi-Fi thanks to Virgin Media, bringing the total number of stations with wireless to 131.

West Hampstead, Finchley Central, Leytonstone, Wanstead, White City, Leyton, Newbury Park, Plaistow, Finchley Road and Upton Park have had Wi-Fi switched on. Virgin Media has also promised a further ten stations will be connected by spring.

The service is free to use for customers of Virgin Media, EE, Vodafone and O2, which became the latest mobile operator to agree a network sharing deal last July.

All other users can access the wireless network for 2 per day or 5 per week.

The service went live in time for the London Olympics in 2012. It started charging passengers for access in 2013.

By the time the project is completed at the end of this year, passengers will have access to Virgin Media Wi-Fi in all but four subterranean Tube stations, with roughly 160 of all 270 stations in the London Underground network being covered.

The London Overground also has access to wireless at 56 of its stations, thanks to a deal between Transport for London and The Cloud.

Virgin Media also revealed 80,000 people used its Wi-Fi service on the London Underground on New Year's Eve 2013, delivering 600,000 tweets, Facebook posts, emails and web pages within 24 hours.

BT, EE and TalkTalk have emerged as three of the most complained about comms and broadband providers, according to new quarterly figures from Ofcom.

The mobile regulator has published details about the volume of complaints it received about landline telephone, broadband and paid-for TV providers between July and September 2013.

While complaint volumes about landline, broadband and paid-for TV services were higher than the previous quarter, the number of people complaining about mobile providers was down overall.

TalkTalk was the most complained about landline provider during the third quarter of 2013, garnering 0.31 complaints per 1,000 customers. This was higher than the industry average.

Even so, the volume of complaints against the firm during Q3 2013 was the lowest they have ever been.

"The main issues driving complaints were service faults and problems with changing provider," Ofcom said, in a statement.

The volume of criticism levelled at BT's landline services was also higher than the industry average, with 0.23 complaints per 1,000 customers.

Virgin Media received the fewest complaints overall, with just 0.08 per 1,000 customers.

From a broadband perspective, Orange/EE received the most complaints, at a rate of 0.45 per 1,000 customers. This was more than double the industry average.

BT was the second most complained about broadband provider, with 0.41 complaints per 1,000 customers, while TalkTalk chalked up 0.27 for every 1,000 customers.

Once again, Virgin Media received the fewest complaints, followed by Sky.

On the pay monthly mobile services front, T-Mobile clocked up the most complaints during Q3 2013, at a rate of 0.13 per 1,000 customers. The majority of these concerned the operator's billing and complaints handling procedures.

Orange and Virgin Mobile also generated complaints in excess of the industry average, while O2 remained the least complained about mobile services provider.

Claudio Pollack, director of Ofcom's consumer group, said releasing the data would make it easier for end users to make "informed decisions" when choosing new suppliers.

"We also hope this data will incentivise providers as they work to address issues driving complaints and improve their performance," Pollack added.

Virgin Media has announced price increases across its customer base, but has taken a swipe at BT as it increased its top end speed to 152Mbps.

The ISP will raise broadband prices by 6.7 per cent on average across all cable customers, but it is tempering this with improved speeds "far beyond" BT offerings, or anyone using BT fibre.

Virgin had already offered high speeds of 120Mbps. It now has plans to boost customers' speeds by at least 20Mbps, depending on their current service.

"The speed increase is an optional extra boost customers can choose to get more value from their subscription," a Virgin spokesperson told IT Pro.

"There's no extra cost for the boost. The programme starts in late February and will roll-out area-by-area over the following twelve months."

The speed spat with BT has been raging for years now, ever since Virgin became the second most popular broadband provider in the UK. Whilst Virgin is winning the speed race, BT has greater coverage as it is set to supply 17 million homes and businesses with fibre. Virgin is only planning to hit 12.5 million.

"As people connect more things simultaneously to the internet more often, they need powerful broadband with the bandwidth to deliver a great experience for everyone in the home," Virgin Media chief executive officer Tom Mockridge added.

"Our top speed will be twice as fast as BT and all the others reliant on their old copper telephony infrastructure as we extend our lead as Britain's ultrafast broadband provider."

A BT spokesperson added: "BT's fibre broadband network will be the best choice for customers looking for genuinely widely available fibre broadband that is truly unlimited with great download and upload speeds."

The Government wants four of the UK's largest internet service providers to make urgent changes to their internet safety strategies, according a letter leaked to the BBC.

The document was sent by a Department for Education representative, and sets out four areas it claims the Prime Minister David Cameron would like Talk Talk, Sky, Virgin Media and BT to address as a matter of urgency.

For example, the letter asks the group to help fund an internet safety awareness campaign, the details of which still need to be hammered out, the letter acknowledges.

"The Prime Minister would like to be able to announce a collective financial commitment from industry to fund this campaign," the letter states.

"I know it will be challenging for you to commit to an unknown campaign, but please can you indicate what sum you will pledge to this work that the PM can announce."

Elsewhere, the letter also requests the ISPs follow Talk Talk's lead by "trialling a browser intercept" that prompts customers to make a decision about the parental controls they employ.

"The Prime Minister wants to announce that by the end of the year, every household with a broadband internet connection will have had to make a decision to opt-out' of installing filters," the letter reads.

"Will the other three ISPs consider making a commitment to adopting this approach, even before it has been trialled?"

Further to this, it also calls on the ISPs to clarify the steps they take to verify the ages and identities of people that try to make changes to their household's internet filters, and adapt the language they use when discussing internet safety.

All of the major ISPs gave their backing to an initiative last year called active choice, which lets users choose between enforcing online parental controls.

However, the letter asks the ISPs to consider replacing the words "active choice" with the phrase "default-on", for simplicity purposes.

"Without changing what you will be offering, the Prime Minister would like to be able to refer to your solutions as default-on' as people will have to make a choice not to have the filters [in place]," the letter explains.

"Would you be able to commit to including default-on' or similar language both in the set-up screen and public messaging?"

The letter gives the ISPs until Friday to respond to the requests, and warns them they will receive further missives from the Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport about how to clampdown on illegal images online.

"We are all aware of the really excellent work that you are doing...but there are a number of specific areas that the prime minister thinks need further immediate action," the letter concludes.

According to the accompanying report on the BBC, the ISP community has taken a dim view of the letter and its content, with one source telling the site he found the requests "staggering."

O2 has signed a ten-year deal with Virgin Media Business to increase capacity on its mobile network.

The agreement will see a new fibre network added to the communications provider's installed base stations. This will increase capacity and support the launch of O2's 4G network later this summer.

O2 base stations will be linked up by 1Gbps fibre optic broadband connections between cell sites and the backhaul network in order to cope with the expected demand for the superfast service.

O2 chief technology officer Adrian Di Meo said the deal meant the mobile operator would be able to keep up with demand for 3G traffic, more so as 4G is expected to put extra strain on operators.

"Over the past five years we've seen huge growth in demand for mobile data as the number of consumers using smartphones and tablets has increased," he said.

"With our 4G network launching this summer, data growth will only continue to rise and this new fibre agreement with Virgin Media Business will give us the rock-solid foundation we need and help us deliver a great network experience for our customers."

Virgin Media said it now has contracts with all UK mobile operators for backhaul connectivity.

"By working closely in partnership with mobile operators we've been able to develop and deploy innovative and unique technologies that enable SyncE as standard," said George Wareing, director of mobile and broadcast at Virgin Media Business.

"This approach means we're able to arm their networks with the extra capacity needed to make sure that customers don't experience slow speeds because of data bottlenecks, and they're prepared for the future of 4G services and beyond.

"It's a sign that the backhaul market is moving extremely quickly and, thanks to the speed and resilience of our fibre network, we've been able to make the most of that opportunity," he added.

O2 is expected to reveal the switch on date for its 4G network in the next few weeks.

Virgin Media has reinforced its commitment to letting customers make an "active choice" about accessing explicit web content.

The company was responding to national news reports over the weekend that claimed it was one of several internet service providers (ISP) planning to rollout an opt-in system for customers that want to access explicit content by 2014.

However, a Virgin Media spokesperson played down the reports during a conversation with IT Pro, and said the ISP will not block content by default.

"The bottom line is, all of the major ISPs signed up to something last year called Active Choice. A principle by which as a customer you have [to decide] do you use parental controls?

"That's what we did last year, we're not going to filter stuff ahead of people making that decision, we are certainly not going to filter content without people's knowledge or understanding.

"They must make that decision and depending on what that decision is, we will act accordingly," the spokesperson added.

Talk Talk was another ISP name-checked in the weekend's articles. It recently started rolling out Home Safe, an Active Control-like service to its existing customers, that allows them to choose if they want to block adult content or not.

The company introduced the service to new customers back in early 2012.

Dido Harding, the company's chief executive, said one-in-three of its customers have opted to block adult content.

"[In June] we became the only company to begin asking all our existing customers to make the same unavoidable decision," said Harding.

"Currently about 6,000 more homes each day are choosing to use our HomeSafe scheme and to help keep their children safer online as a result."

In a statement to IT Pro, Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), said these Active Choice schemes should also be backed by education to help users to make informed choices about the content they want to view.

"Whilst filtering has a role to play, it should not be viewed as a silver bullet, and in agreement with a majority of respondents to the government consultation, we do not support a default filter," Lansman added.

Last month, Claire Perry MP, David Cameron's special advisor for the prevention of childhood sexualisation and commercialisation, announced that ISPs will be forced to offer parental filters that block pornographic content by default to new and existing customers before the end of 2013.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has welcomed news that four of the UK's largest ISPs are to stump up 1m over the next four years to arrest the online spread of child abuse images.

BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin Media announced the funding in a joint statement yesterday, where they set out their commitment to eradicating child abuse material from the net.

"ISPs have a zero tolerance to this material [and] this funding will help to target those individuals that create and distribute the content," the statement said.

The companies said they plan to work with the Government, the IWF and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to decide on how the money should be spent.

They have also committed to stepping up the work they do with the IWF by participating in a review of its activities, which currently focus on allowing people to report criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK and child abuse images hosted anywhere in the world.

All four already work closely with CEOP, and are reported to be among the IWF's largest funding providers.

"This additional funding will supplement the existing zero tolerance approach to child abuse material online, adding to the existing contributions that each company makes both in relation to the ongoing battle against illegal material and investment in technology and awareness raising to help parents protect children in the online world," the statement reads.

In a further statement, Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the IWF, said the funding would help the organisation make some "real headway" into its goal of creating an internet free of child abuse content.

"This is a great commitment from the UK internet industry," said Hargreaves. "We are ready to step up the fight against online child sexual abuse content."

News of the funding follows on from a meeting chaired by Culture Secretary Maria Miller yesterday, which was attended by ISPs and web giants such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook.

Pressure has been growing on ISPs, search engines and social networks to step up their efforts when it comes to clamping down on child pornography and abuse images online, in the wake of the April Jones and Tia Sharp murder trials.

In both cases, the perpetrators were found to have trawled the internet for child abuse images in the past.

The aim of yesterday's meeting was to hammer out exactly what needs to be done to halt the spread of child abuse images online, but according to our sister publication PC Pro little progress was made.

A source, speaking to the publication under condition of anonymity, claimed the meeting was hijacked by MPs with little techical knowledge of the challenges involved with filtering child abuse images.

BSkyB is to acquire Telefnica UK's consumer broadband and fixed-line telephony business.

The broadcaster has agreed to cough up 180 million for Telefnica UK's consumer broadband and home phone user base, as well as a further 20 million once the firm's customers have been successfully moved over to the Sky network

The deal, which covers both Telefonica's O2 and BE consumer brands, is expected to be completed by the end of April.

The company reports to have more than eight million customers signed up to its telephone and internet services and claims the acquisition will make it the UK's second-largest home broadband provider.

In a statement, Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of Sky, said the deal will allow it to scale.

"The O2 and BE consumer broadband and telephony business is a great fit, with customers used to high-quality products and strong levels of customer service.

"We look forward to welcoming these new customers to Sky and giving them access to our wide range of high-quality products, great value and industry-leading customer service," he concluded. Ronan Dunne, chief executive of Telefnica UK, added: "As we focus on delivering best-in-class mobile connectivity, including next generation (4G) services, we believe this agreement is the best way of helping our customers get the highest quality home broadband experience."

News of the deal comes hot on the heels of the announcement earlier this month that rival broadband provider, Virgin Media, was being sold to US cable company Liberty Global for $23.3 billion, reportedly making it the world's largest broadband provider.

Emeka Obiodu, telco strategy analyst at market watcher Ovum, said the deal could be a potential source of concern for Virgin Media's new owners.

"This strengthens the hand of BSkyB in the market as the company would now be able to boast of having a bigger TV customer base, and more broadband customers than its main rival Virgin Media," said Obiodu.

"[This] will undoubtedly convert the UK's pay-TV and broadband markets into a three-way fight [between Virgin Media, BSkyB and BT]. It doesn't have to be bad for consumers, but some may not like it."

Broadband provider Virgin Media is set to be acquired by US cable company Liberty Global in a deal worth $23.3 billion.

The companies claim the merger will result in the creation of the world's largest broadband company, covering 47 million homes across 14 countries.

Under the terms of the deal, Virgin Media shareholders will receive $17.50 in cash, 0.2582 Liberty Global Series A shares and 0.1928 Liberty Global Series C shares for each Virgin Media share they own.

Mike Fries, president and chief executive of Liberty Global, said the deal would add significant scale to his firm's European operations, and will result in 80 per cent of its revenues coming from five European countries.

"Adding Virgin Media to our large and growing European operations is a natural extension of the value creation strategy we've been successfully using for over seven years," said Fries.

"Virgin Media will be complementary to our own organic revenue and growth profile, while providing attractive free cash flow enhancement to our shareholders.

"As a result we intend to increase our commitment to share buybacks going forward with an initial target of approximately $3.5 billion over a two-year period upon closing," Fries concluded.

Neil Berkett, chief executive of Virgin Media, added: "The combined company will be able to grow faster and deliver enhanced returns by capitalising on the exciting opportunities that the digital revolution presents, both in the UK and across Europe."

Virgin Media also announced its full-year results for 2012, which showed that revenue was up 2.7 per cent on last year and topped 1.654m. Operating profit grew by 30 per cent to 699.1 million over the same time period.

This week, the European Commission approved Government plans to subsidise broadband in rural areas.

This means the BDUK scheme will be able to go ahead, without a challenge from European authorities over the misuse of state aid.

The Government has put much store by the BDUK project, with Culture Secretary Maria Miller describing it as a "huge boost" for the economy. But critics of the scheme claim the plans are too modest and too late to make much of a difference.

Under the BDUK scheme, local areas can apply for financial support from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport; the largest schemes have received funding of up to 18m, the total budget for the project is over 1bn.

The DCMS has helpfully created a Google Docs speadsheet charting progress of the different bids, known as Local Broadband Plans (LPDs).

However, controversy surrounds both the relatively unambitious targets for broadband speed, and the small number of companies awarded the contracts.

Most deals to date have gone to BT and, in several areas, the firm has been the only bidder.

Campaigners for rural connectivity have raised concerns that bidders will use public funds to make network improvements they would have carried out anyway. BT, for its part, strenuously denies this.

Campaigners also worry the BDUK rules effectively lock out smaller internet service providers, which might be able to offer alternative services.

Business users, though, are more concerned about what is being provided, than who is providing it. The Government's target for rural broadband is 2mbps, a target that has not been revised for some years.

But even in the last 12 months, the average speed of home broadband connections has increased from around 7Mbps to 12Mbps, according to Ofcom's figures. This has largely been driven by the uptake of fibre-based services, such as BT Infinity and Virgin Media, in urban areas.

It is more important than ever for speeds to catch up it can take 12 hours to download an iPad update

That is not to say that BDUK bids will only supply 2Mbps BT's fibre to the cabinet technology should be able to deliver 35Mbps in most areas but the overall Government policy on broadband now looks dated, even if the intention is to deliver 2Mbps to hard to reach homes and businesses.

What is not in doubt is the need. Since IT Pro first started covering the rural broadband issue, businesses have become increasingly frustrated at the "digital divide" between town and country.

As Nick Peart, an executive with technology company Zendesk, points out, local broadband only reaches 1Mbps and 512k at peak times. Those are the speeds city dwellers enjoyed a decade ago.

"As more services go online-only it is more important than ever for speeds to catch up it can take 12 hours to download an iPad update," he says.

This may well have less to do with public policy than market structures and economics. Even in urban areas, the vagaries of the telecoms and cable networks, as well as the challenge of negotiating with building owners, lead to fast broadband "not spots".

Dominic Baliszewski of broadbandchoices.co.uk, said: "Eeliable broadband access is essential for rural businesses to compete in the digital economy.

"The more digitally enabled a business is the faster it tends to grow particularly as in the UK we are twice as likely to buy goods online than on the high street," he added.

The EU's ruling removes one more barrier. It is not the end of the journey, but it is a start.

Stephen Pritchard is a contributing editor at IT Pro.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has rapped Virgin Media for making misleading claims about its broadband speeds.

The regulator said it received 18 complaints about an advert featuring former Doctor Who star David Tennant, which claimed users of its superfast fibre-optic broadband service will not be blighted by buffering when watching online videos.

The ASA has ruled the claim as misleading and said it violated three sections of the BCAP code.

Buffering would be less likely with fibre-optic broadband but not entirely absent.

Virgin Media responded to the ruling by stating that its broadband services substantiated the advert's claims.

"[Virgin Media] said that speeds of between 1.5 and 4Mb/s were required to stream video content for services...and by providing a consistent download speed above that, Virgin Media's services could support video streaming services with a greater likelihood that customers would not experience buffering," said the company in the adjudication document.

Virgin Media pointed out that other factors, including the limitations of users' hardware and the site they were visiting, could cause buffering.

It also argued that the wording in the ad said users "could" say goodbye to buffering, not can, which should absolve it of guilt.

"[The company] believed this would be understood as a claim that buffering would be less likely with fibre-optic broadband but not that it would be entirely absent," it added.

However, the ASA said the "ambiguity" in the way the claim was presented means the advert was misleading and that viewers may not be aware of the other factors that could lead to buffering.

As a result, the ASA has ruled the advert should not appear in its current form again.

Virgin's 100Mbps fibre product is now available to 10 million homes, meaning the ISP is ahead of schedule in rolling out the service.

The announcement came as 100Mbps connections were established in areas of Bromley, Dundee, Norton Hawkfield in North East Somerset and Staverton in Gloucestershire.

Virgin had initially planned to reach the 10 million figure by mid-2012.

Broadband is coming of age as more people give up on slow DSL.

"Soon half the country will be able to get superfast 100Mbps broadband from us. Reaching today's milestone puts us ahead of schedule as we help propel the UK up the global broadband rankings," said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.

"Broadband is coming of age as more people give up on slow DSL in favour of superfast fibre optic speeds."

Last week, Ofcom said Virgin was providing the fastest average speeds to customers. The company's 'up to' 50Mbps offering had the highest average download speeds of around 49Mbps.

BT's fibre product Infinity achieved average download speeds of 36Mbps. Infinity achieved the highest average upload speeds of 8.8Mbps.

Last month, Virgin pledged to double the speeds of its broadband for all four million of its customers, apart from 100Mbps customers, who will be upgraded to 120Mbps.

Price rise

Whilst delighting customers with speed increases, Virgin has also upset them by revealing prices will go up across various services from 1 April.

On average, customers are set to see the cost of their contracts go up by around 2.68 a month.

Customers of the likes of Sky and TalkTalk could see broadband prices go down, however, as Ofcom proposed cutting BT Openreach's wholesale prices.

Ofcom said it expected the savings ISPs will make from lower infrastructure costs to be passed on to consumers, as that was what happened in the past.

However, BT said it was considering appealing Ofcom's decision if it is ratified by the European Commission.

Various Virgin Media customers across the UK were hit by a broadband blackout yesterday, which appears to be continuing this morning for some.

The outage stretched from 5pm to 8pm yesterday and Virgin has admitted a "routing issue" was to blame.

"Some of customers may have experienced problems getting online for a while yesterday evening," a spokesperson told IT Pro.

"Our engineers quickly fixed the problem and service was restored before 8pm. We apologise for the inconvenience."

Virgin Broadband is down - working from Orange Dongle.

Yet customers have flocked to Twitter to complain of continued problems with their connections.

"Anyone else having major problems with Virgin Broadband today?" said one user.

"Late hello from us as Virgin Broadband is down - working from Orange Dongle," said PopdanceUK.

Virgin has advised customers still experiencing problems to try powering down their routers for five minutes and then switch them back on. That should re-establish the connection, the ISP said.

Upbeat email gaffe

The blackout came in a week that saw Virgin mistakenly send letters to customers about its recently-announced speed upgrade.

An email meant for 100Mbps customers was posted to a cross section of customers, telling them they were going to get 120Mbps services.

However, it emerged after the emails that 50Mbps customers would be getting upgraded to a 120Mbps service anyway. Originally, 100Mbps customers were the only ones set to receive 120Mbps.

"Our first email, intended for our 100Mbps customers, was accidentally sent to some customers on other tiers which may have led to some confusion. We're sorry for any misunderstanding and will be writing to customers again soon to clarify how the upgrade will affect them," a spokesperson said.

"In the meantime, as part of our double speed programme we are delighted to confirm that 50Mbps customers will actually be upgraded to 120Mbps, meaning even more Virgin Media customers will be able to take advantage of the fastest broadband speeds in the UK."

The 50Mbps customers will continue to pay the same for their contracts, whilst 100Mbps users will see their prices drop.

Virgin has successfully powered 1.5Gbps broadband speeds, delivering speeds up to 240 times faster than the UK average, the ISP announced today.

Silicon Roundabout is now enjoying the uber fast speeds thanks to the 1.5Gbps download and 150Mbps upload trial announced in April.

The technology used to power the trial is the same used to provide 100Mbps to residential customers, Virgin said.

"It is fantastic to see the fastest internet speeds in the world over cable being trialled here in the UK," said communications minister Ed Vaizey.

"This exciting development will help attract new companies and entrepreneurs to the area, bringing new jobs and growth to this part of the capital."

Vaizey said such projects will help make London's East End a rival to Silicon Valley.

"Superfast broadband is critical to continued innovation across the UK and Virgin Media's 1.5Gb trial is a great opportunity to explore the future potential," added Elizabeth Varley, co-founder and chief executive at TechHub - one of the organisations enjoying the 1.5Gbps connections.

Virgin said the speeds were possible thanks to a 13 billion investment, "which means that every cable home is connected to a state-of-the-art fibre optic network by a high-grade coaxial line."

"As people are simultaneously connecting more gadgets to the internet and doing more online than ever before, we wanted to explore what our unique fibre optic network is capable of," said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.

"At speeds of up to 1.5Gbps, Virgin Media is delivering some of the fastest broadband in the world and, thanks to our ongoing investment, we're able to anticipate and lead the way in meeting growing demand for bandwidth as future services and applications come online."

Despite such positive trials, the rollout of fibre connections in the UK could be in jeopardy thanks to industry in-fighting over infrastructure.

Fibre broadband is spreading rapidly across the UK, but all is not as rosy as it seems.

In reality, the rollout of superfast connections to the majority of the nation is in jeopardy.

Both Government and industry have made solid commitments, yet a number of potential pitfalls could make the road to fibre a rocky one.

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt plans to make the UK the top broadband nation in Europe. Yet those plans might fall into disarray thanks to industry squabbling over infrastructure and uncertainty surrounding actual enthusiasm for fibre.

The Government believes the UK will be the best-connected nation in Europe by 2015, so deadlines are looming. If they are to be met, the great fibre debate needs to spawn genuine progress and fast.

A slow nation?

Looking at the history of fibre in the UK, it's clear this country hasn't always been the most forward-thinking nation. The case for next-generation connections was made as far back as the 1980s, during Margaret Thatcher's reign as Prime Minister.

The UK isn't even close to achieving world-beating speeds. Comparatively, we're positively sluggish.

When BT proposed the case for fibre then, Thatcher snubbed the telecoms giant. Amongst other concerns, she cited anxieties over a lack of competition in the market a theme which still resonates today.

Over the following decades, South Korea, Japan and European nations like Sweden rolled out their own fibre networks, whilst the UK floundered. It has only been in the past two to three years that this nation has truly got a grip on fibre.

Right now, however, the UK isn't even close to achieving world-beating speeds. Comparatively, we're positively sluggish.

Just one British city, Bradford, appeared in Akamai's top 100 broadband speed rankings earlier this year, creeping in at 99, whilst South Korea and Japan dominated.

Gaining momentum

Rollouts are now progressing at breakneck speeds, however. BT and Virgin are the two major players here.

BT has staked its claim on the fibre landscape with a massive 2.5 billion investment on infrastructure to cover two-thirds of the UK by 2015.

Last month, BT said it was bringing connections to an extra 80,000 additional premises every week, in one of the fastest rollouts in the world. It also has plans to almost double the speed of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) based service in 2012.

Virgin is investing in a fibre optic network it hopes will pass close to 85 per cent of all UK businesses. The company has started offering 100Mbps services over its fibre network which spans 186,000 km.

These "ultrafast" connections can now be accessed by over 100 towns across the UK. Virgin's also been trying out some 200Mbps services, posing itself as the Speedy Gonzales of the nation's ISPs, quite literally.

As for the so-called "final third" those remote parts of the UK which haven't been guaranteed fibre access some headway is being made.

Fujitsu is planning a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network to provide for a further five million rural homes, in a project which has already attracted Virgin Media and TalkTalk.

The Government is firmly on board too, allocating 830 million from its BDUK fund to help bring services to remote areas. The Coalition plans to have 90 per cent of all homes and businesses connected to speeds of at least 25Mbps by 2015, whether via fibre or not.

All of the above might lead you to believe the UK is set to become a true world leader in broadband. Sadly, you would be mistaken.

The main sticking point ISPs are quarrelling over is the pricing of infrastructure itself. A bitter war of words has broken out thanks to a certain letter sent to the Government in April.

We've got to have fair pricing so that these other companies can have a good crack at the whip.

In that letter, a host of providers, including big players TalkTalk and Virgin, said BT was charging too much for its Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA). Their argument was simple: BT spends far less on implementing PIA than it charges for it.

The issue reared its ugly head again when Fujitsu announced its plans for a fibre network, saying the project needed BT to offer acceptable pricing before any work could begin.

Andrew Heaney, executive director of strategy and regulation at TalkTalk, wondered whether BT hadn't just "plucked their numbers from the air."

"We truly believe the price is being charged way above cost," Heaney told IT Pro

"We've got to have fair pricing so that these other companies can have a good crack at the whip. Openreach don't want us to have fair pricing because that's their way of protecting their monopoly and making sure they're the only game in town."

Heaney compared the fibre situation to local loop unbundling (LLU) issues at the turn of the Millennium, when similar problems with pricing arose. ISPs have learnt from that episode, he believes.

"The good thing is we know where the pitfalls are and we know the tricks that Openreach will play and we're prepared to fight it intensely," Heaney added.

"It would be lovely if Openreach came out with the right answer, but I'm not holding out much hope."

BT, of course, is strongly of the opinion its prices are more than fair. When talking about ducts, BT believes its prices are 10-15 per cent below the average cost elsewhere in Europe in terms of rental per metre.

The telecoms giant suspects a little bit of gamesmanship on behalf of other industry players too.

"I'll be honest with you, I think certain people are using the squabble for certain ends and certain people are not quite sure what they're squabbling about," said Fergus Crockett, product director for Openreach.

It doesn't look likely this feud will end with hugs and kisses all round. A good bet would be on an Ofcom intervention.

If Openreach doesn't do what other ISPs want and a stalemate is reached, the regulator may have to issue a dispute resolution. With gritted teeth, BT might be forced to change its pricing.

Get trialling

In a bid to avoid that potential outcome, BT has tried to play nice, to some extent at least.

Over the past 10 months, the provider has been running a number of industry collaboration groups on fibre deployment, hence its surprise when rivals lodged their complaint with Ed Vaizey.

More significantly, BT has also set up trials to see how PIA sharing would work.

I think certain people are using the squabble for certain ends.

Up to seven other ISPs can join in, but only two have so far. Crucially, Sky has jumped on board to test out the infrastructure, showing the big boys of the ISP world can work together.

"The trials are so important because they will actually allow us to understand whether our costs are right," said Bill Murphy, managing director of next generation access at BT. "Do the trial... you can argue the prices at the same time."

Others don't quite see it BT's way. Heaney claimed BT was "talking nonsense" in suggesting others should join the trials to test pricing.

"It is clear today that most of their PIA prices are excessive. You don't need to build equipment to do that, you just need a calculator to work out the costs of their existing assets," Heaney added.

"BT's behaviour is merely obfuscation and trying to delay the setting of fair PIA prices."

And Virgin's response on why it hasn't joined in with the trials? It didn't give us one.

What this tells us is simple: PIA is one serious sticking point, a significant obstacle potentially preventing a large chunk of the UK from getting fibre.

If matters aren't settled, Ofcom will have to step up to the plate, but the bitter taste left in the mouths of ISPs will linger for some time.

In turn, this will only lead to less collaboration in the future, potentially stunting the growth of fibre when other issues arise in the years ahead. No one needs, or wants, that.

Another area where views differ widely is demand. Although Government and industry have waxed lyrical about the supposed benefits of fibre over ADSL, there are some doubts over whether businesses, and indeed some ISPs themselves, actually care much about it.

Is all the investment in and arguing over infrastructure worth it? Do people even want fibre?

TalkTalk's own fibre offerings have seen little interest and the provider hasn't given the product much backing itself, according to Heaney.

"We've launched our fibre booster and we're not really marketing it. It's there if customers want it," he said. "There is very, very small demand."

Heaney was dubious about others' success with fibre too. "After BT launched its Infinity product, for the first two or three months they were trumpeting that they had 50,000 customers in the first few weeks or whatever. Now they're not talking about the number of customers," he added.

"I would bet my bottom dollar that they're not seeing as much demand as they'd hoped for."

You might want to take TalkTalk's stance with a pinch of salt, given its involvement in the aforementioned Fujitsu consortium.

Yet Heaney's bottom dollar might have made him a little bit richer. BT, the most fibre rich of all ISPs in the UK, was fairly sheepish about current global demand for fibre when speaking to IT Pro.

"If you look around the world, take-up isn't actually as dramatic as you might think," Murphy said. "Demand stimulation is quite critical."

However, BT was relatively pleased with uptake of its fibre product, Infinity, when it announced its results last month. Infinity's customer base then stood at 144,000. It's not a startlingly high number, but it's not infinitesimal uptake either.

Virgin, meanwhile, has been hugely positive about fibre work, saying it had seen plenty of demand, particularly from businesses.

"We're seeing huge demand both in volume terms and also in potential revenue terms, and we've got very bold and brave ambitions for the business division," said John Heraghty, managing director of Virgin Media Business.

"The underlying reason why we need high capacity networks is because that enables an IT transformation to take place. It's not so much about being able to download stuff quickly from the internet, interesting though that is, it's the ability to move data around the network."

At the minute, it would be fair to say BT and Virgin are by far the two biggest proponents of fibre in this country. Competitors simply aren't putting in anyway near as much work. We also suspect that low customer interest in fibre is due to cost, especially in the current economic climate. A BT Infinity subscription can cost as much as 38 per month including line rental.

This leads to the question of why other ISPs aren't yet wholly convinced, especially when there are some significant cases where fibre has proven to be the difference between a successful business process and a failed one.

For instance, Virgin has a contract with North Lancashire Healthcare Trust, in which the latter needs fibre to run high definition video equipment. This includes HD cameras with screens hooked up to Wi-Fi, enabling a consultant working remotely to diagnose patients over the network, in particular looking at facial characteristics in stroke victims.

It saves the hospital time and money having a doctor able to work from wherever at whatever time. Without the high quality connection there, the service simply wouldn't be available.

Lift this into the business world, and you imagine the benefits. Think of crystal clear video calls, superfast cloud computing and speedy mining of so called 'Big Data.' Particularly with large projects in the modern world, copper ADSL connections simply won't match up to fibre.

Ofcom should not be forced to intervene. All the infighting and bickering needs to stop.

Regardless of what the reality is with demand, the case for business benefits is hard to deny. Once businesses realise these benefits, uptake will increase and the UK will become a speedier broadband nation.

Again, progress here requires the industry to act together, alongside Government, to extol the virtues of next-generation services to citizens and businesses alike. It is in everyone's interest.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

Clearly, the industry needs to collaborate more in the fibre space. Currently, the PIA argument and the lack of enthusiasm on the behalf of a few players are stunting the spread of fibre across the UK.

Industry needs to recognise there is an opportunity here. The fibre market is a nascent one. It remains open to collaborative innovation. Coming together at an early stage will breed future cooperation, which in turn will help the UK become a world beater in broadband.

The only thing companies should be arguing over is who offers the best services to the end user. Quality competition will push the market forward even more, helping the industry mature and flourish. If one or two company monopolise the industry, it will stagnate and fail.

Ofcom should not be forced to intervene. All the infighting and bickering needs to stop.

The UK's economy, its businesses and its people are relying on ISPs to deliver. Let's hope they do.

Virgin Media today confirmed it would be trialling a 1.5Gb cable broadband network in London's Old Street technology hub, dubbed "Silicon Roundabout."

The pilot will kick off this month, with four companies in the area already signed up to try out the connections.

Virgin Media claimed, if the trial is successful, it will become the world's fastest cable broadband and achieve speeds over 240 times faster than the current UK average.

"Demand for greater bandwidth is growing rapidly as more devices are able to connect to the internet and as more people go online simultaneously," said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.

"Our growing network provides a highly competitive alternative to the fastest fibre networks of the future and, with our ongoing investment plans, we can anticipate and meet demand as it develops over time, ensuring Virgin Media business and residential customers continue to enjoy world-class broadband."

The network will use the DOCSIS3 technology used throughout its commercial network and will be funded by the 13 million the company pumped into connecting its cable up to fibre through coaxial lines.

Celebrating a strong Q1

Virgin Media made its broadband announcement on the same day it released its results for the first quarter of 2011.

Overall revenues rose by 5.7 per cent, compared to the same period last year, amounting to 982 million. Operating income also increased by an impressive 58.9 per cent to 111 million.

The number of cable customers only rose by 1.2 per cent totalling 20,200 new connections but there was a 22.6 per cent rise in mobile customers up to 1.3 million.

Business contract revenue also lifted, hitting 159 million up 13.7 per cent from last year mostly thanks to a new contract win from the London borough of Lambeth.

Fujitsu has confirmed it will be building its own super-fast broadband network in the UK to bring connections to five million rural homes.

The wholesale network will use technology from Cisco to bring the fibre up to speed. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will then sell the connections, with Virgin Media and TalkTalk already signed up to the network.

Duncan Tait, chief executive (CEO) of Fujitsu said: "There is a unique opportunity for the UK to re-establish itself as a world leader by having the world's most advanced fibre network."

"If done correctly this can be a key vehicle to accelerate recovery in the UK and bring genuine choice to generations of communities starved of participating fully in the UK economy."

Fujitsu is planning on Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connections, rather than Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC), meaning 1Gbps download speeds will be available from the start. Fujitsu also claimed the technology would be "future-proof" for up to 30 years, with the possibility of raising speeds to 10Gbps going forward.

However, the plans are dependent on BT adhering to the Ofcom ruling to open up its underground ducts and telegraph poles to rivals.

The plans have won the backing of communications minister, Ed Vaizey, who said: "Superfast broadband is already helping businesses grow and improving the lives of those able to access it but many rural and hard to reach areas are missing out."

He added: "Creating this superfast broadband network will help improve the economic and social prospects of the homes and businesses where high-speed internet access remains just a dream."

Locations of the lucky premises to get the connections have not been revealed as of yet. IT PRO asked Fujitsu when the roll-out would begin, and completed by, but the company had not responded to our request at the time of publication.

Yesterday, figures from Point Topic suggested there would be more than 250,000 super-fast broadband connections in the UK by the end of this month.

The take-up of superfast broadband in Britain has been given figures to back it up today by Point Topic.

The analyst firm claimed there would be 250,000 lines in use by the end of April, up from the confirmed 175,000 at the end of December.

The research defined superfast broadband as any connection over 25Mbps.

Although the figures are positive news for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) investing in the technology, the number does only equate to one per cent of homes in the UK.

However, Tim Johnson, chief analyst at Point Topic, claimed it was a stepping stone for superfast broadband to reach the numbers the first generation technology achieved over its first 10 years.

"We went on from [these numbers] to reach over 13 million broadband lines within five years," he said. "Now we have over 19 million. It's dangerous just to assume that history will repeat itself, but it's still a good pointer to what will happen to superfast broadband in this decade."

Virgin lines dominate BT

The estimated figures for March showed a clear market leader when it came to superfast broadband.

Virgin Media was shown to account for 146,000 lines last month, compared to BT's 86,000. A further 4,000 lines were attributed to alternative networks.

Both companies are investing heavily into the speedy technology, with BT putting 2.5 million into its network and Virgin Media providing 100Mbps to over one million homes.

Customers signed up to Virgin Media's XL broadband package will now get a speed boost of 50 per cent as their offering moves from 20Mbps to 30Mbps - at no extra cost.

The new speedy service is available immediately and is in response to the proliferation of smartphones and mobile devices used by modern day business users and consumers alike, according to Virgin.

Furthermore, the communications giant, says the technology behind the connectivity will ensure users get as close to - 90 per cent-plus - advertised speeds as possible, rather than facing a so-called 'speed lottery.'

"As consumers continually demand more and more from their broadband, the unique power of our next-generation network means that we're able to turn up the dial to meet their needs," said

Jon James, Virgin Media's executive director of broadband.

"With so many devices connecting to the internet at home these days, our new 30Mb service will give Virgin Media families that extra boost needed to make everything run smoothly, with speeds that don't slow down depending on where you live."

Those already using Virgin's XL 20Mbps service are able to upgrade to the new, higher speed by paying a one-off fee of 30. This will cover the costs involved with modem replacement and activation.

Virgin Media has announced a number of new locations now able to access its "ultrafast" broadband offering.

Residents of Cheshunt and Hatfield in Hertfordshire, Pentwyn and Rhondda Cynon Taf in Wales and Southport in Merseyside can now subscribe to download speeds of 100Mbps from the company, along with upload speeds of 10Mbps.

The number of homes across the newly-enabled areas adds up to 150,000, meaning the speedy broadband is now available to 350,000 homes across the UK.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said: "We've invested many billions of private money in order to build a growing network that already passes approximately 13 million homes across the UK."

"We're racing to get these ultrafast speeds across this entire area as fast as we can to meet demand."

It does come at a price though. To buy the internet package alone would cost a user 45 per month. Although the cost drops to 35 if taken along with a phone line, customers would also have to pay up 30 for activation and 40 for installation.

At least a combined modem and wireless N router comes as part of the deal, which Virgin Media claimed had been designed to handle up to 400Mbps broadband as the technology continued to develop and roll-out.

Virgin Media began its roll-out of 100Mbps back in December to four towns Heckmondwike (West Yorkshire), Farnborough, Colchester and Barry (South Wales).

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.

Virgin Media is considering launching its very own Wi-Fi network in an attempt to take on its biggest rival.

Various reports have claimed the company wants to move into the Wi-Fi space and try to beat BT's OpenZone offering, although plans have yet to be set in stone.

A spokesperson told the BBC: "We are looking at way to converge data services. 3G networks are reaching a capacity crunch and Wi-Fi could offload traffic and offer a vastly superior overall throughput."

The spokesperson admitted building the network would be a "massive undertaking" but having an alternative to 3G could be a good move.

Virgin Media has been investing heavily into its broadband infrastructure over the past year.

Back in February, it made 100Mbps connections available to the 12.6 million homes on its network, and it has also begun trials for 200Mbps connections in Kent.

We contacted Virgin Media to confirm the Wi-Fi plans but it had not responded to our request for comment at the time of publication.

Watch our video interview with Mark Heraghty, head of Virgin Media Business, here.

Never mind Cameron vs Boris, the most interesting spat of the week is the increasingly bad-tempered feud between Oracle and HP. Back in the real world, normal people have 100Mbps broadband and Wi-Fi on the London Underground to look forward to.

Like a Virgin, for the very first time

Virgin Media has announced its upcoming 100Mbps super fast broadband service, which will immediately excite anyone who downloads gigabytes upon gigabytes of pirated movies and pornography. BT has criticised the high pricing of Virgin's service. This seems a little self-serving as others have pointed out a less than rosy history for Virgin when it comes to customer service.

It's a series of tubes

While Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London, has been ticking off the rest of his Tory colleagues, his plans for trialling Wi-Fi internet access on the London Underground have been humming along. The ticket hall and the Northern and Bakerloo line platforms at Charing Cross station will be covered by a BT Openzone hotspot from next week for seven days.

The Charing Cross trial won't provide internet access inside the trains themselves. Although omnipresent internet access on the Tube is definitely a good thing, if access is extended to train carriages in future, hopefully VoIP calls won't be allowed. Travelling on the underground during rush hour is unpleasant enough without a carriage full of morons bellowing down their phones.

Thief!

Larry Ellison, Oracle's chief executive, has been outspoken in his criticism of HP's decision to dismiss his friend Mark Hurd from his position as HP's CEO. Ellison went so far as to hire Hurd, a move that was initially opposed by HP, but later resolved.

The bad blood between Oracle and HP looks set to deepen, as Ellison has now accused HP's new CEO, Leo Apotheker, of masterminding the theft of Oracle intellectual property when he was head of Oracle rival SAP.

Clearly this increasing rivalry between HP and Oracle can only be settled in a civilised and dignified manner. A round of pugilistic fisticuffs in the playground, behind the bike shed, after school. No hair pulling or scratching allowed obviously.

BT has questioned why Virgin Media's 100Mbps upcoming broadband service has been priced so highly, given the current economic climate.

BT said all superfast broadband is positive for the UK, but the communications giant was bemused as to why Virgin is planning to charge such "premium" prices.

Virgin Media's 100Mbps broadband service will cost 45 per month as a stand-alone service or 35 when bundled with a phone line.

"Take up is as important as availability and so we would question why Virgin are charging such a premium," a BT statement sent to IT PRO said.

"Their new service is more than twice the price of BT's fibre product and so we are surprised by the high price when most family budgets are tight."

While BT's prices may be lower, it currently only offers 40Mbps speeds and will not achieve 100Mbps or faster until next year.

Furthermore, Virgin offers a 50Mbps service from 28 a month, although the BT Infinity 40Mbps package can be bought for as low as 19.99.

BT, which agreed with Ofcom earlier this year to share its fibre networks with rivals, also noted Virgin's network is not "open to other companies in the way BT's is."

The company said it was happy to have the extra competition in the market, however.

"BT is already rolling out fibre broadband to approximately 17 million homes and businesses and it is good for UK plc that there will be another high speed network," it added.

Further to yesterday's announcement, Virgin said around 12.7 million homes will get the new 100Mbps service when roll out is complete, which is expected to be in 2012.

Phil Smith, chief executive (CEO) of Cisco UK & Ireland, was more positive about the introduction of Virgin's services.

He said the announcement "is a clear sign that we are moving in the right direction by investing in the high quality, superfast networks that will be needed for us to join the 14 countries whose networks are already prepared for the applications of the future."

"It's important that the focus is on improving the UK's network overall and this is a great step forward but much more investment is needed to make the UK more competitive and connected," Smith added.

Virgin Media has announced pre-registration for its 100Mbps broadband service making it the UK's fastest widely available broadband.

The announcement was effectively leaked on Monday when Prime Minister David Cameron said "Virgin Media is rolling out a new super-fast broadband service this week."

Now it is official, existing and potential customers can pre-register for the 100Mbps broadband service, capable of delivering speeds of up to nearly ten times the UK average.

Initially, the service will be made available in parts of London, the south east and Yorkshire from the start of December 2010, before being rolled out across the network in 2011. Currently Virgin's consumer broadband service reaches 50mbps.

"We are extending our lead in broadband even further with the imminent availability of 100Mbps as consumer demand for consistently faster broadband grows," said Neil Berkett, chief executive (CEO) of Virgin Media.

The announcement came at the same time as Virgin Media's third quarter results, in which it posted a revenue increase of 6.4 per cent to 978 million.

"Our continued focus on exploiting our strategic advantages with the resulting multiple opportunities for revenue growth, as well as robust financial discipline has delivered another strong financial performance this quarter," Berkett added.

The announcements come a week after the Government's spending review, in which it was revealed the BBC will help fund superfast broadband rollout as well.

IT PRO recently spoke to Virgin Media's Mark Heraghty about the ISP's plans for the business market.

Virgin Media has initiated a malware awareness campaign, sending letters to potentially infected customers about the threats they face.

Using third-party support from organisations such as The Shadowserver Foundation to identify affected users, Virgin Media will advise on both remedial and preventative action.

Households will be sent advice on using free software to scan computers and remove viruses, while advertising the services of Virgin Media Digital Home Support, which can help with eradicating malware.

The announcement comes after research carried out through the Virgin Media Digital Home Support service discovered almost a quarter of customers seeking help had either computer or speed problems caused by malware.

In the future, the ISP will be exploring ways to help customers both avoid malware attacks and deal with them once they have hit, but a Virgin Media spokesperson could not confirm any specifics.

"This is the first part of the plan," a spokesperson told IT PRO. "It's in our interest to protect our network."

While it would be beneficial to contact every one of its customers about the malware threat, it would not be "cost-effective" to do so, the spokesperson said.

The provider will also be promoting its Virgin Media Security product as part of the campaign a product that does not currently cover Mac computers.

"We are certainly looking into that. It's not quite at the same scale for Mac users as it is for PC users, but we are certainly not ignoring them," the spokesperson added.

TalkTalk recently came under fire for looking at where customers were going online as part of a data gathering project for a service to block infected websites.

"[We are] using third parties [as] we don't want to spy on our customers," the spokesperson said. "This approach is above board."

A Welsh village is set to receive fibre broadband connections thanks to existing electricity structures.

Virgin Media has got together with power company Surf Telecoms to provide residents in Crumlin with up to 50Mbps broadband by running the fibre network over electricity poles.

The broadband provider claimed it would increase current BT provided copper speeds by as much as ten times.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said: "We're already bringing broadband speeds of up to 50Mbps and, soon 100Mbps, to over half of all UK homes and are pushing the boundaries to ensure that homes right across the UK benefit from ultrafast broadband."

"Working in partnership with companies like Surf Telecoms, we can more rapidly and efficiently expand the reach of fibre optic networks to towns, villages and communities right across the UK."

Virgin Media has already trialled something similar in Woolhampton, Berkshire, earlier this year but it was forced to build its own infrastructure to carry the fibre lines. With the latest trial, the infrastructure is already there and ready to be used.

The trials of the technique are set to begin next month and will run into 2011.

The Government has launched a code of practice designed to close a multi-million pound loophole letting mobile thieves make money from recycling companies.

While the majority of handsets reported stolen in the UK are blocked within 48 hours, rendering them redundant for thieves, the crooks can still sell the phones on to recycling companies.

Firms which sign up to the code of practice will work with the authorities and check details of each mobile they are offered against the national database of all phones reported stolen.

Then the companies can turn down any stolen device and contact the police to pass on details of the person attempting to sell the handset.

At least 100,000 mobiles reported stolen are recycled every year, with each phone worth an average of 40, according to online due diligence specialists Recipero.

This has created an illicit marketplace worth 4 million.

"By joining forces with the police, the mobile phone industry is closing a multi-million pound loophole that has been exploited by criminals and the industry should be congratulated. Alongside the impressive work on blocking stolen phones, this code will make mobile phone theft an even less profitable crime," said crime prevention minister James Brokenshire, who announced the code of practice today.

"The industry welcomes this very important initiative on the part of the recyclers. It not only closes off an avenue used by criminals to gain from theft of mobile phones, it also demonstrates those recyclers who have signed up to the scheme are serious in their efforts to support the continuing battle against mobile phone theft," said Jack Wraith, chairman of the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum.

The Telecommunications Fraud Forum will be responsible for administering the code of practice, which has already attracted the support of 20 companies including Mazuma Mobile, Royal Mail, the Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media.

Virgin Media is working on a new router, capable of taking internet speeds of up to 400Mbps.

The company has announced the move in a continued bid to further increase its target for superfast broadband in the UK, but also claimed its main focus would still be moving customers up to 100Mbps by the end of the year.

It currently has more than 70,000 subscribers to 50Mbps and this is the target audience for when 100Mbps becomes widely available from the company.

"We want to be ready for the evolution of network speeds in the coming years as we roll out ever-improving services, including our 100Mbps service due at the end of the year and trials of 200Mbps," said Jon James, director of broadband at Virgin Media.

James also claimed Virgin Media was well ahead of its major rival BT, dismissing the company's investment into ADSL2 lines for 20Mbps speeds as leading to suffering for customers who use more and more services through one single line.

Virgin Media has reiterated its desire to use telegraph poles to help improve its broadband service, claiming it would help with the major issue of providing rural areas with decent internet access.

The fee charged by telecoms operators when customers finish contracts early is set to be cut significantly, thanks to a new ruling.

Ofcom has told big providers they will have to reduce the amount they charge for terminating landline phone and broadband contracts by up to 85 per cent or face enforcement action.

"Consumers who end contracts early should never have to pay more than the payments left under the contract," it said in a statement. "In fact they should often pay less, to reflect the costs providers save because the contract ends early."

BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk all claimed to Ofcom the original cost to the consumer was fair. However, after long discussions with the regulator, dating back to early 2009, they have agreed to implement the new charges.

It could cost up to 33.48 for each month left of your contract to cancel it early, but the new ruling has cut this to as little as 2 full changes in pricing available here.

TalkTalk began the new pricing on 1 June whereas the other two providers will begin in October this year.

Ofcom expects smaller providers to follow suit and start cutting their own termination costs, however it has warned they could also face formal enforcement action if they don't get in line.

Nearly a quarter of UK computer users would rather buy a new computer than fix a problem, a survey has shown.

The poll, conducted by Virgin Media, revealed that 63 per cent of us shout at the screen when programs freeze or crash, while 58 per cent of respondents admitted swearing at the computer. More than a quarter (27 per cent) admitted that they had gone so far as to hit their machines.

Having exhausted that line of attack, about a quarter will attempt to put the blame on a friend or family member, and as many as 22 per cent will end up admitting defeat and buying a new PC rather than trying more conventional methods of solving the problem.

The survey also revealed that women are far more likely to seek professional advice to solve computer problems than men, who will persevere on their own for longer, and invariably end up angry and frustrated more often.

Jon James, Virgin Media's executive director of broadband, said the results showed not only the public's continuing struggle to get to grips with modern technology, but also the lack of decent support.

"A lack of computer knowledge combined with a lack of easily accessed support is leading to massive consumer frustration," James said. "Our research found evidence of customers so frustrated with fixing PC problems, they ended up buying a new PC when only a simple fix was needed."

The survey was timed to coincide with the launch of Virgin Media's Digital Home Support Service, a UK-wide remote support network offering help with a wide range of computer problems.

Virgin Media is celebrating 10 years since it first hooked up a broadband connection, back when it was still called NTL.

The very first broadband customer, Mark Bush, asked to be hooked up during the testing phase of a cable roll out. "It was pretty impressive in the early days, with having the whole pipe to myself," he told the BBC.

That connection - made on 31 March 2000, in Gillingham, Kent - will be marked next month with a fibre-based art project on the South Bank in London.

Created by United Visual Artists, the "Speed of Light" installation features 148 lasers across five rooms, celebrating "the wonderful world of broadband". It will be free to check out from 9 to 19 of April.

"We wanted to inject a bit of magic into something that's easy to take for granted, and we think the Speed of Light installation is a fitting tribute to the amazing power of fibre optics," said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, in a statement.

"By using the same materials we use to deliver broadband to millions of homes in the UK, the display has a real sense of excitement and connection, and we hope people will enjoy being a part of this historical moment," he added.

Virgin planning Canvas rival?

Virgin Media has fired another salvo in the battle against its competitors by reportedly readying the launch of an online video-on-demand service. Techwatch

A game of Tetris a day...

Playing block-building computer game Tetris could help people overcome post traumatic stress and other disorders, according to researchers. BBC

Wikipedia gears up for makeover

Online encyclopedia Wikipedia is readying itself for an interface overhaul in a bid to make it easier for both contributors to contribute and visitors to find what they're looking for. PC Pro