Virgin Media to trial 400 Mbits/sec broadband service

Virgin Media claims its cable network could support broadband speeds of up to 400 Mbits/sec.

The communications provider, which already offers a 50 Mbits/sec service and is currently trialling a 200 Mbits/sec connection in Kent, said it is preparing for a trial for 400 Mbits/sec by the end of the year.

Jon James, Virgin's director of broadband, said: "The DOCSIS 3 network gives us a dial we can turn to give more speed to customers if we think that is the right thing to do both for those customers and commercially.

"We have done 50Mbps and a series of upgrades and we will continue to give Virgin Media customers free upgrades on an equipment basis because we are the speed leader and we think it's going to continue as a way we do broadband."

Although the company’s network is only available to around half the country, Virgin is looking at ways to expand its reach.

Overhead cables on telegraph poles could allow the company to reach a further one million customers. Instead of digging up huge swathes of the countryside to lay the cables underground, the company will string them on existing telegraph poles alongside existing power lines.

Virgin said the fibre optic cables will not cause any interference to existing lines and be significantly cheaper to roll out. A trial of a 50 Mbits/sec service is being delivered this way in the Berkshire village of Woolhampton.

“Being able to provide broadband via fibre optic will be a huge bump up for the people in the village which has previously had to rely on BT’s copper network,” a Virgin representative said.