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Virgin trials 1.5Gb broadband at Silicon Roundabout

by Scott Bicheno on 22 July 2011, 13:52

Tags: Virgin (NASDAQ:VMED)

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Good gig

Virgin Media has announced the trial of cable broadband offering download speeds of ‘up to 1.5Gb' (which we assume to mean Gbps) and upload speeds of 150Mb.

The location for the trial was carefully chosen as the state-sponsored ‘TechHub' situated in the Old Street area of central London. The moniker ‘silicon' was inevitable given the tech-specific nature of the initiative, but there's something painfully British about the area's full nickname of ‘silicon roundabout'.

The competitive environment Virgin Media finds itself in with regard to broadband is given extra spice by the apparent coziness between its biggest rival - former state monopoly BT - and the government. BT regularly lobbies for tax-payer cash in order to improve and expand its network, while Virgin has to rely on the fickle market for revenue.

So Virgin will no doubt be delighted to have got a pat on the head from comms minister Ed Vaizey about the trial. "It is fantastic to see the fastest internet speeds in the world over cable being trialled here in the UK," said 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.

"Last year the Prime Minister set out our ambition for London's East End to become a world-leading technology city to rival Silicon Valley. Developments like Virgin Media's will help make this ambition a reality."

Elizabeth Varley, co-founder and CEO of TechHub, said: "TechHub members are having great fun with the super speeds and are looking forward to trying out new ideas and applications. 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."

The 1.5Gb broadband uses the same infrastructure as the 100Mb service already being rolled out, but there was no mention of when we might be looking at these kinds of speeds.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 25 Comments

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Wow! I must sign up to Virgin immediately!



What's that Virgin? You don't serve my street in a densely populated suburb of Manchester?

Ah well, copper wires it is.
scaryjim
Wow! I must sign up to Virgin immediately!



What's that Virgin? You don't serve my street in a densely populated suburb of Manchester?

Ah well, copper wires it is.


+1. I can't get Virgin Broadband on Deansgate. DEANSGATE.

On a separate annoyance, why are all these super awesome broadband trials always in the South?
Now I know where the 19.5Mbps went from my “20Mbps” connection. Its like they want to rub peoples noses in the fact that they give some areas a really poor service.

AlexKitch
+1. I can't get Virgin Broadband on Deansgate. DEANSGATE.

On a separate annoyance, why are all these super awesome broadband trials always in the South?

Do you really need to ask that question?
Moved House

50mb cable down to crappy 6.7mb adsl2, I'm right in the middle of Edinburgh in a densely housed area in a new build flats that has at least 100 flats in the block.

Yet Virgin the bunch of tools they are only layed cable to the street next to mine and didnt even consider extending the cable to a possible 100 new clients. Pisses me off consider it would have been 50m of fible cable to make it possible.

What is the ultimate insult is the fact that I'm ADSL 2 and only getting 6.7mb. I'm less than 1300 meters from it via BT cable street routing. The flat is less than 5 years old and it was built with a central DP and cabling to ensure it was done right.

Sad state of affairs :(

Edit: I came home to find its now at 4mb on a ADSL2 line, BT should be ashamed of this level of service!
i live in old trafford and about 10 or so years ago a C&W van was stolen and torched, with an absolute fortune's worth of equipment in it
they've not been back since ha

on another note, yeah super fast broadband is great and all but what is the point in 1.5gps, anything over 100mbit is absolutely ridiculous for any sort of legal purpose

stop these stupid penis measuring stunts and just focus on spreading out the bandwidth - remember, it's not how hard you do the 1 woman, but how many women you do!