Virgin Media recently announced its plan to connect 450,000 new homes and businesses to the company’s fibre rich network by 2018 as part of its Project Lightning investment plan. The majority of this London expansion will extend Virgin Media’s HFC network, while others will be served via a new FTTH network.
Backed by parent company Liberty Global, Virgin Media is investing £3 billion to connect 4 million additional premises to its UK network, which will bring the total premises connected to Virgin Media’s UK network to 17 million by 2019. Virgin Media claims that this is the single largest investment in the UK’s broadband infrastructure in more than a decade.
Virgin Media said that it has connected approximately 100,000 new premises to its network in London since 2014. In addition, Virgin Media is on track to deliver ultrafast broadband to another 100,000 London premises by early 2017 and expects to cover the remaining 250,000 by the end of 2018, taking the total to 450,000.
The expansion will include 6,000 premises in Westminster and a significant investment in Barnet which will see fibre connected directly to 40,000 homes and businesses. Other areas where Virgin Media will build include Greenford, Southall, Hammersmith & Fulham, Twickenham, St John’s Wood, Bexley and Croydon.
Tom Mockridge, CEO, Virgin Media
London is one of the greatest capital cities in the world, so it deserves connectivity that meets its standing on the global stage. This expansion will give Londoners the broadband boost they deserve.
