Virgin Media Confirm 1000Mbps FTTH Broadband Trial for Papworth Everard

Virgin Media has today confirmed our report from last month and said they’re teaming-up with the John Henry Group to trial a new fibre optic based narrow-trenching deployment technology in the large village of Papworth Everard, which resides near the city of Cambridge (England). Locals can expect to receive download speeds of up to 1000Mbps.

Currently Papworth Everard has a population of roughly 3,000 and Virgin Media’s infrastructure already passes through the area, although until now locals haven’t been able to directly benefit. Instead most residents have been getting broadband via the remote BT-based Papworth St Agnes exchange and some should just be within reach of FTTC.

But the new development, which is trialling narrow-trenching to reduce the width of the trench used to lay fibre optic cables (from 40cm down to just 10cm), means that 100 homes in the village will now be able to order a new Gigabit broadband connection using Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology.

Apparently this trenching method, which sounds a lot like the more familiar “micro-trenching” approach that BTOpenreach and others sometimes use, can cover twice as much ground each day (around 100 metres) and saves roughly 33% on the usual cost of network expansion.

Paul Buttery, Virgin Media’s Chief Customer, Networks and Tech Officer, said:

“Virgin Media continues to push the boundaries of broadband, launching the UK’s first superfast service in 2008 and boosting Virgin Media homes yet again with 152Mb broadband launched this year. We know our network is unbeatable and we are excited to bring 1Gb to the people of Papworth as they help us explore a new way of rolling out our network faster and more cost-effectively.”

Sajid Javid, DCMS Secretary of State, said:

“Virgin Media is to be commended for their continued exploration and development of new technologies which are helping transform the UK’s digital landscape. 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.”

It’s of course not the first time that Virgin Media have conducted trials of pure fibre optic connectivity, with their earlier developments in Woolhampton (here) and Crumlin coming to mind. But the former was four years ago and since then Virgin Media has tended to focus on development of their DOCSIS3 (EuroDOCSIS) based hybrid fibre, coax and copper “cable” network.

The trial also follows hot on the hells of Virgin Media’s new plan to cover an additional 100,000 premises in East London (here). But at present it’s still too early to say whether the latest trial will result in an expanded deployment of FTTH by Virgin Media. Certainly it seems unlikely that Virgin would move to replace their existing cable infrastructure anytime soon, although FTTH could certainly help to reach new premises.

Meanwhile locals can expect to be contacted by Virgin Media sometime “over the coming weeks“. At 100 homes it’s clear that the service won’t reach everybody, but then it is just a trial. A spokesperson for the operator has also advised us that customers in the area will get a slightly different package and price to reflect the new capabilities, which should be unveiled once eligible locals have been contacted.

UPDATE 4:38pm

A spokesperson for Virgin Media has confirmed that they also intend to connect the majority of Papworth to their cable network and 152Mbps broadband.