Virgin Media Boosts FTTP Rollout and Tops 4.87 Million Broadband Users

Cable Internet and TV provider Virgin Media (Liberty Global) has published their latest quarterly results (calendar Q3 2016), which saw growth in their broadband base improve to total 4,867,900 customers (up by +59.9K vs +42.7K added in Q2). On top of that around 2 million premises will now benefit from ultrafast FTTP broadband.

So far Virgin Media’s on-going £3bn Project Lighting network expansion, which aims to reach 17 million UK premises by 2019 (i.e. an extra 4 million premises – boosting UK coverage to around 60-65%), has already covered 250,000 premises in 2015. Since then they’ve added 70,000 during Q1 2016, then 85,000 in Q2 and now 95,000 for Q3. The progress is good.

As a result of the above effort Virgin Media’s Two-Way Homes Passed figure (i.e. homes on those sections of Virgin’s hybrid coaxial cable and fibre optic network that are technologically capable of providing two-way services, including video and Internet) has reached 13,139,100 (up from 13,057,000 in the previous quarter).

However the big news is that Virgin Media has raised their expectation for Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) coverage. Initially FTTP was only going to account for about 25% of Project Lightning (1 million+ premises), with the rest being done via their traditional EuroDOCSIS 3 based Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network. But happily pure fibre optic lines will now account for 50%!

Virgin Media’s Revised FTTP Plan

Project Lightning, our network extension programme, is transforming our customer and RGU growth profile in the U.K. During Q3, we passed 95,000 new premises with our superior fibre-rich network, taking the YTD Project Lightning build6 to 250,000 premises. We expect to build between 450,000 and 500,000 premises during 2016 across the U.K. and Ireland, as our build partners continue to scale up to meet higher quarterly build volumes.

We have concluded that, in many cases, large scale builds deploying narrow trenching to build FTTP are more cost efficient than smaller infill opportunities. As a result, our targeted FTTP build has increased from 25% to 50% of our four million premises target, and the overall cost of the programme remains unchanged.

Project Lightning was a key contributor to our record U.K. Q3 customer additions and our best U.K. Q3 RGU growth since 2009.

Elsewhere Virgin Media also found time in the quarter to acquire Arqiva’s UK network of WiFi hotspots (here). However it’s not all good news because the launch of Virgin Mobile’s new EE based 4G plans have been delayed from October 2016, although it’s only a very short delay because the service should go live next week!

Speaking of Mobile, it’s worth pointing out that Virgin Media now has a total of 3,028,400 mobile customers on their EE based MVNO platform in the UK (up slightly from 3,021,400 last quarter) and 3,723,500 take their TV / video services.

Virgin Media Results Statement

Demand for our ultrafast speeds and enhanced video services remains strong. Over 50% of our broadband base is now taking 100+Mbps, and subscriptions to our advanced next-generation TV platforms, in the U.K. and Ireland, now represent 81% of our enhanced video base.

Meanwhile Virgin Media has previously expressed concern that their network expansion may be hampered by the new business rates hike (here) and today’s results confirm how hard it could hit. The changes are due to become effective on 1st April 2017 (no joke), although the annual amount payable is calculated by applying a percentage multiplier to the rateable value of assets and this figure has not yet been confirmed.

Never the less the operator states that the change would “result in significant increases in our network infrastructure charge” and they say that, depending upon how the multiplier and any transitional relief are set, the estimated aggregate amount of these increases will range between £25 million and £35 million during 2017 and will build to a maximum aggregate increase of up to £150 million in 2021. “We believe that the proposed increases are excessive, and we will challenge the underlying methodology and assumptions,” said Virgin Media.

Finally, the provider noted that their new SuperHub v3 cable router had now been supplied to 18% of their broadband base in the UK. However there’s still no word on when we can expect the first customer trials of the latest DOCSIS 3.1 based cable broadband technology. On the financial front Virgin Media also delivered total quarterly UK revenue of £1,122.4m (up from £1,119.0m at the same time last year).