By: MarkJ - 25 February, 2010 (8:00 AM) - Score: 2080 - Fixed Line Broadband
Cable giant Virgin Media UK has reported its latest fourth quarter 2009 results today and revealed plans to roll-out a superfast 100Mbps broadband package by the end of 2010 (prices TBA). The operators total broadband subscriber base increased from 4,027,400 in Q3 to 4,103,500 at the end of last year.Generally speaking Virgin's broadband base has seen good growth over the last quarter, adding 63,600 new cable broadband subscribers and 12,500 new non-cable (Virgin.net ADSL / Virgin National) subscribers.
Neil Berkett, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Media, said:
"In the fourth quarter, we successfully grew both the size and quality of our customer base. New and existing customers responded to an increasingly differentiated product portfolio and competitively priced bundles by buying more, higher value products. This demand underpinned growth across all our product lines and record ARPU which, combined with stable churn, drove a 6% increase in consumer cable revenue and 55% free cash flow growth."
"In the fourth quarter, we successfully grew both the size and quality of our customer base. New and existing customers responded to an increasingly differentiated product portfolio and competitively priced bundles by buying more, higher value products. This demand underpinned growth across all our product lines and record ARPU which, combined with stable churn, drove a 6% increase in consumer cable revenue and 55% free cash flow growth."
Demand for faster broadband services is also improving with 45% more homes on 20Mbps or higher than a year ago (560,300 total). Subscribers to Virgin's fastest ‘up to’ 50Mbps product rocketed by 81% compared with Q3 and now stands at 41,400. This is due in no small part to their significant 50Mbps price cuts (starts at just £28 per month for a truly unlimited service!), which took place last autumn.
It's also no surprise that Virgin Media has now officially announced its intention to launch a new 'up to' 100Mbps product. The cable giant is keen to stay ahead of its rivals, such as BT and other more niche providers, who are busily building and enabling faster fibre optic broadband networks of their own.
Neil Berkett, Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Media, said:
"There is nothing we can't do with our fibre optic cable network, and the upcoming launch of our flagship 100Mb service will give our customers the ultimate broadband experience. Just as we led the way by launching the UK's first ever next generation service, we want to keep giving our customers the very best broadband available, by investing in technological innovation and transforming the experience they have when they are online. The launch of Virgin Media's 100Mb service will be a historic moment and will mean the UK will be comparable to other leading broadband nations."
"There is nothing we can't do with our fibre optic cable network, and the upcoming launch of our flagship 100Mb service will give our customers the ultimate broadband experience. Just as we led the way by launching the UK's first ever next generation service, we want to keep giving our customers the very best broadband available, by investing in technological innovation and transforming the experience they have when they are online. The launch of Virgin Media's 100Mb service will be a historic moment and will mean the UK will be comparable to other leading broadband nations."
However Virgin Media is not merely content with stopping at 100Mbps and has also announced an expansion of its existing 200Mbps service trials, which is part of the groups longer term UK strategy. Trials of faster upstream speeds, including up to 20Mbps, are also underway as they prepare for increasing demand for faster broadband.
Regular readers may recall that Virgin Media first hinted at the prospect of launching a 200Mbps service by 2012 way back in 2008 (here). Official trials of its first 200Mbps product began a year later (here) in 2009. It's believed that 2012 is still Virgin Media's official target for a 200Mbps service.
The move is significant because 100Mbps is the point at which most experts consider a service to become truly part of the Next Generation Access (NGA) mould. It will also be of concern to BT, which would find it harder to promote headline FTTH / P speeds of 100Mbps. BT’s 100Mbps product will only be able to reach 2.5m people by 2012, while Virgin Media already covers half of the country with its cable service and their ability to deploy 100Mbps quickly should not be underestimated.
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Comments: 7
VMPosted: 25 February, 2010 - 8:22 PM
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Yeah rite, up to 100Mbps could be pricing at around £67 a month with standalone otherwise £57 is taking with a virgin phone. Upload probably 3Mbps
StarcomPosted: 26 February, 2010 - 3:04 AM
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Hard to judge pricing for a product almost a year away from launch. However, based on today's pricing, 100Mb is likely to be around £50 including phone line rental and within a year will probably be priced similar to 50Mb today. Virgin continually ups the speed (128Kb, 600Kb, 1Mb, 2Mb, 4Mb, 10Mb etc.) but prices rarely change so today's 10Mb, 20Mb and 50Mb for £12.50, £20 & £28 + phone will eventually become 20Mb, 50Mb & 100Mb for much the same price. By which time they'll be ready to launch 200Mb and it will start all over again, with 50Mb eventually becoming the basic package.
Virgin is already testing 10Mb upload on 50Mbp so I would expect to see 20Mb upload on 100Mb.
Virgin's analogue tv switch off is rapidly accelerating. The aim is to have closed the service in digital areas by April 2010 which will free up much needed capacity for faster broadband. Virgin will deploy channel
StarcomPosted: 26 February, 2010 - 3:08 AM
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Virgin's analogue tv switch off is rapidly accelerating. The aim is to have closed the service in digital areas by April 2010 which will free up much needed capacity for faster broadband. Docsis 3.0 upstream channel bonding is being tested and will be deployed later this year allowing for allowing for much faster upload speeds.
DMPosted: 26 February, 2010 - 6:50 PM
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speeds are nice but i wish they would increase the usage cap so i can actully download something when i want, without having to upgrade to a faster package
GremlinPosted: 8 March, 2010 - 7:33 PM
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would be lovely, but the cost will go through the roof. We always need a faster speed, im on O2 with 'up to 20mb' but realisticly you only get a juicy 0.2mb, great for downloading many GB a day
JMPosted: 9 March, 2010 - 9:47 PM
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This is a laugh, Virgin have optic cable part way then they use the standard cable the rest of the way, i am sick of installing cable to people, telling them yes sir your 50mb is now ok, only to know that in theory most will never see anything like 50mb more like 35-37mb if theyre lucky and that isnt continous speeds as it slows down and up`s all the time.
I am a virgin media employee and i get fed up of the press releases we give out, we cant get our 20/50mb sorted so god help us when it`s 100mb.
chunk1982Posted: 16 September, 2010 - 4:32 PM
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@jm
iv had 50Mb since the day it was ready and for 3 weeks ran flat out now i average 28-30mb
iv had tech after tech after tech and im fed up off it because they dont/cant do jack about it
im pi55ed that they only give 1.6Mb = 220kb/s upload with 50Mb when the usa average 12Mb down with 4Mb upload! i only want it so xbox live improves instead of trying to run with 6MB down and 220kb/s up i mean come on wtf virgin fix up
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