By: MarkJ - 23 June, 2010 (12:48 PM) - Score: 10023 - Fixed Line Broadband

Cable giant Virgin Media UK already plans to launch a 100Mbps broadband service towards the end of this year, is currently trialling a 200Mbps package (details) for the future (2012 is a good bet, assuming enough demand) and has today revealed that it could even offer a 400Mbps product via its DOCSIS3 technology! Trials of 20Mbps upstream speeds are also underway.


Virgin Media could indeed achieve a speed of up to 400Mbps over its mix of coax and fibre optic cable (EuroDOCSIS3), although it would require them to bond all 8 channels to do so. Going even faster than 400Mbps might impede their cable TV service or could attract significantly higher costs.

Separately Virgin Media has already revealed some tantalising new details about plans to expand the reach of their cable network, which currently covers about 12-13 Million homes and businesses. It claims that up to 1 Million new homes in areas where BT refuses to upgrade its own network could be reached without subsidy.

Virgin Media are in talks with power companies to access their street-side electricity poles, which could also be used to deliver fibre optic cables for broadband internet, television and phone services directly into people's homes.


We note that BT has similar plans, albeit using their own existing telegraph poles. In addition all operators, telco and utility alike, could soon be forced to open up access into their cable ducts by the government.

BT's forthcoming Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology, like most FTTH deployments, can also offer download speeds of up to 1000Mbps (1Gbps). The Fibrecity project in Bournemouth already offers download "boosts" at this rate, which Virgin Media would find hard to match.

It is not yet economically viable to offer a sustained rate of 1Gbps to consumers and that will not change for a good few years. Likewise there is little need or demand for a 400Mbps service yet and even the benefits of 200Mbps for ordinary end-users are hard to grasp. Never the less the internet continues to evolve and such a time will come.