The Country Land and Business Association (CLA), a lobby group for owners of land and property across England and Wales, has accused Virgin Media of being "unfair to rural homes and businesses" after it recently announced plans to double their superfast broadband speeds (here) for 13 million UK homes.


In fairness Virgin Media has always been a closed commercial firm and one that covers approximately half of the country, it's also not a part of the government's Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) process (although they do have a stake in Fujitsu's shaky plan for an open rural FTTH network).

On the other hand it would be good to see a greater level of engagement by Virgin Media, which many view as being an operator that has the economic power and physical ability to push well beyond their existing network footprint. Some attempts have been made alongside Fujitsu but lately progress has been going in the wrong direction (example).