Virgin Media UK Extends 1Gbps Broadband Upgrade to Reading

As predicted cable and full fibre ISP Virgin Media has today announced that the third urban UK location to benefit from their new 1Gbps broadband speed upgrade is the town of Reading and surrounding areas, which follows close behind Greater Manchester and Southampton. The service formally goes live tomorrow.

At present nearly all of Virgin Media’s customers can already access ultrafast speeds of 500Mbps via their existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) and Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network using EuroDOCSIS 3.0 technology, while the boost to 1104Mbps (52Mbps upload) via their new Gig1Fibre package is all thanks to the DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade.

Under the plan VM expects to cover 1 million UK premises with this by the end of 2019 and then the rest of their network (currently 15 million premises) by 2021. Today’s news means that nearly a quarter of a million homes across Berkshire, Hampshire and Buckinghamshire will, at this moment in time, be able to benefit from gigabit broadband and rising.

Reading is a big area and a major hub site for the cable operator (not unlike Aztec West and Newton Abbot in the future), which actually means that this upgrade covers a significantly larger area than you might think. The parts of Reading and surrounding areas set to benefit include the Calcot, Caversham, Earley, Tilehurst and Woodley areas of the city, and surrounding villages including Pangbourne, Twyford, Shinfield and Theale.

Other nearby towns including Newbury, Bracknell, Wokingham, Thatcham, Basingstoke and High Wycombe will also benefit from today’s announcement.

Jeff Dodds, COO of Virgin Media, said:

“This is a next-generation broadband boost for the residents of Reading.

These hyperfast speeds are 25 times faster than Reading’s average broadband connection, meaning that households can do everything they want to do online, at the same time, without delay and are well set for whatever comes next.

This is just one of many investments we’re making in Reading – with our brand new state-of-the-art office set to open next month. We’re committed to making the UK faster and will continue to roll out next-generation Gig1 broadband across our entire network over the next 24 months – a speed and scale unmatched by anyone else.”

Customers who take out the new Gig1Fibre package will be sent a new HUB 4.0 (TG3492LG-VMB / Gigabit Connect Box) router and you can see the specification for that at the bottom of this article from September 2019. You cannot get faster than their 500Mbps tier without the HUB 4.0 because the existing Hub 3.0 doesn’t support DOCSIS 3.1.

Prices start from £62 per month for their standalone broadband service or £67 when bundled with phone (18 month term), with a guaranteed price freeze for at least 24 months. The rollout pace for their DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade is now likely to become increasingly rapid as we progress into and through 2020 toward completion.

Ellie Emberson, Reading Borough Council, said:

“Reading is already a major economic player in both the region and in the UK. The introduction of this level of broadband connectivity and speed is yet another major vote of confidence in Reading.

Developing technology is offering individuals, businesses and organisations new ways of working and new job and career opportunities. Outside of the workplace, there is the potential to make a real difference to lives, through things like access to care or information, which will lead to major benefits for people across the town.”

On top of this the cable operator will next month open a brand new headquarters in the city’s Green Park Business Park which will be home to approximately 1,300 staff. Virgin Media now intends to announce which further cities are set to benefit from its Gig1 service in 2020.

The operator, through its Project Lightning programme, is also continuing to expand their network to more homes and businesses across the UK. Almost 2 million extra UK premises have been passed since the project began in 2016 (the original goal was 4 million with half on FTTP) and the rollout is on-going, seemingly for the next few years.