Virgin Media UK Boost Superfast 100Mbps Broadband Customers to 120Mbps

National UK cable operator Virgin Media has begun the final phase of their plan to double its customers broadband speeds by upgrading their existing 100Mbps (Megabits per second) subscribers to the slightly faster download rate of 120Mbps (12Mbps uploads).

Readers might recall that Virgin Media initially confused some customers with their original announcement, which left many wrongfully expecting to see a boost from 100Mbps to 200Mbps. This was never going to happen as Virgin had only just started the deployment of its 100Mbps product and thus 120Mbps was offered instead.

Jon James, Virgin Medias Executive Director of Broadband, said:

“Virgin Media has led the greatest developments in broadband in the UK over the last decade and our 120Mb service continues to ensure that our consumers across the country get the very best that today’s technology offers.”

The 18 month long project, which was first announced in March 2012 and is due for completion by the middle of 2013, has so far upgraded 40% of the provider’s network. But the prospect of a 200Mbps package is still very real and related trials are on-going, with the original plan being to launch by the end of 2012.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that 120Mbps is also roughly what the next upgrade to BT’s rival Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology might deliver in the not too distant future, while BT’s new FTTP-on-Demand product could make expensive speeds of up to 330Mbps available across its FTTC footprint (due Spring 2013). Virgin Media might well decide to wait until those services arrive before stealing some of their thunder with a 200Mbps package.

Meanwhile there’s still the question of what to do with all that speed (assuming there’s enough capacity to supply it)? Most online services simply can’t take advantage of such performance, although that will change as online networks and servers upgrade to output ever higher quality content.