Virgin Media Details UK Fibre Capacity Deal to Boost 4G Mobile from O2

Virgin Media Business has today released more information about its “significant” ten-year deal with O2 (Telefonica UK) for the provision of new backhaul network capacity to 1,500 sites, which is intended to help “supercharge data speeds” and support the operators imminent launch of 4G based mobile broadband services.

The deal itself was first confirmed in April 2013 (here) but at the time no further information was released about how extensive it would be. Apparently each one of the Ethernet “high speed links“, between cell sites and their aggregation network, will use fibre optic cables to deliver speeds of 1Gbps (Gigabit per second).

George Wareing, VMB’s Director of Mobile and Broadcast, said:

“Backhauling data is absolutely critical to ensuring that mobile operators are able to provide customers with fast and reliable data services. Over the last two years we’ve secured mobile backhaul contracts with all four of the UK’s major mobile network operators.

It’s a sign that the backhaul market is moving extremely quickly and thanks to the speed and resilience of our fibre network, we’ve been able to make the most of that opportunity. By working closely in partnership with mobile operators we’ve been able to develop and deploy innovative and unique technologies that enable Sync–E as standard.

This approach means we’re able to arm their networks with the extra capacity needed to make sure that customers don’t experience slow speeds because of data bottlenecks, and that they’re prepared for the future of 4G services and beyond.”

Readers might recall that O2 has also recently signed a similar ten-year deal with BTWholesale (here).