Virgin Media Bringing 300Mb Broadband to Underserved Business Parks

Cable operator Virgin Media Business has announced that their on-going £3bn Project Lighting network expansion will aim to connect “tens of thousands” more businesses to their ultrafast 300Mbps broadband platform, starting with 9,500 premises at two business parks in Andover, Hampshire.

At present the expansion project seeks to extend Virgin’s hybrid-fibre DOCSIS based broadband network to reach an additional 4 million premises by 2019 (i.e. 60-65% of the United Kingdom) and more than 1 million of those will also be catered for via pure fibre optic FTTP lines.

So far most of this work has focused on residential premises via Virgin Media, but Virgin has also promised to target “underserved business parks and office blocks” that exist within easy reach of its existing network. As a result some 9,500 businesses will, over the next 6 months, be covered on two of Andover’s key business parks (Portway and Walworth). Many more will follow.

Mike Smith, Director at VMB, said:

“Too many business parks and office blocks are stuck in the analogue age and business tenants are suffering as a result. With our ultrafast network we can make a big impact to thousands of businesses across the country.”

Apparently the initial roll-out has won support from the Test Valley Borough Council, as well as local businesses, which had “typically accessed download speeds of just 5Mbps.” VMB is currently home to more than 36,000 business customers, most of them small and medium enterprises, and they’re clearly looking to grow that side of their operations.