Virgin Media Name 30 More UK Communities for 300Mb Broadband Boost

Coax cable (DOCSIS) and fibre optic provider Virgin Media has today announced the next batch of 30 communities and villages from across England and Wales that will benefit from an upgrade to their FTTP ultrafast broadband (up to 300Mbps) and TV network, as voted for by residents of each area.

The latest additions were selected under Virgin’s “Supercharging Local Communities” initiative, which is designed to help promote the operator’s on-going £3bn Project Lighting network expansion to an additional 4 million premises (i.e. 60-65% coverage of the United Kingdom before the end of 2019) by encouraging people to vote for their communities to be upgraded (i.e. those showing the strongest demand are then selected).

So far Virgin Media has already revealed the top 10 communities where demand for their ultrafast broadband service was strongest (here), which was based on 7,000 votes collected between 29th February and 29th April 2016. A further 5,000 votes have now been cast and as a result the following 30 locations have been chosen for an upgrade, which should take place by Spring 2017.

Paul Buttery, COO of Virgin Media, said:

“By bringing fibre to the parishes and smaller communities, it shows that ultrafast broadband and top-notch TV isn’t just for big cities. We have been overwhelmed by the response from the local communities and as a result we have decided to speed up our network expansion plans, to connect the next 30 villages by spring 2017. But we won’t stop there – we urge more people to come forward and tell us where we should expand to next.”

The 30 Chosen Communities
1. Windlesham (Surrey)
2. Sutton Courtenay (Oxfordshire)
3. Balsall Common (West Midlands)
4. Chineham & Old Basing (Hampshire)
5. Oakley (Hampshire)
6. Farnham Common (Buckinghamshire)
7. Wargrave (Berkshire)
8. Lickey, Catshill, Marlbrook & Barnt Green (Worcestershire)
9. Cullingworth (West Yorkshire)
10. Shrivenham (Oxfordshire)
11. Baddesley Ensor (Warwickshire)
12. Harden (West Yorkshire)
13. Broughton Astley (Leicestershire)
14. Grimethorpe (South Yorkshire)
15. Wigginton & Haxby (North Yorkshire)
16. Copmanthorpe (North Yorkshire)
17. Grassmoor (Derbyshire)
18. Pontyclun (Rhondda)
19. Darfield (South Yorkshire)
20. Talke & Talke Pits (Staffordshire)
21. Cudworth (South Yorkshire)
22. Duffield (Derbyshire)
23. Shafton (South Yorkshire)
24. Denham (Buckinghamshire)
25. Llanharry (Rhondda)
26. Marcham (Oxfordshire)
27. North Leigh (Oxfordshire)
28. Repton (Derbyshire)
29. North Cornelly (Bridgend)
30. Watchfield (Oxfordshire)

As before Virgin Media intends to reach each community by using a Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network, which will also harness Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) so as to ensure compatibility with their hybrid-fibre DOCSIS coaxial and fibre optic network. This form part of the operator’s wider 1 million+ FTTP premises pledge, which represents a quarter of the overall +4 million premises network expansion (i.e. a total network coverage target of 17 million UK homes and businesses).