Virgin Media’s Ultrafast Broadband to Cover 53,000 Extra Premises in Lancashire

Finally, there’s a bit of good news for Virgin Media this week. The UK cable broadband and TV operator has today announced that their £3bn Project Lightning network expansion is set to cover an additional 53,000 premises in the county of Lancashire (England).

The whole of the deployment in Lancashire is due to be completed before the end of 2018. Apparently the first street works have already begun in the large town of Morecambe, where up to 14,000 extra homes and businesses are expected to be reached.

Paul Hutchinson, VM’s Regional Director for the North West, said:

“We’re delighted to be expanding our network to tens of thousands more homes and businesses to help to make Lancashire a world class digital hotspot. Local residents and businesses will soon be getting the high-speed connectivity they deserve. We urge more people to come together and register their interest – your street could be next.”

Councillor Roger Mace, Mayor of Lancaster, added:

“The pending arrival of ultrafast broadband is another real boost for residents and businesses in Morecambe, coming soon after the boost to physical connectivity for the Heysham and Morecambe peninsula from the recent opening of the Bay Gateway, linking the area to Junction 34 of the M6.”

Overall Virgin Media currently still aims to reach 17 million premises by 2019 (i.e. an extra 4 million premises – half of which will be delivered via “full fibre” FTTP lines), which should boost their coverage of the United Kingdom to around 60-65%.