50,000 Extra Premises in Northern Ireland to Get Virgin Media’s Network

Cable operator Virgin Media has announced that their ultrafast broadband and TV network is being expanded to reach a further 50,000 homes and businesses in Northern Ireland, with the roll-out already started in Ballykelly, Bangor, Limavady, Newtownards, Strabane and Artigarvan.

At present only 30% of premises in N.Ireland are covered by Virgin Media’s Hybrid Fibre Coax and FTTP based DOCSIS network, which is almost entirely focused on urban areas. The new deployment forms part of the operator’s on-going £3bn Project Lightning network expansion, which aims to add an additional 4 million premises by 2019 and extend coverage to around 60-65% of the UK (roughly 2 million of the expansion will use FTTP).

Tony Hanway, CEO of Virgin Media Ireland, said (Irish News):

“Families and businesses will be able to benefit from ultra-fast broadband 12 times faster than the average speed available today.

We stand ready to invest in Northern Ireland, without subsidy from Stormont, London or Brussels.

There’s a widespread acceptance now that without excellent broadband speeds, businesses struggle and may even leave.

We believe our technology is the best possibly available and will be a game-changer both in the home and business for Northern Ireland.”

We note Hanway’s not-so-subtle snipe at Openreach (BT) in the second sentence, which is perhaps a little unfair since Virgin only tend to focus on the easy low hanging fruit of urban areas, rather than the more economically challenging smaller towns and rural areas in the final third of the UK.

On the other hand an investment of £3bn is certainly nothing to sniff about and shows that major fixed line expansions are a very expensive business.