Virgin Media UK Pauses Cable Network Rollout in Great Yarmouth

Cable operator Virgin Media appears to have paused their Project Lighting network expansion of ultrafast broadband and TV services in the Norfolk seaside town of Great Yarmouth, which had originally been due to reach 5,000 homes and businesses before the end of 2019.

The deployment itself was announced last summer (here) but has now been stopped due to unspecified “issues.” At this stage we don’t have any information about the situation, although we do know that the operator appears to have recently become more cautious about their deployment strategy; especially when considering more challenging areas (example).

In some other parts of the UK (e.g. bits of Leeds and possibly also Swindon) the operator is also known to have run into some familiar issues with unadopted roads (i.e. private roads, rather than those maintained by a public authority) and getting access to complete their network. Such problems are not unique to Virgin Media.

A Spokesman for Virgin Media said (EDP24):

“Since we started our build in Great Yarmouth, we have encountered issues which is why we have paused our plans for the area.

We’ll be meeting with the county council soon to discuss potential ways in which we can work together to expand our ultrafast broadband network in Great Yarmouth as quickly as possible.”

We’d welcome any input from locals who might have a better idea of what the aforementioned “issues” are in Great Yarmouth. At least one local has told us that they saw engineers working in the area up until early last week but have not seen them since, although that was feedback from only one part of the town.