Virgin Media Deploying to 11500 Premises in Rothwell, Leeds UK

Cable operator Virgin Media has announced that their 350Mbps ultrafast broadband and TV network is being extended to cover 11,500 premises in the Rothwell part of Leeds via their £3bn investment under ‘Project Lightning‘, which should complete by the end of 2019.

At this point we’ve had to ask the operator (currently awaiting a reply) whether or not this is another piecemeal re-announcement of some sort, not least because they’ve already revealed that 80,000 premises in Leeds (West Yorkshire, England) would benefit from their deployment; albeit all the way back in July 2015 (here).

Back then the operator hinted that its work would cost about £40m and the first to benefit were approximately 11,000 premises in the mostly residential suburb of Middleton, which we know is a deployment that did take place and one that probably cost a bit more than they forecast (judging by some of the delays and complications that we’ve seen over the past 2-3 years).

Hugh Woolford, Regional Director at Virgin Media, said:

“Time-strapped families and small businesses across Rothwell will soon be benefiting from our brilliant broadband service. Giving them greater speeds will enable them to do the things they need to do and love doing more quickly and more easily.”

Overall the network extension aims to reach an additional 4 million premises across the UK by around the end of 2019 or 2020, which should extend their overall coverage to roughly 60%+ of the country (a total of 17 million premises); but so far they’re a bit behind schedule and have only completed c.1 million premises. We’d very much welcome a full rollout plan for the UK, as opposed to being fed small bite sized chunks of info.