Cable ISP Virgin Media UK has today announced that 9,000 homes and businesses in the small town of Stepps (North Lanarkshire, Scotland) will be the next to gain access to their 350Mbps capable ultrafast broadband and TV network, which forms part of their on-going £3bn Project Lightning deployment.
So far Project Lightning has reached more than 120,000 additional premises across Scotland since 2016 (overall total of more than 1 million premises passed) and they expect to cover a total of around 360,000 by the end of 2019 (here), when both the wider UK network extension programme and the roll-out in Stepps is due to complete.
We should point out that Project Lightning as a whole aims to build out to an additional 4 million UK premises by around the end of 2019 (roughly 60%+ coverage), which will result in Virgin Media’s network reaching a total of 17 million premises (i.e. new and existing deployments).
Cllr Kenneth Duffy, Infrastructure Committee at North Lanarkshire Council, said:
“We strongly welcome Virgin Media’s continued investment into North Lanarkshire which will give residents in Stepps access to the benefits of ultrafast broadband, as well as more choice. This private investment fits perfectly into the Council’s ambitions to become a digital pioneer and we are working closely with Virgin Media, who are a major employer in North Lanarkshire, to ensure disruption to residents is kept to a minimum.”
The operator tends to use narrow trenching (where possible) in order to minimise disruption and locals are usually informed about the work at least one week in advance, although some have previously complained that they needed more notice. A Local Community Liaison Officer will also be available to discuss any concerns.
Where does the money for Project Lightning come from?
I wish BT had adopted microtrenching. As the biggest provider they seem to be having a lot of trouble rolling out newer and faster connectivity.
Private investment and funding support by the Government’s sovereign-backed £40bn UK Guarantees Scheme.
The government shouldn’t be giving any money to virgin as they cap the upload at 20Mbps even on their FTTP lines.
The government are not “giving” money to anyone. As for uploads being capped BT and their Infinity 3 and 4 packages also have the upload capped.
Ironically its only the altnets that seem to offer packages to regular home users with no capped uploads.
@FullFibre. The UK Guarantees Scheme for infrastructure projects, which is also used by Openreach, is not the same as public funding / state aid:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-guarantees-scheme
@MJ, ah ok, thanks.
@un4h731x0rp3r0m, never said it wasn’t and it’s still higher than Virgin.
Erm NO check again Infinity 3 and 4 FTTP is capped at 20Mbps upload, like Virgin.
Anyone know if they’ve done everything they wanted in Kent? From what I’m seeing Canterbury hasn’t been touched at all.
I’m in Stepps, And it’s already live, and full FTTP and 380Mbp in speed tests.
Also go the modem firmware fix through to deal with the puma 6 cable modem issue and gaming is preforming well.
So far so good.
I get 390 😉 x
I live in Glasgow, 15 minutes from the city centre and we don’t even have VM here
Glasgow voted for Independence. The British government is punishing them.
Jokes aside. That’s awful. I was an ardent Virgin-hater until I had to have their service due to BT being awful in my area.
Are there areas close by that have it?
I’ve noticed newer estates don’t seem to have it installed in spite of them being built before Virgin started cabling an area.