Virgin Media Extend Network to 6000 Premises in South Lanarkshire

Cable ISP Virgin Media UK has today announced that 6,000 premises in Carluke (South Lanarkshire, Scotland) will be next in line to gain access to ultrafast broadband speeds of 362Mbps and premium TV services, which stems from their on-going £3bn Project Lightning network expansion.

The work, which has already completed for several homes, follows the announcement of a similar roll-out to 9,000 homes and businesses in the small town of Stepps (North Lanarkshire) last month (here). Overall Virgin Media expects to reach a total of around 360,000 extra premises across Scotland by the end of 2019 (here), although doubts have recently been cast over whether or not they’ll achieve that on time (here).

Completion of the latest extension in Carluke is currently still expected by the end of 2019.

John Anderson, South Lanarkshire Councillor, said:

“We welcome Virgin Media’s continued investment into South Lanarkshire which will give residents in Carluke access to the benefits of ultrafast broadband, as well as more choice. This private investment fits perfectly into the Council’s Economic Strategy and the improvement of Digital Connectivity and we are working closely with Virgin Media 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 typically informed at least one week in advance of any work taking place. A Local Community Liaison Officer will also be available to discuss any concerns and some local meetings are also likely to be held “in the near future“.

As usual Virgin haven’t said if any of the local deployment will involve their Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) based “full fibre” style FTTP platform or their more traditional Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network. Both are designed to work with DOCSIS technology.