Virgin Media UK Looks to Expand Broadband Network in Scotland

Cable ISP Virgin Media has today announced that they have “plans to connect more homes” to their 516Mbps capable ultrafast broadband and TV network in Scotland, provided the Scottish Government and local authorities are able to support them. Sadly they haven’t said how much further they’d go.

So far the DOCSIS based hybrid fibre coax and “full fibre” (FTTP) using provider has already extended their network to cover more than 1 million homes and businesses across Scotland and they’ve today “committed to further expansion over the coming years.”

We know from Virgin Media’s past announcements that their £3bn Project Lightning work originally aimed to reach an additional 360,000 premises in Scotland by around the end of 2020 (here). Similarly in March 2018 we were told that they had already completed around 100,000 premises of that deployment (here), which still leaves a sizeable gap to fill.

Meanwhile the Scottish Government has made a commitment, as part of its delayed Reaching 100 (R100) programme, to connect every premise in Scotland to broadband speeds in excess of 30Mbps. However this will be difficult as a lot of the country’s remaining rural communities are sparse, small and there’s often a fair bit of rugged terrain between them. As such Virgin has identified the following issues.

Virgin Media’s Key Asks

· Local Authorities to ensure that all new housing developers consult more than one provider to maximise fibre rollout and provide choice for homeowners.

· Westminster and Scottish Government to make it easier for broadband providers to secure wayleave access for multi-dwelling units (MDUs).

· Scottish Government to work closely with Virgin Media to ensure that its investment and rollout complements R100.

A lot of these should be supported by the changes that have been proposed as part of the UK’s Future Telecoms Infrastructure Review (FTIR) and no doubt Scotland’s recent move to adopt a 10 year business rates holiday on new fibre deployments will also be very welcome (Virgin called for this last year). Otherwise it’s difficult to know, from the vague statements above, all of what they might be seeking.

Paul Wheelhouse MSP, Scottish Minister for Energy and Connectivity, said:

“The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that every household and business in Scotland has access to superfast broadband at speeds of 30 Megabits per second or better, and this is a commitment that has been backed up by a £600 million investment in the Reaching 100 percent Programme, or R100, with £579 million of this funding coming from the Scottish Government.

Investment from commercial suppliers is also critical to achieving our target which is why I am delighted to see Virgin Media extend the reach of its network. Our approach will build on our previous investment, which has seen more than 95% of premises across Scotland now able to access fibre broadband.”

Colin Brown, VM Director of Build for Scotland, said:

“As part of our ultrafast broadband expansion in Scotland, Virgin Media has invested millions of pounds to help bring better and faster connectivity to more homes and businesses. Working in partnership with the Scottish Government, we want to reach new areas in Scotland so they too can enjoy the benefits our network can bring.”

Sadly what today’s announcement doesn’t tell us is arguably the most important piece of information to know; what does “connect more homes” actually mean? Do they mean connect more than the 360,000 premises already promised or is this merely about helping to reach the existing target? We have asked their media team but so far no response has been received (in the case of a non-reply we’d assume the latter).

UPDATE 1:01pm

Virgin has responded to clarify that this is just reaffirming their commitment to Scotland by connecting more premises as part of Project Lightning and their “wider plans beyond that.”