Virgin Media UK Spend £150m to Add 220000 Premises in Scotland

Cable ISP Virgin Media has issued an update on the Project Lightning expansion of their ultrafast broadband and TV network in Scotland, which has so far seen them invest an extra £150m to reach a further 220,000 premises since 2016. We assume they’re still headed toward the 360,000 target set a few years ago.

Overall the operator’s DOCSIS based hybrid fibre coax and “full fibre” (FTTP) network is now understood to cover well over 1 million homes and businesses across Scotland, although they haven’t clarified how long it will now take them to reach 360,000 but at the current pace we think they could still hit it by the original end of 2020 target.

Scotland will of course benefit from Virgin Media’s on-going DOCSIS 3.1 upgrade, which will make Gigabit speeds available right across their UK network (currently 15 million premises and rising) by 2021.

Colin Brown, Virgin Media’s Build Director for Scotland, said:

“For most of us the internet is a staple of modern-day life, so what we’re doing here – providing good quality and ultrafast connectivity – is extremely important for so many Scottish people.”

We work that out at around £682 per premises passed and that’s in keeping with their last cumulative cost per premises figure – given earlier this year – which was stated as c.£690 (just the build costs would be £660); hitting 30-35% penetration after 3 years.

The aforementioned progress was revealed as part of a digital connectivity workshop – hosted by Virgin Media – to discuss key policy issues, agree a strategy for continuing successful collaboration and outline its future expansion plans.

Items also discussed during the event included “piloting new wayleave approaches which would make it easier for Virgin Media to connect more premises to its network; potential planning policy changes to ensure gigabit-ready connectivity is built into new housing developments; the changing role of the Road Works Commissioner under the Transport Act; and the sharing of best practice on road works which would help minimise disruption caused to local residents.”