Virgin Media Business UK Secure Berkshire Full Fibre Contract
UK ISP Virgin Media Business (VMO2) has secured a major new state aid supported contract from the West Berkshire Council (WBC) in England, which will see them deploy a new “full fibre” broadband and Ethernet network to connect more than 80 public sites (schools, GPs and public libraries etc.) by March 2022.
The project, which is being run by the Berkshire Digital Infrastructure Group (DIG) – reflecting six Local Authorities – and funded by £1.7m from the Thames Valley Berkshire LEP through the Government’s £900m Getting Building Fund, may ultimately act as an anchor tenant to help faster connectivity reach more local businesses and homes.
But initially the aim is to put speeds of more than 1000Mbps within reach of 26,000 school pupils in the region. Communities living near the upgraded schools, such as GP surgeries and libraries, will also have their infrastructure boosted thanks to the contract.
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Alison Webster, Chief Executive of Thames Valley Berkshire LEP, said:
“The pandemic has demonstrated that schools and communities need to be equipped with the latest technology; it’s not a nice to have but is vital to our prosperity. The rollout of full fibre will not only keep our communities connected during times like this but also future-proof Berkshire’s economy ensuring out capacity to attract and retain cutting edge businesses from across the Digital sector to Life Sciences and the emerging Film and TV production sector clusters. We’re delighted be playing a leading role alongside our partners in connecting Berkshire which has never felt as important as it does right now.”
The first 15 sites are due to be connected from January 2022.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I’m sure the schools and GP’s will enjoy their 50Mbps upload shared within their entire facility.
Onedrive and portals are heavily used within schools now to upload materials and work.
Virgin Media supply symmetric business leased lines too, separate from their legacy cable TV network.
£1.7m for 80 sites: even over a 5-year contract that’s £350 per month per site.
If this is all to be delivered by March 2022 it suggests it’s all pretty close to their existing network footprint, so there’s minimal “anchor tenant” benefit to the community.
VM’s master headend is in Langley and VM has a substantial network in Berkshire, so I don’t see a big problem in doing this project.