Virgin Media O2 Adds 67,000 More Premises to UK FTTP Cover
Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today published their latest joint (merged) results for Q3 2021, which reveals that their full fibre (FTTP) network rollout reached another 67,000 UK premises in the quarter (down from 89K in Q2) and their total fixed broadband customer based hit 5,536,400 (up by +42.3K in Q3 vs +35.7K in Q2).
The main developments since the previous results include VMO2’s plan to create 400 new jobs (here). On top of that their gigabit-capable DOCSIS 3.1 network upgrade has now reached 12.8 million UK premises (here) and they’re also close to launching a new IPTV streaming product (here). In addition, we noted that VMO2 were still in talks with Sky Broadband, TalkTalk and Vodafone about the launch of a new wholesale platform (here and here).
Elsewhere, Ofcom found that Virgin Media had attracted the most complaints for their fixed broadband, pay TV and phone services during Q1 2021 (here) and we reported that their HUB 3.0 router was still suffering from a long-running security issue that could be used to “silently unmask” the real IP addresses of VPN users (here).
Since then, the operator has also launched their new HUB 5 router (here), conducted a third trial of 2.2Gbps download speeds (here), introduced special “VOLT” benefits for joint O2 and Virgin Media customers (here) and secured a full fibre contract with the West Berkshire Council (here).
Quarterly UK Customer (Connection) Figures – Q3 2021
5,536,400 Fixed Broadband – (up from 5,494,100 in Q2)
41,638,200 Mobile inc. Wholesale – (up from 40,952,500)
We note that O2’s 5G network is now live across 210 UK towns and cities, with an ambition to reach 50% of the UK population in 2023. Sadly, VMO2 no longer gives out the full figures for their Pay TV and telephone services, so we can’t compare quarterly change for those (this perhaps indicates a future direction of travel to side-line those products). Otherwise, we’ve posted our usual summary of their Project Lighting network expansion, which has so far reached an additional 2.6 million premises since it began some years ago (c.1.3 million via FTTP and the rest as HFC – Hybrid Fibre Coax).
In case anybody has forgotten, VMO2 are currently upgrading their HFC and FTTP broadband network with DOCSIS 3.1 technology, which will give all of their customers access to gigabit broadband speeds by the end of 2021. The operator has also committed to completely upgrading their existing HFC network – some 14.3 million premises – with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) technology by the end of 2028 (here).
Project Lightning Rollout Since 2017
Q3 2021 = 67,000 Premises
Q2 2021 = 89,000 Premises
Q1 2021 = 80,000 Premises (impacted by COVID-19 lockdown)
Q4 2020 = 115,000 Premises (some impact from COVID-19)
Q3 2020 = 125,000 Premises
Q2 2020 = 93,000 Premises (impacted by COVID-19 lockdown)
Q1 2020 = 93,000 Premises (some impact from COVID-19)
Q4 2019 = 154,000 Premises
Q3 2019 = 119,000 Premises
Q2 2019 = 130,000 Premises
Q1 2019 = 102,000 Premises
Q4 2018 = 144,000 Premises
Q3 2018 = 109,000 Premises
Q2 2018 = 118,000 Premises
Q1 2018 = 111,000 Premises (likely impacted by heavy snow)
Q4 2017 = 159,000 Premises
Q3 2017 = 147,000 Premises
Q2 2017 = 127,000 Premises
Q1 2017 = 102,000 PremisesNOTE: Virgin’s UK network now covers a total of 15,546,300 UK homes passed.
We should add that VMO2 has previously spoken of an ambition to invest £10bn over the next 5 years to upgrade to 5G mobile and expand their FTTP broadband coverage to a further 7-8 million homes (e.g. rural or semi-rural areas). Sadly, today’s announcement doesn’t provide any update on that, but they are still “actively exploring further expansion opportunities to reach millions more premises, with discussions ongoing with strategic and financial partners.”
Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2, said:
“We are firing on all cylinders as a new company, just 150 days old. We have real commercial momentum with the launch of new converged bundles, sustained network rollout and subscriber gains across fixed and mobile. We remain firmly on-track to achieve our synergy target by mid-2026.
“We’ve driven a return to top line growth in Q3, while investing in connectivity, customer service and digital programmes for strong performance over the long term. With the core foundations already in place, we are fired up and focused on our mission to upgrade the UK.”
On the financial front, VMO2 reported total quarterly revenue of £2,594m (up from £2,542.6m in the previous quarter). Meanwhile, the average speed across the company’s broadband base was 202Mbps at the end of Q3. Otherwise, it looks like the wait for VM to launch a wholesale solution goes on, as does the wait for any news on their proposed FTTP expansion to cover millions of new premises.
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 and Linkedin.
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The 202Mbps average donload speed figure is interesting (I assume it’s mean rather than median).
It gives an indication of the speed most customers are currently willing to pay for as many areas were Gigabit enabled by Q3.
It shows that sheep are willing to pay over the odds for 1 measly gig not worth it .£62 a month for 1 gig no thanks .
Their money, their decision on how they spend it. The vanity tier is always going to have a few takers much as high end anything does.
That’s a real reduction in growth for VM, considering they’re now using PIA too, I can’t think of a reason why?
Pre-merger, they promised to add 1m premises within 12 months of the merger closing. They need to speed up, not slow down, to achieve that.
The UK’s competition authority should be holding them to account if they fail to meet this target.
Virgin’s PIA use is varying. Most areas they don’t use it but there are some areas where running a new duct would be very expensive and difficult. One example I heard was connecting a housing estate to a virgin euct which ran along the main road. Easy apart from the road connecting them had railway line and would be very difficult to work on so they used PIA for these couple hundred metres at max with the rest using all VM ducts.
VM are treating PIA as an additional tool in the network designers toolbox rather than completely using Openreach ducts.
VM keep having small works on my towns bypass – given we have no FTTP and poor 4g what is the chance project lightening will bring them into our town? (Its quite near a secondary school where they are working – could it just be a connection for the school – Do VM do that?).
Ever hopeful as always… (even VM would be welcomed)
Virgin Media do do business Internet access, under various brands, notably Voom at the small business end, but also leased line deals.
Thanks GreenReaper. It would make sense as there is a business there as well as the school.
BT have reported that FTTP costs are comming in lower than expected and demand is higher then expected
I was promised 100 Mbps but never got it from VM . Get 22 instead, so slow and I have FTTP. Very disappointed
You should be able to cancel then contract then as per below.
>The minimum download speed to your Virgin Media router should not fall below 54 Mbps.
>If you are within your minimum term, you may have the right to exit your Virgin Media >contract without penalty if your broadband speed falls below the minimum download >speed for three consecutive days or more, and we are unable to fix the problem within >30 days of your reporting the problem to Virgin Media.