Virgin Media Business Wholesale Upgrades Core UK Network

Broadband ISP Virgin Media Business (Wholesale) are rolling out an upgrade to their core UK National High Capacity Services (NHCS) network, which among other things will make their more affordable 10Gbps optical point-to-point data connections available to more businesses across the country.

At present, VMBW already operates a national layer-1 optical platform, which has historically served all NHCS services. The new NHCS core network, which is based on dedicated switched Ethernet technology and Ciena‘s kit / software, provides an alternative way of provisioning their services, whilst retaining key attributes of the existing NHCS service.

The existing NHCS services operate at 300+ UK sites, providing connectivity to 150+ data centres. But the first 14 sites for the new core network are already live across the UK, including at four data centres: Equinix MA1 (Manchester), Equinix LD5 (Slough), Interxion Sovereign House (London) and Telehouse East (London). Hundreds more sites will be rolled out throughout 2023 and into 2024.

The rollout also includes expansion into more data centre locations across the breadth of the UK – including brand new diverse fibre routes and network platforms at Equinix’s new flagship site, Manchester MA5 (expected to go live early 2023).

Diego Tedesco, Wholesale Fixed Director at VMO2 Business, said:

“The launch of our new National High Capacity Services core network is set to provide our partners with quicker and simpler provisioning to help improve their customer experience. I’m very excited to bring this enhanced capability to our partners. It’s a major milestone in our Project Spark investment programme, and now the first sites are live we’re focusing on rolling out our 10Gbps portfolio to many more locations, delivered faster and through greater automation.

And this new core platform is just the start. We have many more exciting projects expected to launch later this year and into 2023, including Metro 10Gbps access network upgrades. All of which adds up to a huge overhaul of our network capabilities – so our valued wholesale partners benefit from 10Gbps at even more locations and a simple, speedy and accurate one-touch provisioning process end-to-end.”

The launch represents the latest phase of Project Spark, which is VMBW’s multi-million-pound investment in their 10Gbps+ portfolio. But the original announcement for this stated that, by the end of 2022, they would have “expanded our 10Gbps portfolio to 167 PoP’s across the UK, bringing the 10Gbps revolution to more UK businesses.”