Virgin Media O2 Possibly Preps 2Gbps UK Broadband Speed for Coax Network

Over two years have passed since Virgin Media (O2) started making 2Gbps download speeds available via their full fibre (FTTP) network (here). Sadly that move left most customers on their older DOCSIS 3.1 powered Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network stuck with maximum speeds of 1Gbps (1,130Mbps), but this may soon change.

Regular readers may recall that Virgin Media has previously conducted successful trials of 2Gbps speeds on their coax (HFC) network, so we know it works. But until recently they hadn’t yet provided enough DOCSIS channels for this to be deployed commercially.

However, a number of VMO2’s broadband customers recently notified ISPreview that Virgin have – over the past couple of months or so – now deployed enough downstream channels to potentially support a speed boost from 1Gbps to 2Gbps. The ISP has had to wait until they’d finished rolling out the previous upstream boost before doing this.

At present, we don’t know when this speed will actually go live on their old coax network, and it’s also unclear if they’ll increase upload speeds at the same time to maintain their previously favoured 10:1 performance ratio (we’ve not yet seen any evidence to show that uploads will go beyond 104Mbps via coax). But officially VMO2’s position, when asked, is that they have “nothing to say on this at the moment“.

In the past Virgin Media has often speed boosted slower tiers at the same time as increasing their top download speeds, so that’s also a possibility. But historically Virgin Media’s PR team has preferred to keep their cards close to their chest on such announcements, so we’ll just have to wait and see what crops up over the next few months. But for now, if you want 2Gbps speeds (including symmetric) without switching ISP then you’ll need to be on their live XGS-PON based FTTP network, including via nexfibre.

At present around 9 million of the operator’s c.19 million UK homes serviceable can access their full fibre network, although not all of those are XGS-PON or 2Gbps ready lines. The reality is that most of their UK network is still HFC and that’s why any speed boost on coax is going to be more impactful to their wider customer base.