Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: DOCSIS 3.1 (396 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - DOCSIS 3.1

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK Boost Contract Buyout to £300 for Switching

30th July, 2026 (8 Comments)

New customers looking to switch to broadband, phone and TV provider Virgin Media (O2) may like to know that they’ll today increase the value of their Contract Buyout (i.e. Switching Credits), which is now worth up to £300 (previously £250) on their top packages – at least for a limited time.

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Virgin Media O2 Preps 2Gbps UK Broadband Speed for Coax Network UPDATE2

28th July, 2026 (36 Comments)

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.

Virgin Media O2 UK Suffers Broadband Customer Decline as FTTP Footprint Hits 9M Premises

24th July, 2026 (14 Comments)

The latest Q2 2026 results from network operators Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today reported a fall in consumer broadband customers of -28,200 to total 5,417,900 (vs -5.3k in Q1), while their mobile base declined slightly to total 46.428m (down from 46.44m) and outdoor 5G+ (5GSA) population coverage remains at 86%.

Virgin Media UK Discount 1130Mbps Home Broadband to £26.99

14th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

New customers looking to join broadband ISP Virgin Media (O2) should note that the ISP has introduced a big discount on their 1,130Mbps download (104Mbps upload) package, which has been reduced to just £26.99 per month (affiliate link) on a 24-month minimum term (price increases to £30.99 from April 2027 and £34.99 from April 2028).

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Gigabit Broadband Coverage Reaches 91 Percent of the UK in H1 2026

7th July, 2026 (10 Comments)

We’ve today published our biannual summary of fixed broadband coverage for the first half (H1) of 2026, which reveals that “full fibre” (FTTP) ISP networks have grown to reach 85.05% of UK premises (up from 81.89% in H2 2025) and 91% are within reach of “gigabit” 1000Mbps+ speeds (up from 89.6%). Read on to see details for England, Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland.

Broadband and Mobile Networks Strained by UK Heatwave – No Major Blackouts Expected

24th June, 2026 (6 Comments)

A few years have passed since we had a national heatwave that, across a large swathe of the country, pushed daytime temperatures to around the 40c level. Today and tomorrow will see similar temperatures and that’s going to cause some broadband and mobile infrastructure to struggle, albeit almost certainly without major national blackouts.

Switchity UK Full Fibre Map of Ofcom's Jan 2026 Data

Switchity Maps Ofcom’s Spring 2026 UK Full Fibre Broadband Coverage Data

17th June, 2026 (5 Comments)

Comparison service Switchity has taken Ofcom’s recently released Spring 2026 Connected Nations data report (our summary) and turned it into a simple but useful map of full fibre (FTTP) broadband coverage across the United Kingdom, including devolved constituencies (781 seats) and all 361 local authorities.

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Ofcom Predict 95 Percent of UK Covered by Gigabit Broadband by Jan 2029

13th May, 2026 (7 Comments)

The telecoms regulator has today published the fifth edition of their forecast for Planned Network Deployments, which has again revised down its prediction of future UK broadband coverage after many network operators slowed their rollouts. The report predicts that full fibre (FTTP) lines will reach up to 92% of homes by January 2029 – rising up to 95% for gigabit-capable networks (i.e. FTTP and Cable).

Virgin Media O2 UK Sees Record Broadband Traffic Spike from Footy Streaming

7th May, 2026 (5 Comments)

Internet provider Virgin Media (O2) has reported that their fixed broadband network just recorded the “biggest broadband traffic spike in its history“, which occurred after customers streaming the ‘Arsenal v Atletico Madrid’ Champions League semi-final pushed traffic 4.2% higher than the previous peak and 17% higher than an average Tuesday evening in 2026.

Virgin Media O2 UK Broadband Users Fall by 5.6k as Full Fibre Build Stalls UPDATE

1st May, 2026 (40 Comments)

Network operators Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have today published their latest Q1 2026 results and revealed that their gigabit broadband network increased its UK coverage by just 6,400 premises in the quarter (down from 115.1k in Q4), while related consumer customers fell to a total of 5,446,100 (down by -5.6k in Q1 2026). VMO2’s total mobile base also fell to 46.44m.

Virgin Media O2 Smart Support Broadband Service

Virgin Media UK Deploys Free Smart Support Service to All Broadband Users

23rd March, 2026 (7 Comments)

Customers of UK ISP Virgin Media’s (O2) fixed broadband packages have today been told that the internet, TV and phone provider is now rolling out their new Smart Support diagnostics service – a 24/7 broadband speed and connection monitoring solution – to all of its customers “as standard and at no extra cost“. Initially only 330,000 customers had been able to benefit from it.

UK Gov Launch Address Checker for Project Gigabit Broadband Rollout UPDATE

13th March, 2026 (35 Comments)

The Government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency has today launched a new address checker, which enables homes in England and Wales to see whether they’ll be able to benefit from the roll-out of gigabit-capable broadband networks under their publicly funded £5bn Project Gigabit programme. But at the time of writing it’s “currently unavailable due to a technical problem“.

FarrPoint Claims Universal UK Gigabit Broadband May Boost Economy by £8.6bn

11th March, 2026 (1 Comment)

Consultancy firm FarrPoint has today published new independent analysis, which claims that the United Kingdom’s economy could gain a boost of more than £8.6 billion if gigabit-capable broadband connectivity was universally available to every single home and business – helping to create or sustain more than 156,000 jobs and support over 13,000 businesses.

UK fibre optic gigabit broadband map CoPilot for MJ on 12092024

Milestone as Gigabit Broadband Coverage Reaches 90 Percent of UK UPDATE

27th February, 2026 (30 Comments)

The latest independent data has revealed that 90.04% of premises across the United Kingdom can now access a gigabit-capable broadband ISP connection (1000Mbps+) via fixed lines, which is up from 85% in October 2024 and 80% at the end of 2023. But the figure does drop a little to 82.71% when only looking at full fibre (FTTP) lines.

Some Existing Virgin Media UK Broadband Customers Get Extended Discounts

21st February, 2026 (14 Comments)

Over the past few months we’ve noted how quite a few existing customers of UK ISP Virgin Media’s (O2) home broadband packages are, at the end of their first contract term, now being offered significant automatic extensions to their existing discounted service price – often lasting for another 12-months.

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nPerf Names Fastest UK Fixed Broadband ISPs by Nation in 2026 Study

18th February, 2026 (4 Comments)

France-based internet connection benchmarking firm nPerf has this morning published the results from their annual 2026 crowdsourced study into fixed broadband ISP speeds across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The results cover Sky Broadband, Virgin Media, Vodafone, TalkTalk, Fibrus (NI) and Ogi (Wales).

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Virgin Media O2 See Broadband Customers Fall by 16.7k as UK FTTP Build Slows

18th February, 2026 (19 Comments)

The latest Q4 2025 results from Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) have just been published and reveal that their gigabit broadband network increased its UK coverage by 115,100 premises in the quarter (down from 139k in Q3), while related customers fell to total 5,687,600 (down by -16.7k in Q4 vs +60.8k in Q3). But their mobile base grew and 5G outdoor population coverage hit 87%.