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Virgin Media Business Wholesale Upgrades Core UK Network

16th November, 2022 (0 Comments)

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.

Virgin Media’s New 50Mbps Broadband Social Tariff is Now Live

10th November, 2022 (22 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK (VMO2) has today confirmed that their new ‘Essential Broadband Plus‘ social tariff is now live for those taking ‘Universal Credit‘, which complements their existing 15Mbps (£12.50 a month) ‘Essential’ plan by offering download speeds of 50Mbps for £20 per month on a 30-day term.

ISP Virgin Media O2 UK Launch Black Friday Broadband Sales

10th November, 2022 (31 Comments)

UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today launched their early “Black Friday” sales, which for the next few weeks will offer big discounts to new customers who order any one of their selected broadband-only packages (e.g. 362Mbps standalone for £27 per month) or dual, triple and quad-play bundles with TV, phone or mobile.

Virgin Media O2 UK to Create 125 New Engineers in Big Cities

7th November, 2022 (3 Comments)

Mobile operator and broadband ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has opened applications for 125 field engineer apprenticeship positions to help rollout their full fibre (FTTP) and 5g mobile networks across the UK. Most of the positions will be filled in London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leicester.

Numis Report on Cityfibre Reveals New Details of UK FTTP Broadband Build

6th November, 2022 (29 Comments)

A new research report from investment bank Numis, which was pieced together by analyst John Karidis, has revealed some useful information about Cityfibre’s £5bn project to deploy a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband ISP network across the UK and their perspective on overbuild and prices vs Openreach (BT) etc.

H1 2022 – Gigabit Broadband Covers 99% of New Build UK Homes

4th November, 2022 (0 Comments)

The latest H1 2022 report into the broadband coverage of new build UK homes reveals that 99.03% of houses constructed during the first half of 2022 were connected to a gigabit-capable network (using full fibre FTTP and Hybrid Fibre Coax), which falls slightly to 98.03% when only looking at FTTP.

Virgin Media O2 Sees Project Lightning Add 3 Million UK Premises

2nd November, 2022 (15 Comments)

The latest Q3 2022 results from broadband ISP and mobile giant VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) has seen their fixed broadband base reach 5.63m customers (up by 19.1k in Q3 vs 16k in Q2), while their gigabit network coverage added 115,000 premises (3 million delivered via Project Lightning) and 5G is available in over 800 towns and cities.

ISP Virgin Media O2 UK Confirms New Broadband Speed Boosts UPDATE

1st November, 2022 (69 Comments)

UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today confirmed that both new and existing customers of their fixed line broadband packages, specifically those on their M100 and M200 tiers, will benefit from a modest boost to their download and upload speeds. As a result, M100 is being renamed to M125 and M200 becomes M250.

Mobile giant Vodafone UK and Sky (Comcast) have reportedly two among several "groups" that have approached budget conscious fixed broadband ISP TalkTalk about a potential deal (most likely an acquisition), which in theory could create a much larger provider with more influence over the industry. Just to recap. In 2020 TalkTalk became the subject of a £1.1bn takeover by Toscafund - controlled by hedge fund tycoon Martin Hughes (here), which including debt valued the broadband provider at around £1.8bn. The deal took the ISP private and gave them more financial flexibility for their future plans. Since then, they've backed Freedom Fibre (here) and this week made the notable acquisition of Ethernet provider Virtual1 (here). According to the FT (paywall) and Sky News, TalkTalk is now said to have asked investment bank Lazard to review its options after allegedly being approach by several groups, including Vodafone and Sky (Sky Broadband). Lazard is a logical choice as they recently acted as Financial Advisor to TalkTalk on the Virtual1 transaction. Some industry analysts have reportedly suggested that TalkTalk itself could now be worth "at least" £3bn. But this seems rather optimistic for an ISP that doesn't have any significant fixed line broadband infrastructure to call its own (excluding their old unbundled LLU network) and largely just piggybacks off Openreach (BT), CityFibre and Freedom Fibre. But TalkTalk do have a strong business and wholesale side. Funnily enough, Sky Broadband are in a similar position with their own fixed line base, while Vodafone also likes to piggyback off Openreach and CityFibre. At present, Vodafone has a fixed broadband base of 991,000 customers, while Sky Broadband is estimated to be home to around 6.7 million and TalkTalk has approximately 4.2 million. Suffice to say, anybody gobbling up TalkTalk would instantly become a much larger provider, giving them a greater say in how the UK broadband market develops and more opportunities for convergence (Vodafone with mobile, and Sky with mobile and TV). Crucially, TalkTalk's consumer base is mostly made up of those on older copper and hybrid fibre lines (i.e. ADSL and FTTC / VDSL2), which are ripe for a future migration to FTTP. At the time of writing, all of the aforementioned operators have decline to comment on the reports, and TalkTalk has yet to receive any serious formal offers. In other words, we strongly suspect that this is largely just an exercise in spin to help TalkTalk drum up some more productive interest in the idea. But at the same time, it's not unreasonable to suspect that they might succeed, as the interest seems genuine. On the other hand, we see reports like this every year or so and only a very few ever convert into a serious offer. Time will tell. Much may depend upon whether or not TalkTalk’s new owners are more flexible and pragmatic about doing a deal than the previous lot. Arguably, TalkTalk might have gone much further by now had they taken some different decisions a few years ago (e.g. co-investing in FTTP instead of Pay TV).

Virgin Media O2 UK Puts Possible £3bn TalkTalk Merger on Ice

31st October, 2022 (12 Comments)

A major newspaper has reported that Virgin Media (VMO2) has allegedly gone cold on the idea of reaching a £3bn merger deal with budget UK ISP TalkTalk, which would have added the provider’s broadband base of over 4.2 million to their own base of 5.6 million in order to more effectively compete with BT.

Virgin Media O2 UK Celebrate 1 Million Volt Broadband and Mobile Customers

31st October, 2022 (12 Comments)

Broadband ISP Virgin Media UK and mobile operator O2, which not so long ago agreed a £31bn mega merger to become VMO2, have today celebrated after managing to attract 1 million customers to take-up their first joint product (bundle) under the ‘VOLT’ title – just one year after launching it.

Virgin Media O2 UK Trials Emergency 5G Mobile from Drones

27th October, 2022 (9 Comments)

Broadband ISP and mobile operator Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2) has teamed up with the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre in Wales to trial 4G and 5G connected drones, which in an emergency could be deployed to help create a temporary airborne mobile network for both visitors and emergency services (Mountain Rescue).

Virgin Media O2 Parents May Sell Stake in UK Masts to Boost Full Fibre

26th October, 2022 (7 Comments)

The parents of ISP Virgin Media (Liberty Global) and mobile operator O2 (Telefonica) are reportedly considering a sale of their 50% stake in mast operator Cornerstone, which is part of a network sharing agreement with Vodafone (Vantage Towers). The extra funding would be used to help fuel their UK rollout of full fibre (FTTP) broadband.

Virgin Media O2 UK Report Record Broadband Traffic Last Week

24th October, 2022 (10 Comments)

UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has today finally confirmed that they too also saw their “highest traffic peak on record” on Wednesday (19th Oct) last week, which occurred as football fans tuned into stream Premier League matches on Amazon (Prime Video) and gamers preloaded the latest ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2‘ game ahead of its release.

Virgin Media O2 UK Freshwave 4G Bus Shelter

Virgin Media O2 and Freshwave Add 4G Connected Bus Shelters in London

24th October, 2022 (8 Comments)

A collaboration between mobile operator O2 (VMOS), wireless infrastructure provider Freshwave and ad firm Clear Channel UK has enabled residents and visitors in parts of Tower Hamlets (London) to access a stronger 4G mobile signal when standing near to supporting bus shelters, which have built-in small cell connectivity.

Ofcom 2022 Study – Average UK Broadband ISP Speeds Hit 59.4Mbps

21st October, 2022 (13 Comments)

Ofcom’s 2022 study of fixed line home broadband ISP speeds has reported that the average (median) UK download rate has risen from 50.4Mbps last year to 59.4Mbps now (uploads went from 9.8Mbps to 10.7Mbps). But the performance gap between rural and urban areas has “widened” (unsurprising with so much urban FTTP build).

Virgin Media Business UK Hitron CHITA Router

Virgin Media Business UK Customers Start Seeing Faster Uploads

21st October, 2022 (22 Comments)

Some business customers of broadband ISP Virgin Media Business UK (VMO2) are now reporting that they too have seen a modest uplift in upload speeds over the past week, which suggests that the forthcoming speed boosts won’t be limited to those on Virgin Media’s residential M100 and M200 packages.

Virgin Media UK Adds Stream TV to Broadband Packages for Free

20th October, 2022 (25 Comments)

New customers taking out one of UK ISP Virgin Media’s (VMO2) 350Mbps, 500Mbps or 1Gbps broadband-only packages may be pleased to learn that the provider will now throw in one of their new TV streaming boxes – simply called ‘Stream‘ – for free (i.e. they’ve waived the usual £35 activation fee).