{"id":12978,"date":"2016-11-24T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=12978"},"modified":"2016-11-24T19:40:40","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T19:40:40","slug":"virgin-medias-parent-commits-gigabit-speed-broadband-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2016\/11\/virgin-medias-parent-commits-gigabit-speed-broadband-2018.html","title":{"rendered":"UPD Virgin Media’s Parent Commits to Gigabit Speed Broadband by 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liberty Global, which is parent to UK cable operator Virgin Media<\/a>, has today launched a new initiative called GIGAWorld that will help to promote their plans for rolling out Gigabit capable broadband (1000Mbps+) to the 12 European countries in which it operates (most could be done by the end of 2018).<\/p>\n

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At present the vast majority of Virgin Media<\/a>’s network in the United Kingdom, as well as across much of Liberty Global’s EU base, is deployed using their Hybrid Fibre Coaxial<\/strong> (HFC) network, which uses a mix of fibre optic cables and copper coax lines to reach inside homes using EuroDOCSIS 3 technology.<\/p>\n

On top of that they’re working to reach an extra 2 million UK premises by using Fibre-to-the-Premise<\/strong> (FTTP<\/a>) broadband technology, which uses pure fibre optic lines and is made compatible with their existing DOCSIS<\/a> network by using Radio Frequency over Glass<\/strong> (RFoG).<\/p>\n

The top residential speed of both FTTP<\/a> and HFC solutions is currently 300Mbps<\/strong> in the UK, although the limited (availability) FTTP<\/a> side of their network is already able to deliver Gigabit-class speeds when required and they could squeeze a fair bit more out of EuroDOCSIS 3 if needed.<\/p>\n

Mike Fries, Liberty Global’s CEO, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Our scale, commitment and ambitious plans to invest in the infrastructure of our age make us perfect partners to deliver the EU\u2019s vision of a Gigabit Society. Today our fibre-rich networks can connect 50 million GIGAReady homes and we are currently expanding to millions more over the next few years, helping accelerate the digital revolution in Europe.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As part of Liberty’s GIGAWorld<\/strong> vision the operator has today published a new report<\/a> from consultancy firm Communications Chambers<\/a> (they also recently produced this separate FTTP report<\/a> for BT<\/a>), which examines the fastest and most cost-effective ways of reaching the European Commission’s goals for access to ultrafast broadband by 2025 (i.e. 100Mbps+ for all homes and 1Gbps+ for all business \/ schools).<\/p>\n

The report agrees with the European Commission (EC) that a range “very high capacity<\/em>” (VHC) technologies – such as G.fast<\/a> close to the end-user, FTTP\/H\/B and HFC DOCSIS<\/a> – are all capable of meeting the 2025 targets. The report adds that in the case of VHC networks based on DOCSIS<\/a>, Gigabit speeds “could be achieved as early as the end of 2017<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

Interestingly the report also warns that an “over-prescriptive policy of focussing solely<\/em>” on FTTP risks “jeopardising investment<\/em>” and it thus supports a technology-neutral approach. It says: “The wrong intervention could be wasteful, or even damaging. For example, support for an expensive and slow-to-deploy technology could drive up prices and paralyse investment in other technologies which might have delivered improved performance more quickly<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

In keeping with that the report criticises South Korea and Japan\u2019s substantial government interventions to support FTTP, which are often hailed as a benchmark for everybody else. “Both countries have performed relatively poorly in their use of socially or economically-valuable internet applications, such as e-government and e-health, despite their superior (and expensive) infrastructure<\/em>,” said the report.<\/p>\n

Naturally part of the context behind this criticism is to highlight the unique ability of existing HFC “Cable<\/em>” networks to deploy Gigabit ready broadband (GIGAReady<\/strong>) to millions of premises and in double quick time.<\/p>\n

Robert Kenny, co-Author of the Report, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Thanks to investment already under way by cable operators, Gigabit broadband will be available to roughly half the premises in Europe by 2018 – far ahead of the Commission’s target of 2025. This will allow the Commission (and member states) to focus elsewhere, where interventions are necessary.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Going forwards we expect Virgin Media<\/a>’s HFC network will soon be upgraded to support the next generation of DOCSIS 3.1<\/strong> technology, which is capable of Gigabit speeds. This is arguably a lot more important than their FTTP roll-out due to its existing coverage (overall Virgin’s network should cover around 60-65% of the UK by 2019).<\/p>\n

The first hardware is already set for DOCSIS 3.1 (here<\/a>) and Virgin has been quietly building support into their network. Last year Liberty suggested that the DOCSIS 3.1 roll-out could begin towards the end of 2016, although we’ve heard very little since then.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile today’s report claims to outline Liberty Global’s plan for bringing Gigabit Internet speeds to the 12 European countries in which it operates and, as the information above suggests, we could see Gigabit broadband (e.g. DOCSIS 3.1) being rolled out across their networks by as soon as the end of 2017 or 2018.<\/p>\n

By comparison Openreach<\/a>\u2019s (BT<\/a>) G.fast<\/a> and FTTP might not hit that sort of coverage level until 2025 and G.fast<\/a> isn’t even aiming for Gigabit speeds in the UK (500Mbps is the more distant and optimistic expectation, but until then the best will be ‘up to’ 300Mbps).<\/p>\n

We have asked for an update on Virgin Media’s local plan and are awaiting a reply, but in the meantime here’s a swanky promotional video that features some of Liberty’s engineering teams doing their thing..<\/p>\n