Virgin Media's director of strategy, Ernie Cormier, has left the operator. It's understood that the move is part of Virgin's wider plan to refocus on broadband, though it is not yet clear who will take Cormier's place.

Similarly Steve Stewart, one of Virgin's customer care chiefs, has also departed, not that he was doing a very good job given the problems ADSL broadband subscribers have been experiencing. It's also understood that Virgin are currently reviewing their broadband traffic management policies, although we do not yet know what the result will be.

Typically with a 50Mbps service just around the corner, Virgin may choose to be more restrictive, but at what cost? Why launch such a fast service if it ends up being penalised so much that the extra speed becomes pointless. On the other hand, such a service could easily get congested if you do nothing.

Virgin is presently sticking itself between a rock and a hard place by increasing speeds faster than the infrastructure appears able to keep up, it may require more investment than it currently gets.