Virgin Media has reported its latest fourth quarter 2008 results today, which saw the operators broadband subscriber base (cable modem and ADSL) inch forwards from 3,885,800 at the end of Q3 to 3,934,800 (+49,000) now. This represents a fairly static rate of growth over the previous quarter.

Naturally the bulk of this increase came from Virgin's cable based broadband platform (3,682,800), while those on its lesser known Virgin.net (ADSL) side reduced from 260,100 in Q3 to 252,000. This sadly became somewhat of a common trait for the ADSL service throughout much of last year:


The percentage of Virgin Media's broadband customers on their 10Mbps and 20Mbps tiers is now 21% and 11%, respectively. From May 2009 the provider plans to begin upgrading its 2.5m existing 2Mbps customers to the faster 10Mbps service.

Happily Virgin Media do appear to be weathering the current financial climate (recession) better than some ISPs, such as Tiscali and Orange, though they like many other broadband providers will continue to face difficult challenges throughout a turbulent 2009.