Cable giant Virgin Media has announced that its recently launched "ultrafast" 100Mbps (10Mbps upload) broadband ISP service can now reach one million UK homes, which is up from just 150,000 at the end of January 2011. The full deployment is expected to complete by mid-2012 when it will be able to reach half of the country (approximately 13 million homes).


The new ultrafast service costs from just £35 per month (plus £12.24 Virgin Phone Line) when combined in a bundle, or £45 when bought as a standalone product. The standard one-off activation fee will also set you back £30 and there's a £40 installation, although Virgin Media frequently offers free setup deals.

Virgin Media 100Mbps Package
* 100Mbps Downloads
* 10Mbps Uploads
* Unlimited downloading (free of any heavy Traffic Management limits)
* Free internet security (anti-virus/spam/spyware and firewall)
* Free super-fast wireless N router
* Unlimited weekend calls to UK landlines and Virgin mobiles if you take a Virgin phone line.
* Unlimited online storage with automatic backup
* Free photos (Print up to 100 photos for free every month)
* Free email (10 addresses)

Virgin Media is also continuing to trial 200Mbps download speeds in customers' homes, although we probably won't see that until late 2012 or 2013. They also have trials of 20Mbps upstream speeds. Suffice to say that there's more to come in the future, assuming the demand is there.