Virgin Media starts 2020 with a broadband bang as more than a million customers get a free ultrafast speed boost

• More than a million Virgin Media customers will benefit from a free upgrade to ultrafast 108Mbps broadband

Virgin Media is kick-starting the New Year with one of the UK’s biggest ever gifted broadband upgrade programmes.

Starting today, more than a million Virgin Media customers are set to enjoy a completely free boost to the provider’s M125 broadband, meaning they’ll benefit from average broadband speeds of 132Mbps - around twice as fast as the UK average.

Under the plan, more than half a million Virgin Media customers can expect to see their broadband speeds double with some seeing their speeds increase fivefold. For most customers, this will mean they can enjoy ultrafast broadband significantly faster than the top services offered by many other internet providers.

Eligible customers won’t pay a penny more for their services with their speed boosted automatically. A notification will be sent to these customers once their upgrade has been completed.

Annie Brooks, Executive Director of Connectivity at Virgin Media, said: “We’re starting 2020 with a broadband bang by rewarding our loyal customers with this free speed upgrade so even more people can experience our ultrafast, future-proof connectivity.

“As the UK’s fastest widely available broadband provider, we want to banish buffering and let our customers live without limits so they can do everything they want to online, at the same time, without delay. Whether they’re streaming UHD movies on demand while downloading the latest game, or simply browsing the web, we’ve got our customers covered.”

With Virgin Media’s ultrafast M125 connection, ultra-high definition 4K films, TV programmes, the latest computer games and very large files can be downloaded very rapidly, even with multiple devices using the connection simultaneously. Speeds around twice as fast as the UK’s average connection mean that with the connection users can:

• Download a high definition (HD) film (5GB) in just over 7 minutes
• Download the hugely popular game, Fortnite, on an Xbox (approximately 31.4GB), in less than 45 minutes

Last year, Virgin Media launched the UK’s fastest home broadband service with residents in and around Southampton, Manchester and Reading able to benefit from gigabit speeds. The operator’s Gig1 service offers connectivity up to 20 times faster than UK average broadband speed and is being rolled out across the country to bring gigabit connectivity to around 15 million homes by the end of 2021.

Once the upgrade to M125 has completed, Virgin Media’s average speed across its entire broadband base will rise to more than 150Mbps helping to further elevate the UK’s broadband speed standing. As a demonstration of the impact Virgin Media’s continued network investment and innovation has, if the provider were a country in its own right it would rank 4th in the world - just behind Hong Kong. With next-generation gigabit speeds becoming available across Virgin Media’s network, this average will continue to increase.

-ENDS-


Notes to Editors

Source for broadband speed claims

The average (median) UK download speed is 54.2Mbps. Source: Ofcom, UK home broadband performance report, published 8 May 2019. ** Download times calculated using www.download-time.com based on 100Mbps download speeds.

About Virgin Media

Virgin Media offers four multi award-winning services across the UK and Ireland: broadband, TV, mobile phone and landline.

Our dedicated, ultrafast network delivers the fastest widely-available broadband speeds to homes and businesses and we’re expanding this through our Project Lightning programme, which could extend our network to up to 17 million premises.

Our interactive TV service brings live TV, thousands of hours of on-demand programming and the best apps and games to customers through a set-top box, as well as on-the-go through tablets and smartphones.

Virgin Mobile launched the world’s first virtual mobile network and offers fantastic value and innovative services with 4G connectivity. We are also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the UK and Ireland.

Through Virgin Media Business we support entrepreneurs, businesses and the public sector, delivering the fastest widely available broadband speeds and tailor-made services.

Virgin Media is part of Liberty Global, one of the world’s leading converged video, broadband and communications companies. Liberty Global connects 11 million customers through operations in six countries across Europe subscribing to 25 million TV, broadband internet and telephony services. It also serves 6 million mobile subscribers.