A further 4,000 homes in the large Cheshire (England) town of Warrington can now access gigabit broadband speeds from Virgin Media (VMO2), which occured after the UK ISP extended the reach of their Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based internet and pay TV network in the area.
The work forms part of their ongoing Project Lightning build, which has already extended their network to cover an additional 2.5 million UK premises since 2015/16. The operator’s original network was deployed using Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) technology, but this expansion used “full fibre” FTTP via Radio Frequency Over Glass (RFoG) – both methods make use of the DOCSIS 3.1 standard to harness the same consumer hardware.
VMO2 also recently announced that they intend to upgrade their entire network (including some 14.3 million premises in existing HFC areas) to FTTP by the end of 2028 (here). On top of that they’re also proposing (here) to expand the reach of their network, using FTTP, to cover c.7 million new premises in previously unserved areas (some of these will be rural). A wholesale solution for UK ISPs is also being prepared.
Otherwise, prices for their top 1130Mbps package (average advertised speed) start from £62 per month on an 18-month contract term, with a guaranteed price freeze of 24 months.