Broadband ISP and TV provider Virgin Media UK (VMO2) has announced that 20,000 premises in Wrexham (North Wales) can now gain access to their gigabit-capable network, with further expansion planned for 2022. The operator has so far invested some £12m into the local rollout.
At this point it’s worth remembering that the latest announcement actually represents somewhat of a delay, which is because Virgin Media first announced their expansion plans for Wrexham all the way back in 2016 (here). At that time the plan was to cover 24,000 premises – mostly via their older Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network – by the end of 2019, which now looks as if it won’t be achieved until 2022, albeit with greater use of FTTP.
Nevertheless, in order to celebrate the 20,000 premises milestone, VM have gifted a free broadband connection to the local Venture community centre in Wrexham. The move comes several months after VM, as part of its partnership with the charity Business in the Community, also provided the Venture with 15 laptops and mobile data dongles to help local schoolchildren and young adults take part in online learning at the centre.
The work forms part of their wider Project Lightning build, which has already extended VM’s network to cover an additional 2.5 million UK premises since 2015/16. The operator’s original network was deployed using HFC technology, but since 2019/20 most of their new build has used FTTP via Radio Frequency Over Glass (RFoG) – both methods make use of the DOCSIS 3.1 standard to harness the same consumer kit.
In addition, VMO2 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’ve previously proposed (here) to expand the reach of their network, using FTTP, to cover c.7 million premises in new areas (some of these will be rural).
A wholesale solution for third-party UK ISPs is also still being prepared, but has yet to find the support it needs in order to launch.