Broadband boost for Durham

Virgin Media announced that homes and businesses in Durham will be next to benefit from an ultrafast broadband and entertainment boost.

As part of its network expansion project, Virgin Media plans to extend its ultrafast network to up to 16,000 properties in Durham by the end of 2019. This will transform the quality of broadband in County Durham where the average download speed is just 15Mbps.*

Those who wish to take Virgin Media’s internet services will be connected to ultrafast broadband, reaching speeds of up to 300Mbps for residents and 350Mbps for small businesses.

Faster broadband speeds also make it possible to stream ultra-high-definition TV, with local residents able to benefit from the latest entertainment on Virgin TV’s new smallest, smartest, fastest, 4k-ready Virgin TV V6 set-top box. The box has the ability to stream live TV, recordings, on demand shows and movies around the home.

This is on top of great programming with up to 245 TV channels (including 50 HD channels) with all the football available in one place, including Sky Sports and BT Sports. Virgin Media also offers Sky Movies and Netflix, as well as an extensive on demand library of TV box sets and movies.

Residents can also benefit from Virgin Mobile’s fast 4G connectivity which includes data free Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, as well as the ability to rollover unused data each month.

Hugh Woolford, Regional Director at Virgin Media, said:

“By expanding our network to thousands more homes and businesses we are making Durham a digital hotspot, and time-strapped families will soon be benefitting from the reliability of a service that’s 20 times faster than the local average.”

Councillor Joy Allen, cabinet member for transformation, said:

“We know having access to fast broadband is a high priority for many people in our county, particularly those in rural areas where being able to use the internet easily and quickly is extremely important. The increased speeds will be particularly welcomed by small businesses who rely on fast connectivity and who could see their companies transformed by this opportunity.”

Backed by parent company Liberty Global, Virgin Media is to extend its ultrafast fibre broadband network to an additional 4 million premises, to reach a total of 17 million homes and businesses.

Project Lightning: Supercharging the UK’s digital infrastructure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYlBZLm9KL8

For further information, visit: www.virginmedia.com/lightning/network-expansion

Notes to Editors

* The average (median) broadband speed in County Durham is 15.4Mbps. Source: Ofcom, Connected Nations Report 2016, published February 2017.
Ultrafast broadband up to 300Mbps

For residents, Virgin Media’s Vivid 300 broadband offers the fastest widely available broadband – with download speeds of up to 300Mbps. This is four times faster than Virgin Media’s main competitors’ top speeds and gives households more bandwidth to stream, game, chat and work all at the same time on multiple connected devices.

For small businesses, Virgin Media Business now offers ultrafast connectivity, with speeds of up to 350Mbps as standard – almost four times faster than its main competitors’ widely available top speeds. This enables businesses to reach their potential by delivering better services and greater capacity.

Virgin TV V6 box, powered by TiVo

The new Virgin TV V6 box is Virgin Media’s smallest, smartest and fastest box yet. It is half the size of the previous TiVo box with 10x the power and packed with a load of extra features. It allows people to record six programmes while watching a seventh recording or stream from services such as iPlayer or Netflix. The Virgin TV V6 box is designed so that recordings can be accessed and streamed on other TiVo boxes around the home and support 4K Ultra-High Definition (UHD) TV with Netflix and YouTube available in 4K from launch and more programming coming soon.

Fast 4G mobile connectivity

Virgin Mobile was the world’s first virtual mobile operator when it launched in 1999. It is one of the largest MVNOs in the UK with 3 million subscribers. Instead of owning mobile infrastructure, Virgin Mobile uses infrastructure provided on a wholesale basis by network operator EE. In November 2016 Virgin Mobile launched 4G in the UK, combined with innovative new services that give customers free messaging on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger and the ability to “rollover” unused data.

For more product information, visit www.virginmedia.com