Virgin to trial world's fastest cable broadband

Virgin Media is to begin trialling what it claims will be the world's fastest cable broadband system. Trials begin this month with four companies situated around Old Street in east London.

Virgin is aiming for download speeds of up to 1.5Gbit/sec, although the upload speed is limited to just 150Mb/sec. Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, explained the purpose of the project, saying: 'Demand for greater bandwidth is growing rapidly as more devices are able to connect to the Internet and as more people go online simultaneously.'

Another spokesperson for the company also added that 'these superfast speeds are possible because of the £13 billion of private investment made by Virgin Media, which means that every cable home is connected to a state-of-the-art fibre optic network by a high-grade coaxial line.

'By contrast, BT’s infrastructure remains reliant on copper telephone wiring, or in some cases even more inferior aluminium, which was never intended to supply broadband. This will not change for the overwhelming majority of homes eventually offered fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) services from other providers.'

The trial comes soon after Virgin was proved by Ofcom to offer the fastest average speed of any home broadband company in the UK. Its 50Mb/sec service has seen an uptake of more than 30 per cent in the first quarter of this year, with the total number of users on the tariff now standing at 150,000 with revenue up 5.7 per cent too.

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