Lucky VM broadband punters in Southampton and Manchester could be set for blistering download speeds if the latest trials are anything to go by.

Scott Bicheno

April 20, 2021

1 Min Read
fibre broadband
Internet connection with the optical fiber. Concept of fast internet

Lucky VM broadband punters in Southampton and Manchester could be set for blistering download speeds if the latest trials are anything to go by.

VM is describing them as ‘proof-of-concept trials’ in which engineers hooked up existing domestic fibre connections to its new Hub 4 router, which comes as standard with its Gig1 broadband service. Using the magic of DOCSIS 3.1 they managed to extract no less than 2.2 Gbps of lovely data out of the connection, implying they could do it in real life if they wanted.

“We invest more than £1 billion into our network every year to deliver leading connectivity today, but our talented teams never stop pushing forward to ensure we’re ready to power our customers’ connectivity needs for whatever comes next,” said Jeanie York, VM’s CTIO.

“Our services are being relied on and used more than ever before, and these innovative trials in Manchester and Southampton demonstrate how Virgin Media’s existing network is fit for the future with hyperfast, multi-gigabit broadband speeds delivered straight to customer homes.”

How about now, Jeanie? What are you waiting for? These speeds apparently don’t require additional infrastructure or civil engineering works so let’s do this. As ever the question of how much use there is for such speeds is relevant, but we always seem expand to absorb available infrastructure. Still, it would probably take an extended household simultaneously streaming 8K video to make a dent in that bandwidth.

About the Author(s)

Scott Bicheno

As the Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, Scott oversees all editorial activity on the site and also manages the Telecoms.com Intelligence arm, which focuses on analysis and bespoke content.
Scott has been covering the mobile phone and broader technology industries for over ten years. Prior to Telecoms.com Scott was the primary smartphone specialist at industry analyst Strategy Analytics’. Before that Scott was a technology journalist, covering the PC and telecoms sectors from a business perspective.
Follow him @scottbicheno

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