Virgin Media Business to deploy FTTB in London's

Virgin Media Business to deploy FTTB in London's Tech City


By Nick Wood, Total Telecom

Thursday 22 January 2015


Telco takes on BT by targeting multi-tenanted locations; aims to cover 8,000 premises.



Virgin Media Business on Thursday announced plans to deploy fibre-to-the-basement in London's Tech City in a bid to win over budding start-ups.

The area has been criticised for lacking sufficient availability of high-speed broadband. Hackney South MP Meg Hillier claimed last year that up to a third of businesses in Tech City could not access high-speed services, which has forced some of them to relocate.

Incumbent BT has responded with plans to trial fibre-to-the-remote-node (FTTRn). Aimed at areas where it is difficult to deploy new cabinets, the system sees fibre cables extended from the local exchange to a telegraph pole, manhole or wall. From there, copper is used to complete the connection to the premises, meaning customers will get a connection speed equivalent to fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC).

Virgin Media is now also addressing the issue, claiming its FTTB network will provide synchronous connection speeds that are six times faster but only half the cost of services currently available from other providers.

"Small businesses are the powerhouse of our economy yet poor connectivity exacerbates the challenges they face," said Peter Kelly, managing director of Virgin Media Business.

"We are transforming the prospects of thousands of companies by offering them faster, cheaper, more reliable broadband. These businesses will be able to work quicker, smarter and seize greater opportunities to grow with our better Internet connections," he said.

Virgin Media Business said it initially aims to provide coverage to 2,000 businesses, increasing to a further 6,000 in the coming months.

In addition, companies covered by the network could be eligible for a subsidy from the government's SuperConnected Cities scheme, Virgin Media Business said.

"The Government's Connection Vouchers have already provided thousands of businesses across the U.K. with a faster and more reliable internet connection," said Digital Economy minister Ed Vaizey, in a statement. "Virgin Media Business' new offer to Tech City businesses is a brilliant example of the many innovative products available to SMEs and will play an important role in removing barriers to better connectivity."

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."