I’ve been looking out for a speed increase announcement from Virgin Media ever since the company re-launched last month, and it nearly passed me by as it was only mentioned in passing in the company’s quarterly results. I would have missed it totally if TechDigest hadn’t spotted it.
By the summer all existing 10Mb Virgin Media broadband users will be upgraded to 20Mb for no extra charge. The service will remain unlimited, although according to TechDigest some customers won’t receive the full 20Mbs but everyone will receive at least 16Mbs. I think it’s safe to say that any users within the old Telewest franchise will get 20Mbs as the old Telewest network was superior to the old ntl network. No details were given of any (much needed) increases in upstream speeds, or what the current 2Mb and 4Mb tiers will be increased to.
To be honest I think I hit the point of diminishing returns with my Broadband connection when I hit 10Mb, and even as a heavy user I don’t need 20Mb. I’ll probably change my mind when I get it, but I don’t think it’s going to change my usage profile.
What I think it will do though is allow Cable to reclaim its speed crown in the UK. I think that many consumers are starting to wise up to the fact that ‘Up To 8Mbps’ from ADSL could be as low as 2Mbps depending on where you live. We’ll have to see if Virgin Media’s new 20Mbps speeds will convince ADSL users to migrate over to cable, but it’ll definitely give Richard Branson and his team something else to shout about.
At least his users will be able to download their missing SkyOne TV shows quicker!
