Good for (some) consumers
BT aroused a fair bit of attention yesterday when it announced 29 locations that would receive its ‘super-fast' fibre-optic broadband next year.
However, Virgin Media is already offering similar speeds to those promised by BT in a number of areas and so looks to have a significant head start over BT. It's also predicting speeds of up to 150 Mb/s in the not too distant future.
Virgin Media isn't officially commenting on the BT announcement, but its press office provided us with this list of locations already able to receive 50 Mb/s:
- Essex
- Hertfordshire
- Bedfordshire
- London
- Greater Manchester
- Belfast
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- Cardiff
- Rhondda Cynon Taf
- Yorkshire
It also pointed us to this map illustrating the extent of Virgin Media cable coverage in the UK.
One problem for Virgin Media is that it doesn't have anything to offer those areas it still doesn't cover, whereas everyone can get something from BT. However, it is insisting that over 12 million homes will have access to its 50 Mb/s service by the end of the Summer. Either way, this looks like good news for the consumer.
We'd like to know what you think. Is BT doing enough or will you be subscribing to Virgin's service when it becomes available? Let us know in the HEXUS.community discussion forums.
UPDATE - 16:30 24 March 2009
In response to our concluding paragraph Virgin Media contacted us to point out that it also has an ADSL service and a mobile broadband product, both of which are available nationwide.
