BT trumpets big fibre broadband roll-out plans

Virgin gets speedy too

Not happy to let BT grab all the limelight, Virgin Media has announced a free upgrade for all its fibre optic customers, boosting upload speeds so users can share big photo or video files faster.

The upgrade is already being pushed out and will automatically be applied to customers across the country on its up to 10Mb, up to 20Mb and up to 50Mb services.

Here is a table from Virgin about the changes.

As part of the roll-out and to keep fair usage in check, the company will also be introducing a new traffic management system at peak times, designed to adapt to network conditions. Using smart network monitoring, the system will reserve at least 75 per cent of network resources for time-sensitive traffic like streaming high definition video.

Virgin Media will also boost its peak time allowances for data transfers.  It said its new traffic management system improves the performance of its services for over 95 percent of its customers, while also helping to minimise the negative effect the 5 percent its heaviest users have on temporarily slowing down their speeds to make busier times of the day fairer.