Virgin Media announced today that following 18 months of fibre-optic upgrades, it has completed its roll-out of a next-generation broadband network.
The bullish announcement comes just days after rival British Telecom announced the names of its next 69 super-fast broadband locations.
Virgin Media claims to have tripled its network capacity, and adds that it is "the first company to offer ultrafast speeds of up to 50Mb to over 12 million homes across the UK". It adds that its 50Mb service continues to be free of Subscriber Traffic Management (STM), although that's subject to Virgin's Acceptable Use Policy.
To coincide with its network roll-out completion, the cable company has announced a selection of new initiatives:
- Starting September 1st, Virgin Media will lower the monthly cost of its 50Mb service to £28 for those opting for its phone plus broadband package. The 50Mb broadband service will be charged at £38 per month as a standalone product.
- Later this year, Virgin Media will launch an upstream pilot in the North East and Midlands areas, through which select customers will be able to trials upload speeds of up to 10Mb.
- Last but not least, the company will be launching its first Virgin-branded "Freedom" netbook later this week. It will be offered free of charge to customers who opt into a 24 month bundle featuring both fixed line and mobile broadband products.
The Freedom netbook, pictured above, will also be available through retail channels priced at approximately £300. It features a 10.2in display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 120GB hard drive and Wireless N connectivity.
