Virgin Media announced that as part of its Project Lightning plans, it will connect fiber-to-the-premise (FTTP) to at least a quarter of the 4 million additional homes and businesses being added to the Virgin Media network. Backed by parent company Liberty Global, Virgin Media reportedly intends to connect a total of 17 million premises to the network by 2019.
This is the single largest investment in the U.K.’s broadband infrastructure in more than a decade, according to the company.
Virgin Media has already started to roll out FTTP in Cambridgeshire and Leicestershire with work expected to start soon in West Yorkshire, Devon and East Sussex. The operator is using techniques such as narrow trenching, to deploy FTTP at a lower cost and more quickly in areas where demand is high.
“While some companies talk a good game, Virgin Media is putting its money where its mouth is and laying fiber to the premise alongside our superior HFC network — delivering the fastest widely available broadband speeds,” the company’s CEO Tom Mockridge says.
