Virgin Media is promising 50Mbps network services later this year
Virgin prepares 50Mbps launch in 2008
/v3-uk/news/1990262/virgin-prepares-50mbps-launch-2008
12 May 2008, Andrew Charlesworth , V3
Virgin Media will roll out 50Mbps network services later this year after a successful trial with Nortel and Juniper.
The 'North-South' trial, which the companies claim is the first of its kind in the UK, carried 40Gbps traffic on the Virgin network over a 350km stretch between London and Manchester.
The test used Juniper's routers and Nortel's Adaptive Optical Engine, which the firm claims can wring 40Gbps and 100Gbps speeds out of existing 10Gbps networks.
"Our aim for this trial was to ensure that we continue to meet the growing capacity needs of the high-speed services we deliver," said Daniel Hennessy, director of technical architecture at Virgin Media, in a statement.
"Our optical network will provide a solid foundation for growth as it takes advantage of technology designed to avoid electrical regeneration and, where possible, reduce the incremental cost of scaling transport capacity."
Virgin has not set a date for the new high-speed services, but said in its first-quarter financial results that they would be introduced later this year offering four tiers of service with network speeds of 2Mbps, 10Mbps, 20Mbps and 50Mbps.
Virgin's results show a mixed bag. Customer churn is down to 1.2 per cent, the lowest since 2004, and broadband customers are being added at between 80,000 and 90,000 a quarter.
Virgin Media now has 3.5 million domestic broadband subscribers in the UK. But average revenue per user for cable services is down to £41.91 from £42.75 last year, which has depressed revenue by two per cent to just over £1bn.
Operating loss is down to £5m from £15m this time last year, but the saving is dwarfed by the group's long-term debt of nearly £6bn.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
Nortel's 40/100GE over 10GE infrastructure enables Virgin's 2/10/20/50Mbps services
Nortel has the only available technology that enables carriers to leverage the installed 10Gbps fibers to support 40GE and 100GE capacities. This likely is why Virgin would be able to scale their network capacities to support 2Mbps, 10Mbps, 20Mbps and 50Mbps network services.
Posted by B.A., 16 May 2008
Speed?
Before they start offering speeds like that perhaps they should give the speeds they are currently offering! I am supposedly on 20mbps but have never achieved more than 1.5mbps - and that is NOT down to my system!
Posted by Bob Stables, 15 May 2008
opps thats Mbit NOT Gbit
opps Andrew Charlesworth, you typed that up and forgot to proof read it, you mean MegaBit OC , Not Gigabit......
just for your information OC , you might like to run the real No.s for the required upload rates to get the _full_ use out of the proposed VM 50Mbit/s download and 1.5Mbit/s...upload rate.
nut to mention, yet again VM under Neil have the UKs worst up/down ratio on their top package before its even officialy rolled out.
you will find that this proposed 1.5Mbit upload rate is infact only good for around 43Mbit/s max download rate on this so called 50Mbit/s Virgin Media package coming the 4Q 2008.
meanwhile, the US comcast are doing 5Mbit upload rates for their working 50Mbit/s Docsis2.0b/3.0 packages,and giving far better upload rates for their lower download packages.
the UK VM yet again ripping the end user off yet with an upload rate that cant even supply the required return channel speed to get the full 50Mbit usage out of the payed for prime package no matter what the official VM PR line might say.
keep the real No.s in mind when you report this, and inform your readers they NEED faster upload rates for when their downloading any files at their contracted 50Mbit speed over any TCP/IP protocol.
a reasonable upload rate for maxing out the _full_ potential of the proposed vm 50Mbit package is 2 Mbit/s upload rate for a good overhead, and even then its not as good as the better *DSL packages, so much far cable being better if you cant even chose to provide better than the readilly available and usable *DSL upload rates Be* being 2,5Mbit currently, TODAY.
Posted by dave, 13 May 2008
Gbps or Mbps
Are you sure that Virgin Media is launching 50 Gbps services? If this is a consumer broadband offer, then that should be 50 Mbps....with tiers offered at 2Mbps, 10Mbps, 20Mbps, and 50Mbps
Posted by Bo Gowan, 13 May 2008