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March 24, 2009

Virgin plans to outdo BT with 150Mbps broadband

Super-fast access could hit UK in two years

Carrie-Ann Skinner

Virgin Media has announced it will be offering download speeds off up to 150Mbps in just two years' time.

The announcement comes as BT pledged to roll out super-fast broadband to six UK cities by 2010 and expected to offer 40 percent of the country superfast broadband access by 2012.

Virgin Media's chief executive Neil Berkett told the BBC: "We have an opportunity with our network to provide significantly higher speeds".

The ISP was the first UK provider to launch a 50Mbps service last year. Berkett explained that increasing the speed to 100 or 150Mbps at this point in time wouldn't be financially beneficial.

"When we look at the market I don't see us getting the returns right now for 100 or 150Mbps," he added.

"As we work with application providers and content providers... there will be a natural point where we upgrade from 10, 20 and 50Mbps to something more. If BT were to meet the time frame they have suggested - of finishing by 2012 - I would see us as having much, much faster upstream speed, running at a minimum of 100Mbps downstream and possibly more."

Berkett also said that while it currently is not considering letting other ISPs use its network, this may change in the future.

Broadband speed tester

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