Virgin Media has chosen a small Welsh village to trial superfast fibre broadband over electrical poles after succesful trials in rural areas.
Residents of Crumlin, Carephilly, will from next month enjoy speeds of up to 50Mbits/sec as Virgin partners with Western Power Distribution's Surf Telecom to send broadband signals between the powerline poles. This equates to up to 10 times the current rate of 5.2Mbits/sec copper ADSL service.
As the UK falls behind in the race for faster broadband, ISPs are under pressure to find new ways to boost connections. Virgin has previously said it would like to be able to share BT's infrastructure, and the use of a third-parties power poles is the first time Virgin has utilised another company's network.
Comments
Phoenix Rising said: I wish I was in the UK We are very limited for ISP selection in the USA customer service is bad and the speeds of course that are promised fall short We usually have to sign a contract for at least two yearsI think when Google and Virgin come into this market it may force the US companies to offer more and better their practices
John Leeming said: Please Please Please Virgin raise the hopes of rural villages and if possible by-pass that over managed backward organisation BT whose interests are purely cities so that they can quote misleading statistics on coverage and speed
sirjohng said: At last thinking outside the box The snobbery which relegated telegraph poles to the scrap heap has finally been overcome - as usual by Richard Branson The infrastructure is already there just hitch a ride and Bobs yer uncle