Virgin Media has announced the largest gigabit switch-on, in the UK, to date. More than three million homes across the West Midlands, including in cities such as Birmingham and Coventry, will gain access to the blisteringly fast speeds. Broadband prices at those speeds will start at £62 ($81) per month.
According to the firm, the rollout will begin as early as March in the aforementioned towns and surrounding areas. The connected homes will contribute to Virgin Media’s goal of connecting 15 million homes across the country by the end of 2021. The service has already rolled out to Southampton and Reading.
Commenting on the news, Jeff Dodds, Chief Operating Officer at Virgin Media, said:
“From gaming to streaming, Gig1’s hyperfast speeds will mean that households can do everything they want to do online, at the same time and without delay, with millions of more homes set to benefit this year as we bring this next-generation connectivity to more cities around the UK.”
While it may be a bit of a premature purchase to sign up to such high speeds right now, 8K streaming, cloud gaming, and virtual reality telepresence will become more popular in the future and there will be a need for higher speeds. With Virgin Media’s gigabit connection, you’ll see an average peak-time download speed of 1,104Mbps and benefit from the Hub 4 router which was designed for fast and reliable connectivity.