Virgin Media has announced that customers in Reading will now be able to access Gig1 Fibre from £62 per month. The expansion comes just a couple of months after the firm announced Gig1’s launch in Southampton, promising an average download speed of 1,104Mbps and an upload speed of 54Mbps at peak-time.
According to Virgin Media, its offering is 25 times faster than the current local average. It says that hundreds of thousands of homes in the area and surrounding villages will be allowed to sign up to the services. By the end of 2021, it hopes to offer gigabit speeds to nearly 15 million homes around the country. With Gig1, customers will be ready for 8K streaming, cloud gaming, and virtual reality telepresence and Virgin Media won’t even need to excavate roads and streets to install the new cables.
Commenting on the development, Jeff Dodds, Chief Operating Officer at Virgin Media, said:
“These hyperfast speeds are 25 times faster than Reading’s average broadband connection, meaning that households can do everything they want to do online, at the same time, without delay and are well set for whatever comes next.
“This is just one of many investments we’re making in Reading – with our brand new state-of-the-art office set to open next month. We’re committed to making the UK faster and will continue to roll out next-generation Gig1 broadband across our entire network over the next 24 months - a speed and scale unmatched by anyone else.”
Those signing up to the new offer will receive Virgin Media’s Hub 4 router which is powered by an Intel Puma 7 chipset and supports wave 2 802.11ac WiFi. It also offers 3x3 MIMO on the 2.4GHz band and 4x4 MIMO on the 5GHz frequency. Gig1 bundles are customisable with a phone, Maxit TV, and Sky services with prices ranging from £62 to £119.