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Back in July we revealed that broadband ISP Virgin Media were running a small trial that had made their top 2Gbps (200Mbps upload) speed package available over their older Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC / DOCSIS 3.1) network, albeit only in a few UK locations (e.g. parts of Oldham). Previously you could only access 1Gbps speeds in such areas. The good news is this seems to be expanding.
At present anybody who wants 2Gbps speeds (including symmetric) on Virgin Media needs to be covered by their live XGS-PON based FTTP network (mostly via nexfibre). A total of 9 million Virgin Media and nexfibre premises (footprint) are now covered by these full fibre lines – using both XGS-PON and RFOG technology.
However, several million of Virgin’s existing lines are still being delivered over HFC technology, which makes any speed boost on that side particularly important. Since the original article we’ve been receiving a steady trickle of messages from Virgin Media customers in different HFC-only areas who are now finding that the 2Gbps package shows up for them too (parts of Leicestershire, Hampshire and more of Greater Manchester etc.).