Lightning strikes Great Yarmouth

Virgin Media today announced that homes and businesses in Great Yarmouth will be next to benefit from an ultrafast broadband and entertainment boost.


As part of its Project Lightning expansion, Virgin Media plans to extend its ultrafast network to up to 5,000 properties in Great Yarmouth. This has the potential to transform the quality of broadband in Great Yarmouth where the average download speeds is just 20Mbps.*


Those who wish to take Virgin Media’s internet services will be connected to ultrafast broadband, reaching speeds of up to 300Mbps for residents and 350Mbps for small businesses.


Work is due to begin in the area this month, and is expected to be completed before the end of 2019.


Faster speeds also make it possible to stream ultra-high-definition TV, with local residents able to benefit from the latest entertainment on Virgin TV’s new smallest, smartest, fastest, 4k-ready Virgin TV V6 set-top box. The box has the ability to stream live TV, recordings, on demand shows and movies around the home. This is on top of great programming with up to 245 TV channels (including 50 HD channels) with all the football available in one place, including Sky Sports and BT Sports. Virgin Media also offers Sky Movies and Netflix, as well as an extensive on demand library of TV box sets and movies, and access to exclusive new TV shows such as Ash vs Evil Dead and Kingdom.


Residents can also benefit from Virgin Mobile’s fast 4G connectivity which includes data free Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger, as well as the ability to rollover unused data each month.


Maurice Daw, Regional Director at Virgin Media, said:

> By expanding our network to thousands more homes and businesses we are making Great Yarmouth a digital hotspot, and time-strapped families will soon be benefitting from the reliability of a service that’s 15 times faster than the local average. We urge more people to come together and register their interest - your street could be next.


Rt. Hon Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth, said:

> It is fantastic that residents and businesses in Great Yarmouth will be able to benefit from new superfast broadband services, and this is also a great boost to the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft Enterprise Zone, giving businesses even more reason to invest in the area. I would encourage all businesses and residents who can take advantage of the new service to explore if it would benefit them.


Councillor Graham Plant, Leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said:

> The council welcomes this significant private infrastructure investment in Great Yarmouth, which provides additional options for thousands of residents and businesses. Virgin Media has liaised closely with authorities around the company’s programme of unavoidable highways work, most of which will be solely on footpaths, to ensure they do not impact the important tourism season.


Backed by parent company Liberty Global, Virgin Media is investing £3bn to extend its ultrafast fibre broadband network to an additional 4 million premises, to reach a total of 17 million homes and businesses.


As network expansion continues across the country, Virgin Media calls for more people to register interest at: www.virginmedia.com/cablemystreet


Ends

*The average (median) broadband speed in Great Yarmouth is 20.1Mbps. Source: Ofcom, Connected Nations Report 2016, published February 2017.


Ultrafast broadband up to 300Mbps

For residents, Virgin Media’s Vivid 300 broadband offers the fastest widely available broadband – with download speeds of up to 300Mbps. This is four times faster than Virgin Media’s main competitors’ top speeds and gives households more bandwidth to stream, game, chat and work all at the same time on multiple connected devices.


For small businesses, Virgin Media Business now offers ultrafast connectivity, with speeds of up to 350Mbps as standard – almost four times faster than its main competitors’ widely available top speeds. This enables businesses to reach their potential by delivering better services and greater capacity.


Virgin TV V6 box, powered by TiVo

The new Virgin TV V6 box is Virgin Media’s smallest, smartest and fastest box yet. It is half the size of the previous TiVo box with 10x the power and packed with a load of extra features. It allows people to record six programmes while watching a seventh recording or stream from services such as iPlayer or Netflix. The Virgin TV V6 box is designed so that recordings can be accessed and streamed on other TiVo boxes around the home and support 4K Ultra-High Definition (UHD) TV with Netflix and YouTube available in 4K from launch and more programming coming soon.


Fast 4G mobile connectivity

Virgin Mobile was the world’s first virtual mobile operator when it launched in 1999. It is one of the largest MVNOs in the UK with 3 million subscribers. Instead of owning mobile infrastructure, Virgin Mobile uses infrastructure provided on a wholesale basis by network operator EE. In November 2016 Virgin Mobile launched 4G in the UK, combined with innovative new services that give customers free messaging on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger and the ability to “rollover” unused data.

For more product information, visit www.virginmedia.com  


Press contacts

Verity Henderson, Virgin Media

0333 000 2900, press@virginmedia.co.uk, @VirginMediaCorp