Lightning strikes Scotland

Virgin Media today announced plans to connect an additional 360,000 homes and businesses in Scotland to its fibre optic network by the end of 2019, as part of its £3bn Project Lightning network expansion across the UK. This is in addition to the almost one million premises Virgin Media’s network currently reaches in Scotland. 

With more than a third of premises to be connected by the end of 2017, Virgin Media plans to bring its ultrafast broadband and brilliant entertainment to both urban and rural areas of the country. The first areas to benefit are:

• 55,000 premises in Ayrshire (specifically Kilmarnock, Ayr, Prestwick and Irvine)
• 70,000 premises in Fife (specifically Dunfermline, Dalgety Bay, Rosyth and Inverkeithing)
• Plus, the villages of Kirknewton (West Lothian), Kilmacolm,  Houston, Crosslee, Craigends and Bridge of Weir (Renfrewshire), who were amongst the top ten communities in its ‘Supercharging Local Communities’ initiative earlier this year

Work is already underway in Ayrshire and Fife, and will be rolled out across the country shortly.


Fergus Ewing, Cabinet Secretary for the Rural Economy and Connectivity and Member of the Scottish Parliament, said: “I welcome the news that Virgin Media will be rolling out ultrafast broadband to over 300,000 premises in Scotland alongside launching the first Scottish Tech City in Glasgow. The Scottish Government has put digital connectivity at the heart of its agenda, recognising that broadband is vital to the sustainability of our economy and communities.  That is why we have made the commitment to ensure that 100% of premises across Scotland will have access to superfast broadband by 2021. Commercial investment will play a huge part in delivering that commitment and I am delighted to welcome the substantial investment that Virgin Media are making in Scotland.”


Martin McFadyen, Regional Director for Scotland at Virgin Media, said: “We are delighted to be expanding our network to bring better broadband, faster connectivity and top-notch TV to more premises across Scotland. Our ambition is to give more people in Scotland the broadband boost they deserve. We urge local councils and landlords to work with us to ensure this expansion happens as quickly as possible.”


Superior network

Virgin Media offers the fastest widely-available speeds in the UK of up to 200Mbps for consumers and 300Mbps for businesses. Virgin Media has a superior fibre rich network in the UK which combines optical fibre and coaxial cable, which unlike BT’s copper network doesn’t degrade over distance. The core network is fibre optic which provides ultrafast broadband to the street cabinet. Broadband is then delivered to the majority of premises either using the Company’s superior coaxial cable or fibre optic cable, powered by DOCSIS3 technology.


Top-notch TV

Local residents can also benefit from the latest entertainment from Virgin Media. With up to 260 TV channels (including 66 HD channels) plus Sky Sports, Sky Movies, BT Sport and Netflix, as well as an extensive TV on demand library of TV box sets and movies. Plus, access to brand new TV shows such as Ash vs Evil Dead, Kingdom and Magic City – exclusive to Virgin Media TV customers.


Project Lightning

Backed by parent company Liberty Global, Virgin Media is investing £3 billion to connect 4 million additional premises to its UK network, which will bring the total premises connected to Virgin Media’s UK network to 17 million by 2019.

This is the single largest investment in the UK’s broadband infrastructure in more than a decade. Project Lightning is funded entirely by private sector capital; it is not funded by UK or Scottish Government subsidies or by EU subsidies.


ENDS



About Virgin Media

Virgin Media offers four multi award-winning services across the UK and Ireland: broadband, TV, mobile phone and landline.

The company’s dedicated, ultrafast network delivers the fastest widely available broadband speeds to homes and businesses. We’re expanding this through our £3bn Project Lightning programme, which will reach 17 million premises by the end of 2019.

Our interactive TV service brings live programmes, thousands of hours of on-demand programming and the best apps and games in a set-top box, as well as on-the-go for tablets and smartphones.

We launched the world’s first virtual mobile network, offering fantastic value and services. We are also one of the largest fixed-line home phone providers in the UK and Ireland.

Through Virgin Media Business, we support entrepreneurs, businesses and the public sector, delivering the fastest speeds and tailor-made services.

Virgin Media is part of Liberty Global, the world’s largest international cable company, with operations in more than 30 countries.