Virgin Media today announced that it will expand its fibre optic network to 45,000 homes and businesses in Chester and surrounding areas by the end of 2017 as part of its £3bn Project Lightning programme.
This expansion will give many Chester residents and business owners a much needed connectivity and entertainment boost with access to the fastest widely-available broadband speeds.
Fibre optic cables will be connected directly to premises in Chester (known as fibre to the premise – FTTP) offering ultrafast, future-proof connectivity with speeds of 200Mbps for consumers and 300Mbps for businesses and home workers.
Work will start towards the beginning of 2017 and cover areas such as Blacon and Huntington with more areas to be added following discussions with local councillors and demand from residents. Local residents can find out more details and register their interest by visitingvirginmedia.com/cablemystreet
Paul Hutchinson, Regional Director for North West at Virgin Media, said: “Residents in Chester will soon be getting the ultrafast broadband and top-notch TV they deserve. Investing and delivering better connectivity to communities such as Chester shows that Project Lightning is moving fast– we urge residents in Chester and beyond to come together and register their interest. Your area could be next.”
Chris Matheson MP, Member of Parliament for City of Chester, said: “I’m very happy to hear that tens of thousands of homes and businesses in and around Chester will soon have access to the fastest broadband. I have been pushing hard to improve super-fast broadband connectivity across Chester so it is great to see this investment in our city’s future.”
Ultrafast broadband up to 300 Mbps
For residents, Virgin Media’s Vivid 200 broadband offers the fastest widely available broadband – with download speeds of up to 200Mbps. This is more than two and a half times faster than the top widely available speeds from BT, TalkTalk and Sky meaning that a whole household can stream movies, music and more all at the same time.
For businesses, Virgin Media Business now offers ultrafast connectivity, with speeds of up to 300Mbps – 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.
Plus, the latest entertainment with up to 260 TV channels, including 66 HD channels as well as access to Sky Sports, Sky Movies and BT Sport, and an extensive TV on demand library of exclusive shows, box sets and movies.
New, faster build method
This FTTP expansion uses an innovative way of bringing ultrafast broadband to people’s homes with minimal disruption. The approach, called narrow-trenching, reduces the width of the trench used to lay optical fibre cables from around 40cm to just 10cm and enables engineers to cover up to 100m in a day, making it more than twice as fast as current methods. Chester residents will receive the very latest broadband technology with fibre delivered direct to the home.
Virgin Media recently pledged to provide FTTP to at least one in four properties in its Project Lightning expansion.
Project Lightning
By the end of 2019 Virgin Media has committed to increase connectivity across the UK, expanding its optical fibre network to 4 million more homes and businesses.
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