Virgin Media O2 uses converged network to improve mobile connectivity across the UK

• Virgin Media O2 has improved its mobile network across the UK by connecting 1,000 mobile sites to its proprietary 10Gbps fibre backhaul network.
• The upgraded sites benefit from an increase in capacity and throughput, translating to faster response times and a more reliable network performance for customers.
• These upgrades are made possible by Virgin Media O2’s Converged Interconnect Network (CIN), a new network that carries both mobile and fixed traffic.

Virgin Media O2 has successfully connected 1,000 mobile masts to its proprietary 10Gbps fibre backhaul network, enabling faster data speeds, lower latency and a more reliable mobile network experience for customers.

These 1,000 sites are connected to Virgin Media O2’s new Converged Interconnect Network (CIN), which is a new network built to carry both mobile and fixed traffic. This CIN enables traffic to be aggregated closer to the customer making the operator’s network infrastructure more efficient. It also means a more reliable experience for the end user.

The mobile sites were previously connected to a third-party backhaul connection which could act as a bottleneck at busy times. By connecting the sites to Virgin Media O2’s own fibre network, O2 customers will benefit from a higher capacity network with greater throughput.

By using one common infrastructure for both mobile and fixed traffic, Virgin Media O2 is working to improve the customer experience and improve reliability. The architecture of the new network is inherently more resilient and can easily be scaled up to cope with growing capacity demand. This is increasingly important as traffic on Virgin Media O2’s mobile network grew significantly last year.

This new approach to backhaul connections can also accelerate the rollout of Virgin Media O2’s mobile network in the future. By leveraging its converged network and connecting mobile masts to Virgin Media’s fixed fibre network, the operator can remove the need to pay for a fixed backhaul connection provided by a competitor.

Steven Verigotta, Director of Radio & Mobile Backhaul Delivery at Virgin Media O2 said: “We are always looking for ways to deliver a better network experience for our customers. By leveraging our converged network, we have been able to quickly and efficiently increase capacity and throughput at 1,000 mobile sites across the country, helping deliver tangible improvements for our customers. This is all part of our plan to provide customers with the best connectivity, no matter where they are.”