The so-called Gigabit Britain programme will commence in the southern coastal city of Southampton where trial customers are already connected, as previously reported, and Virgin Media said at least 2 cities will be connected this year and millions more homes in 2020.
The company claims it has the largest gigabit-capable network in the UK, consisting of both cable and fibre. The announcement comes as the UK's new Prime Minister confirmed his target for the roll-out of full fibre across the country by 2025 compared to a previous target date of 2033.
Just 7 percent of UK households had access to full-fibre connections in May 2019, according to telecoms regulator Ofcom, which this week launched a consultation into permitting the largest infrastructure operator Openreach to withdraw mandatory copper-wire services to permit larger investments and accelerate the deployment of fibre.
Virgin Media's parent compant Liberty Global has already used the Docsis 3.1 cable upgrade to launch gigabit services in Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.
