PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Virgin Media has confirmed to PC Retail that it will be rolling out a 50Mbps service later this year, contrary to earlier reports that it would be launching a commercial Gigabit service.
Currently, the fastest speed available from competitors on BT-lines is 24Mbps. The new speeds will effectively double what its competitors offer. It has since confirmed that it is currently trialling the its 50Mbps service.
The trial used Juniper routes and Nortel’s Adaptive Optical Engine, as well as Virgin’s fibre-optic network to carry 40Gbps traffic between two hubs; one in Manchester, the other in London. It builds upon the ISP’s current 10Gbps infrastructure.
"Our aim for this trial was to ensure that we continue to meet the growing capacity needs of the high-speed services we deliver," explained Virgin Media’s director of technical architecture Daniel Hennessy.
"The live trial demonstrated how Juniper Networks high-performance routers can be used by service providers to leverage existing investments and cost-effectively and efficiently scale their networks to meet the demands of next-generation services," added Juniper Networks’ senior vice president and head of High End Systems Business Unit Opher Kahane.
According to Virgin, the new services will be offered in 2Mbps, 10Mbps, 20Mbps and 50Mbps packages, though no prices nor exact date for the service’s launch have been announced yet.
