Virgin Media O2, the 'joint venture' of Telefónica and Liberty Global in the United Kingdom, has begun to activate for the first time two gigabits per second (2 Gbps) broadband services over its cable network. The company has already completed the upgrade in 18 British locations and expects this technology to reach most of its network by 2027.
According to the operator, this new phase expands the "Gig2" offering relying on its hybrid fiber and coaxial (HFC) infrastructure based on "DOCSIS" technology. Thanks to this, it can provide multi-gigabit connectivity to around three million homes in areas like Manchester, Newcastle, or Oxford without the need to carry out additional civil engineering works.
By combining this improvement over the cable network with the prior availability of the "Gig2" service in areas covered by next-generation fiber, more than ten million homes in the British market can currently access the operator's highest connection speed.
The "Gig2" product provides average download speeds of 2,000 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds of 100 Mbps over Virgin Media O2's HFC network, which translates into more capacity for cloud services, connected home solutions, streaming platforms, online gaming, and telecommuting.
The Chief Technology Officer of Virgin Media O2, Jeanie York, has emphasized that for customers it is "indifferent" the type of network as long as the service is "fast and reliable," highlighting that this advancement demonstrates the potential of the current infrastructure to absorb the constant increase in user data traffic.
The "Gig2" broadband packages are marketed from £49.99 (€59.75) per month, a fee that is expected to increase to £53.99 (€64.5) monthly from April 2027 and to £57.99 (€69.3) starting from April 2028.
This stage of the deployment over the cable network includes areas such as Newcastle, Bournemouth, Lancaster, Peterborough, Ipswich, Bath, Southend-on-Sea, York, Blackburn, Cambridge, Harrogate, Chelmsford, Manchester, Oxford, Preston, and Portsmouth.