In today’s Internet age, broadband customers use email, browse and shop online, upload and download photos, participate in social media, take part in at-home gaming, download music, and stream films, radio, videos and television shows. As a result, there is an increasing need for broadband speeds that enable them to quickly do all of these things all the time. To address your needs, there’s Virgin Media fibre optic broadband with various speeds. There’s also a 100-megabit speed that’s in the process of being rolled out. This will be included in future broadband download speed reports conducted by a UK-based independent regulator. The speeds are also expected to get even faster.
Fibre optic broadband explained
It’s heard over all the media: high speed fibre optic broadband. The adverts talk about the super-fast download speeds amid backdrops of music and parties. But what is this technology?
Fibre optic technology is a basic principal. Rather than using copper telephone wire as used by other providers, Virgin Media broadband uses fibre optic cable. This cable is made from strands of glass that are as thin as hair. The information is carried by pulses of light. As a result, your information moves significantly faster. And the best thing is that fibre optic broadband doesn’t get slowed down the further away your home gets from your telephone exchange. Another advantage is that with the highest speeds, multiple users can use a connection without any noticeable slowing of connection speeds.
The Ofcom report
According to a 2012 report by independent regulator Office of Communications (Ofcom), Virgin Media was named as having the fastest average broadband download speeds — 50 megabytes — available when compared to other UK broadband providers. The reason for the greater speed comes from Virgin Media’s network of fibre optic cables. For example, the report showed that Virgin Media had the following speeds:
- “Up to” 10 megabits – 24 hours – 9.3 to 9.6 megabits
- “Up to” 10 megabits – 20.00 to 00.00 midnight weekdays – 8.8 to 9.3 megabits
- “Up to” 30 megabits – 24 hours – 30.6 to 36.7 megabits
- “Up to” 30 megabits – 20.00 hours to 00.00 midnight weekdays – 30.4 to 31.2 megabits
- “Up to” 50 megabits – 24hours – 47.4 to 48.8 megabits
- “Up to” 50 megabits – 20.00 to 00.00 midnight – 46.8 to 48.5 megabits
Ofcom also reported that Virgin Media’s “Up to” 30-megabyte download speed is faster than the UK average download speed. Their “Up to” 60-megabyte is four times faster, and the “Up to” 100-megabyte is six times faster than UK average.
Download times
Virgin Media fibre optic broadband has the fastest download speeds when compared to other Internet service providers. However, it’s good to see those speeds against a few of your favourite things to do. Here, in this chart, we see how the download speeds look for music tracks, albums, 30-minute TV shows and a 1 gigabyte movie. Even with the lowest speed of 10 megabytes, you can download your favourite music track in only 4.4 seconds. And while that 1 gigabyte film might take a few minutes, if you sign on with the 100-megabyte fibre optic broadband, you can grab that film in only 1.5 minutes.
| Download Type | File Size | 10Mb broadband 1.13 MB/sec |
20Mb broadband 2.25 MB/sec |
30Mb broadband 3.38 MB/sec |
60Mb broadband 5.63 MB/sec |
100Mb broadband 11.25 MB/sec |
| Music track | 5MB | 4.4 secs | 2.2 secs | 1.5 secs | 0.9 secs | 0.4 secs |
| Album | 60MB | 53.3 secs | 16.7 secs | 17.8 secs | 10.7 secs | 5.3 secs |
| 30-min TV show | 341 MB | 5.1 mins | 2.5 mins | 1.7 mins | 1 min | 0.5 mins |
| Movie | 1GB | 14.8 mins | 7.4 mins | 4.9 mins | 3.0 mins | 1.5 mins |
Award-winning service provider
In addition to the Ofcom rating, Virgin Media fibre optic broadband has also received new awards. They won four uSwitch Awards for:
- Best Broadband Provider
- Faster Home Broadband
- Best WiFi Service
- Best Broadband Innovation
To find out more about Virgin Media fibre optic Broadband, you can visit their website or call them on 0845 840 7777.