Virgin Media warned of its 100Mb Broadband widening Digital Divide

Star UK, one of the emerging business broadband providers operating in the United Kingdom, has warned the prominent cable and fibre optic broadband provider in the country, Virgin Media that its 100Mbps fibre broadband rollout move could end up in widening the digital divide between the rural and urban areas in the country.

However, Star UK, a popular supplier of communications on demand computing services to the businesses in the country has welcomed Virgin Media's 100Mbps consumer broadband internet service launch in the country.

The 100Mbps move by Virgin Media is significant against the backdrop that the government of the United Kingdom has revealed that it did not have any present plan to increase its univrsal service commitment target of 2Mbps. It is anticipated that the 2Mbps broadband for all target will be achieved by 2015.

Nonetheless, the government has sought to spending a considerable part of the GBP 530 million set aside for helping the rollout of superfast broadband to most tof the households and businesses in the United Kingdom, which would not be reached by the investment by any private sector.

Hugo Barber, the director of Star's convergence and network strategy felt that the move from Virgin Media was well above the 2Mbps target of the government, which implied that the government needed to improve the party level between the rural and urban areas.