Virgin to delay its nationwide IPTV network roll out

Nearly ten percent of Virgin Media’s customers are on its ‘off-network’ or non-cable network and half of the UK population is yet to be connected by Virgin’s network.

In May, Virgin unveiled its plans to launch IPTV services in areas where its network is not available using the LLU network and infrastructure of the Carphone Warehouse. A deal was signed between the ISPs then to complete the project in 2008. However, after six months, it seems that the proposed IPTV service on off-network could be delayed by a year or more due to the lack of initiative on the part of the management of Virgin Media.

It should be noted that when a rift began between Virgin Media and BSkyB on the issue of sharing TV channels, many Virgin Media broadband customers left and signed up with other ISPs. Virgin Media strategically looked for new options to retain its customer base and to compete with its main rival, BskyB.

Soon, Virgin Media underwent a major change on the managerial level, as its chief Steve Burch was sacked and Neil Berkett assumed the role as the acting chief of Virgin Media. Contrary to the views of the former chief, Berkett decided to bet on superfast broadband services with speeds up to 50 Mbps instead of broadband mixes that include quadplay services.

Couple of months ago, Virgin’s packages got revamped with significant upgrade in speeds. Its size L package now comes with 4 Mbps downstream speed (previously it was 2 Mbps) and size XL package offers download speed up to 20 Mbps. In addition, Virgin Media has been testing its 50 Mbps service in selected areas in the UK and it has already announced that the speeds of its packages will undergo upgrade in future.