Caroline Telford asked:


Do you like the idea of downloading an entire music album in less then 11 seconds? Or do you want to grab an 800 megabyte high definition movie file in just 3 minutes? If you answered yes to both, then Virgin Media has a ready solution for you.

The powerhouse UK cable company is offering an astonishing 50 MB broadband connection for all UK households. This is the fastest net speed in the history of UK and is considered as the next generation service for 2009.

Talk of Virgin’s 50 MB high speed connectivity plan has been circulating throughout the Internet. Naturally, this created a buzz in the online world especially with British tech bloggers and news sites.

Last December 2008, Virgin Media announced that it will unveil the fastest broadband service for the general public in the year 2009. This will put the UK cable company at the top of the list of the fastest ISPs in the entire country. Virgin started trial testing the service last year on several households in Kent.

Different Plans for More Flexible Service

Virgin Media is offering different broadband service plans for UK households. According to the company, such flexibility of service will allow UK consumers to choose which plan would be best for them.

First, you can avail of the triple play service which is actually a bundled plan consisting of a dedicated landline subscription, 50 MB broadband service, and cable TV service. The triple play plan will cost 66 Pounds per month.

According to the company, such bundled service plan is ideal for new subscribers and households that want to share several broadband connections. The ultra fast Internet connection will be able to handle multiple users on a single router without significant degeneration of connection speeds.

Consumers can also opt to avail of broadband-only service if they do not want to take the cable TV and landline services. This service will cost 55 Pounds per month. Virgin media said such plan would be ideal for educational institutions with several computer consoles sharing a connection.

With the 50 MB superfast broadband connection, an entire computer laboratory will be able to enjoy high speed Internet service for every user.

Internet Infrastructure Issues that Face Virgin’s High Speed Service

Virgin Media is a reliable provider of high speed Internet connection for many years already. Customers have been satisfied by the quality of service and reliable Internet connection provided by the cable company.

The biggest issue facing the ultra high speed broadband plan is the Internet infrastructure of UK. Some technology analysts contend that most telephone lines on UK still use copper wiring. Such telephone technology will not be able to handle fast connections and might result to quality of service issues.

UK communication regulators said that it will take 15 billion Pounds to upgrade the public telephone system. Government regulators however are optimistic that such upgrade would benefit the country in the long term.

For now, Virgin’s 50 MB broadband service can only be enjoyed by 16 million British households. Government officials and company executives agree that high speed connectivity would be socially and economically beneficial for the entire country.