Virgin Media UK's FTTP network extended to 17,000 Cricklewood homes

Virgin Media UK has announced that its gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network is now available to over 17,000 homes in Cricklewood, London. The build brings gigabit-capable FTTP broadband to thousands of Cricklewood residents for the first time.

The FTTP build in Cricklewood forms part of Virgin’s Project Lightning network build, through which the provider has covered more 2.7 million premises in the UK with its network since 2015/16. Project Lightning aims to cover a further 500,000 premises in 2022.

The investment in adding Cricklewood to the FTTP network means that Project Lightning has now seen the provider invest more than £200 million in connecting approximately 340,000 premises in London to its fixed network since 2015.

Rob Evans, Managing Director of Fixed Network Expansion at Virgin Media O2, said: “We’ve been investing in Cricklewood to give thousands of residents access to the UK’s fastest widely available speeds – 18 times faster than the local average. From hybrid working and video calls with friends, to VR and online gaming, our next-generation services offer customers everything they need to do more of what they love online."

As well as focusing on the FTTP build, which Virgin Media say is technically “capable of delivering symmetrical 10Gbps download and upload speeds, and beyond”, the internet service provider also confirmed in July 2021 that it will upgrade its original network. Virgin says the network, which covers 14.3 million UK premises and was largely built using Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) technology, will be upgraded to FTTP, utilising XGS-PON technology, by the end of 2028.

The network build under Project Lightning has already switched to building gigabit-capable FTTP, while trials for the upgrade of the existing network using XGS-PON technology were announced in late 2021. In December 2021, these trials were confirmed to be taking place in 50,000 homes in Stoke, Salisbury and Wakefield.