UK - 50 Mbps from Virgin

Virgin prepares to roll out 50Gbps broadband

ISP set to leave competitors behind after successful trial of super-fast broadband

Virgin Media is preparing to fire a shot across the bow of its rival ISPs by rolling out its 50 gigabits per second (Gbps) broadband service later this year following a successful trial last month.

Currently, the fastest speed available from competitors on BT-lines is 8Mbps. Virgin's service would provide its competitors with a major headache on how to compete.

The trial used Juniper routes and Nortel's Adaptive Optical Engine, as well as Virgin's fibre-optic network to carry 40Gbps traffic between two hubs; one in Manchester, the other in London.

"Our aim for this trial was to ensure that we continue to meet the growing capacity needs of the high-speed services we deliver," explained Virgin Media's director of technical architecture Daniel Hennessy.

"The live trial demonstrated how Juniper Networks high-performance routers can be used by service providers to leverage existing investments and cost-effectively and efficiently scale their networks to meet the demands of next-generation services," added Juniper Networks' senior vice president and head of High End Systems Business Unit Opher Kahane.

According to Virgin, the new services will be offered in 2Gbps, 10Gbps, 20Gbps and 50Gbps packages, though no prices nor exact date for the service's launch have been announced yet.