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November 1, 2011

6 months free Spotify Premium with Virgin Media

Virgin Media are offering new and reconnecting Virgin Broadband and Virgin Mobile customers free Spotify Premium access worth around £10 per month as part of a new deal.

virgin media spotify 6 months free Spotify Premium with Virgin MediaNew or reconnecting Virgin Broadband customers who take out an XL (30Mb), XXL (50Mb) and 100Mb broadband deal will get themselves 6 months free Spotify Premium access which has allot more enhanced features and usability than the free Spotify option. The 6 months free Spotify Premium is worth around £60.

The same deal applies to new and reconnecting Virgin Mobile customers who take out a pay monthly contract and have a compatible mobile phone, they will receive 3 months free Spotify Premium access.
Also, when in the UK there will be no data charges for using Spotify although data charges are likely to apply when listening abroad.

Spotify is an award winning completely legal music service that allows you access to over 15 million different music tracks and albums that you can listen to when you want, you are even able to have the music available to you when you go offline. Songs you select will stream immediately so you don’t need to worry about downloading a full song before you can listen to it.

The executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose, said:

“The launch of Spotify on Virgin Media marks a significant milestone for digital entertainment and the way it is enjoyed by consumers. Great digital services are no longer just about fast broadband or the latest TV technology, but increasingly about how people use their services to power and excite their daily lives. Bringing together Virgin Media services with brilliant entertainment such as Spotify is a core part of our ongoing strategy and we’re excited to be able to lead the way with such a great partnership.”

Going forward we expect to see more content tie-ups between broadband providers and content providers, especially as the increase of broadband speeds continues to grown and content can far more easily be delivered online.

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- Filed under: Fibre broadband,Home Broadband,Offers
- Tags: Free Spotify, Free Spotify Premium, Free Spotify with Virgin Media broadband, Virgin broadband with free 6 months Spotify, Virgin Media broadband —
Author: Mark @ 10:15 am

August 10, 2011

Virgin Media to stop their broadband services in Westminster

Virgin Media are to pull out of offering its services in Westminster, London from January next year as it is unable to upgrade the network to deliver it’s next generation broadband and TV services.

virgin media logo 300x257 Virgin Media to stop their broadband services in WestminsterThe move comes because Virgin Media said that the infrastructure in place is not able to cope with the superfast 100Mb broadband the company is rolling out.
Although in the main Virgin Media use it’s own network to deliver it’s broadband in the instance of Westminster they actually use BT’s infrastructure and they are unable to upgrade the infrastructure cost effectively enough to be able to cope with the network capabilities that they want to offer.
Due to the lines in place from BT is meant that Virgin would not be able to offer faster broadband speeds than 50Mb in the area.

It is anticipated that around 3,000 people will be affected from Virgin Media withdrawing from Westminster. One of the reasons that Virgin Media can not easily or cost effectively upgrade the network is because around Westminster it is a conservation area which makes it extremely difficult to be able to upgrade the infrastructure.

Virgin Media had the following to say:

“From January 2012, we will no longer be able to provide our existing broadband and analogue TV services to homes in Westminster. We use BT’s infrastructure to deliver services in Westminster and are unable to upgrade the network and deliver our own next generation digital services at a reasonable cost. We are speaking to our customers now to ensure they have plenty of time to decide on an alternative service or provider and will do everything we can to help them make the switch.“

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- Filed under: Fibre broadband,News
- Tags: Virgin Media broadband, Virgin Media not serving Westminster, Virgin Media to stop their broadband services in Westminster, Westminster broadband, Westminster conservation area stops fibre broadband, Westminster fibre broadband —
Author: Mark @ 11:04 am

July 24, 2011

Virgin’s 1.5Gb broadband trial a success

The 3 month trial of Virgin Medias fastest 1.5GB cable broadband in London has proved to be a success.

The trial was done with 4 companies in the area of London known as the “Silicon roundabout” which is a tech business center.

It is unlikely that we will see these speeds rolled out to the general public on Virgin’s network any time soon who’s current head line speed is 100Mb. The interesting part is that the same technology that is used to provide the 100Mb broadband to customers currently is the same that has been used to provide this 1.5GB broadband trial.
With the current UK average broadband speed being just 6Mb this 1.5GB trial put it at a whopping 250 times faster than what most of us are currently receiving.

Ed Vaizey, the UK Communications minister said:
“the Prime Minister set out our ambition for London’s East End to become a world-leading technology city to rival Silicon Valley. Developments like Virgin Media’s will help make this ambition a reality.”

As more and more users in a household want to connect and stream live data from the internet in  the form of TV or films, then having faster and faster broadband connections will mean that all the media will stream fast and not suffer from lag.

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- Filed under: News
- Tags: 1.5GB broadband, Cable broadband, fastest broadband, Virgin Media broadband —
Author: Mark @ 12:44 pm

April 20, 2011

Virgin Media in 1.5GB fastest broadband trials

Virgin Media are going to start testing the “world’s fastest broadband” that will run a speeds of up to 1.5GB.

virgin media logo 300x257 Virgin Media in 1.5GB fastest broadband trialsThe trials are to take place in east London and what is known as the “Silicon Roundabout” and will involve four companies making use of the service in the vicinity of Old Street in London.
The companies involved in the trial are all creative companies and work mainly with video for online and mobile streaming and also live broadcasting of events meaning that they are quite data hungry applications that will be utilising the network.

The broadband service will offer broadband speeds of up to 1.5GB download and up to 150Mb upload, with these speeds being around 240 times faster than the current UK average broadband speed.

Virgin Media say that their network is future proofed due to the 313 billion of investment made that means that each home on it’s network is connected to it’s fibre optic network by a high grade coaxial line and not like BT’s network which on the whole connects homes to the street side cabinet with copper cable.

Virgin Media’s network is also built on a future proofed platform which Virgin claim has nearly infinite capacity and uses DOCSIS 3.0 which also supports Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6).

Jon James the executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said:
“Demand for greater bandwidth is growing rapidly as more devices are able to connect to the internet and as more people go online simultaneously. Our growing network provides a highly competitive alternative to the fastest fibre networks of the future and, with our ongoing investment plans, we can anticipate and meet demand as it develops over time, ensuring Virgin Media business and residential customers continue to enjoy world-class broadband.“

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- Filed under: Fibre broadband
- Tags: 1.5GB broadband, Fastest broadband trials in London, Virgin Media broadband, Virgin media trial worlds fastest broadband —
Author: Mark @ 10:53 am

February 15, 2010

Virgin Media show bare behinds in cheeky taunt at BT

Virgin Media pulled a “cheeky” stunt outside their rivals offices, BT, over the broadband connection speeds that they offer.

virgin media cheeky dig at bt 300x150 Virgin Media show bare behinds in cheeky taunt at BTVirgin Media organised 13 skimpily dressed female models, including Danielle Lloyd, to bare their behinds to display a message which read “BT? Fast Broadband? My Arse!”

The executive director of Virgin Media said:

“This cheeky stunt was simply a humorous way to get across a serious message – that customers should demand what they are being promised from their internet providers”

The dig is aimed at ADSL & ADSL2+ technology that is still what most people use for their broadband connections at present through the BT network and not as fast as Virgin Media offer through it’s fibre optic broadband network, however there is still around 250,000 Virgin.net customers who connect through this way if they are not in a fibre enabled area.

To test your own broadband speed you can use a free broadband speed test tool.

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- Filed under: Fibre broadband,Home Broadband
- Tags: BT Broadband speeds, BT? Fast Broadband? My Arse!, Virgin Media broadband —
Author: Mark @ 1:26 pm


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