Last week I wrote about Virgin broadband, the UK’s cable-broadband service. I have the 50 Mbps service and I was reporting that it does what it says on the tin. Unusually for broadband services and almost unheard of for ADSL systems. Now comes confirmation from Ofcom, the telecommunications watchdog. Virgin remains the fastest consumer broadband service. On the 50 Mbps service download speeds averaged 48 Mbps. ADSL subscribers with, say, 20 Mbps were getting on average only 6.6 while more than a third of customers received 4 Mbps or less.
I’m lucky to be living in an area wired for cable and I have to say that I have had absolutely no issues with Virgin broadband in the past five years. The speed has increased as technology has improved and, in some areas, 100 Mbps is on offer. There is even talk of a 1GB service to come in the near future without the need to upgrade the infrastructure. It is certainly a service I would recommend wholeheartedly, even though it isn’t the cheapest option. With broadband, as with most other things, you gets what you pays for.