In reply to a post by ian72:

Be interesting to see where they do it - I am guessing a lot of people will be complaining that they are only expanding where other suppliers already have a presence.

They are installing it here, well a few turnings away.

After many many years of them ignoring our area, they are now installing here.
Not down my road yet, but in the next couple of Months if they get planning permission they will be installing down my road, basically they are installing in the E12 area.

Paul

There is rural and rural. It is a vague and often misunderstood term
My understanding is that they will not be going into the real rural areas but will be going into the larger towns in rural areas

Lets start with a few basics. There are about 25 Million homes in the UK with about 50% passed by VM so about 12 Million so currently about 12.5 Million homes not served by VM so VM are looking to expand their coverage by about one third and the only way they can achieve that is by going into the larger rural towns, These are not small town you are probably looking at towns in the region of 50,000 people

Perhaps it's just me but I can't find the quote:

GAP FILL and not expand to rural areas

anywhere in the above mentioned press release.

They won't be doing much of Wales then

There is nothing the press release about backfilling as such the nearest they get is with this

"Network expansion will be prioritised according to demand from households and companies, with a focus on areas closest to Virgin Media�s existing network.

In reply to a post by Bob_s2:

VM is a pure commercial operator BT is not. The government subsidised rollout is bring Broadband to rural areas. VM are hardly going to try to compete with a subsidised rollout

More of the usual rubbish one has come to expect from your posts.

In reply to a post by WelshWArrior:

Perhaps it's just me but I can't find the quote:

GAP FILL and not expand to rural areas

anywhere in the above mentioned press release.

Same here, nor the first quote of "because that is BT's job". I do wish people wouldnt make quotes up and pass them off as though its in the press release.

I think this news should be welcomed by all Internet consumers. Competition is good for us. It's also a good sign that the market is opening up, finally.

I nearly fell off my chair - VM doing a significant expansion! Unheard of since ... since, well, ever!

For VM, this counts as fresh territory, so they'll have to dig a lot of streets - and the budget shows it. £3bn for 14% of the UK to put new cable into streets, vs the £2.5bn for BT to reach 67% with FTTC.

No they won't lots of distinctly urban left they can cover.

Manchester 100,000+ premises not covered by cable
Lewisham 40,000+
Barnet 80,000+
Greenwich 30,000+
Newcastle 40,000+
Leeds 100,000+
Liverpool 30,000+

The numbers very quickly add up

Just as I thought. I shouldn't moan though - my cab (SWTB cab3) is finally going live with fibre in the next week according to Superfast Wales