Hot off the press is the long predicted move that Virgin are rolling out their 50mbs broadband service in the UK! The press release is very “dawning of a new era” and “seismic change” but basically it means that 12 million UK homes will have the potentional to download a music album in about 11 seconds, a TV show in about 1 minute and HD film in about 15 minutes…according to Virgin!
Also interesting is that the release quotes a YouGov poll that found that 53% of Brits are watching TV programs or clips online. Also the amount of data consumed by most bits has doubled in the last 18 months and will quadruple over the next 2 years. That’s the iPlayer for you, but this probably means that downloading the HD version on a whim is probably very easy! Ian has a tip floating about on how to do this on Media Center.
It looks like your 50mbps package will cost you £35 a month (or £51 if you don’t want a phone) and will include a very nice looking Wireless N router (technically it’s a DOCSIS3 network if you care). It’s available now here and will be UK wide by summer 2009, with 40% of the UK covered in the next 3 weeks. See if its available for you yet with the postcode checker. If you happen to be on the 10mb or 20mb package already you’ll be moved onto the new network and should see a stability increase.
Who’s upgrading then? I live with a 2mb connection all the time which is perfectly good enough for me….comment….
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I’ve just checked my postcode and it’s not available in my area yet.
Not available for me either, in the Midlands. I’m on the 10Mb currently and it’s already faser than most websites, so 50Mb is only going to be for serious downloaders. At the moment, anyway.
Gotta say I’m with you, 50mb is OTT in my oppinion – I’ve got a 10mb upgrade for the month and it doesn’t “feel” different when I’m doing stuff generally and I schedule my downloads overnight….still looking into the future the ability to download complete movies in propper HD on demand will be good (an I guess that’s a service V will probably offer at some point)
oh yeah, and I can’t get it either
I’m on 20mb – came as an offer, but I know I don’t use it’s full capability – perhaps I should download some torrent software and collect everything on my MCE that I can’t store on my V+ box over Xmas. Would that be a good defense case…I could get it legally, but my V+ box was full
)
no 50mb for me, or even any cable!
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