Virgin Media announces 50Mbps customer boost

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Virgin Media has been in a generous mood of late, and on top of its program of speed upgrades, an extra boost has now been announced for those on 50Mbps lines.

If you missed it, last week Virgin said it was rolling out a £110 million spend to increase the speed of all its broadband lines. 10Mbps customers will be doubled up to 20Mbps lines, and 20Mbps along with 30Mbps increased to 60Mbps.
The 50Mbps package was to become 100Mbps, and the top tier 100Mbps lines boosted to 120Mbps. Upstream speeds and fair usage allowances are set to double up, as well. However, it seems Virgin accidentally sent out some emails to 50Mbps customers telling them their line speed will be increased to 120Mbps, not 100Mbps.
The company has now decided to make good on this erroneous promise, so 50Mbps packages will be more than doubled up to 120Mbps. The good news is that this move comes at no extra cost, and indeed 100Mbps customers being upgraded to 120Mbps will see the price of their package cut to the current 50Mbps price, £35 per month.
Virgin’s upgrade program begins next month and continues on through to the middle of 2013. 50Mbps customers will initially get bumped up to 100Mbps, before accelerating to 120Mbps when the roll out goes live in their area. All good news for higher end Virgin customers, then. BT has been planning to double up its FTTC service for some time now, from 40Mbps to 80Mbps, and this should start to happen in the spring. Virgin’s move is doubtless a reaction to this upgrade, but obviously still a very welcome one.