Virgin Media Trials Broadband Via Electricity Poles

Virgin Media continues to look at non-traditional ways of expanding its network to rural areas, after announcing a trial that will provide superfast broadband via a fibre cable run across power poles.

Residents of the Welsh village of Crumlin, Caerphilly, will be the first in the UK to test out broadband delivered over existing electricity poles. This is because Virgin Media has signed an agreement with Surf Telecoms, a Western Power distribution company.

Crumlin was previously connected to BT’s copper-based network, but the fibre trial will allow local residents to achieve speeds of up to 50Mbps, and will enable them, to receive Virgin Media’s TV service if they want. The trial will start next month and is scheduled to run into 2011.

New Ideas

Back in March, Virgin Media announced a proof of concept trial that used telegraph poles to deliver fibre 50Mbps broadband to the Berkshire village of Woolhampton.

Virgin Media’s existing cable network reaches approximately 12.7 million homes in the UK, which is a little over 50 percent of UK homes. The company has already announced plans to extend its fibre optic network to 500,000 new homes, and when Virgin Media spoke to eWEEK Europe UK back in June, it confirmed it was talking with utility companies to expand its UK footprint.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has previously warned utility companies that he would resort to legislation to force them to open up their ducting and other assets so that superfast broadband could be delivered.

“We’re already bringing broadband speeds of up to 50Mb and, soon 100Mb, to over half of all UK homes and are pushing the boundaries to ensure that homes right across the UK benefit from ultrafast broadband,” said Jon James, executive director of broadband, Virgin Media.

“Working in partnership with companies like Surf Telecoms, we can more rapidly and efficiently expand the reach of fibre optic networks to towns, villages and communities right across the UK,” he added.

A Virgin Media spokesman told eWEEK Europe UK that running fibre via electricity poles does not entail overly complex considerations. “As we are deploying fibre, which is glass, there is no interferance issue,” said the Virgin Media spokesman. “There are no special considerations for deploying fibre over electricity poles instead of telegraph poles.”

Affordable Rural Broadband?

“We don’t need to turn off the power, and the deployment will be done by professional engineers who will ensure no power disruption,” he added. The engineers will be a combination of Virgin Media and Western Power teams.

“This trial has potentially huge benefit for rolling out broadband services to rural areas,” said the spokesman. “The potential is massive, especially for Wales, as it could see us adding another two million homes to our network as we roll out to other parts of Wales.”

The regulator Ofcom revealed today that many broadband providers still advertise speeds which consumers are not able to receive. Specifically, Ofcom said that, while the average speed had gone up, the percentage of the advertised speed that was being achieved had actually fallen from 58 percent in 2009 to 45 percent in 2010.

“Today’s Ofcom announcement shows a clear difference between urban and rural broadband speeds,” said the Virgin Media spokesman. “Our competition seems to be focusing only on upgrading their own network where they already offer broadband services, whereas we are looking to expand our network to new areas. We are looking to create new models that can demonstrate to regulators that it can be commercially viable to deliver superfast broadband to these remote areas.”

“Western Power Distribution’s electricity infrastructure reaches over 2.5 million homes across South West England and South and West Wales and, with this trial, we’re exploring an innovative new approach that could bring ultrafast broadband to many customers for the first time,” said Richard Doble, design and policy manager at Surf Telecoms. “The possibilities of aerial deployment promise a valuable use of existing infrastructure and an interesting new commercial opportunity for utility companies. We’re pleased to be at the forefront of this innovation.”