Virgin Media has announced plans to boost the top speed of its fibre-optic home broadband service to 152Mbps, more than doubling the velocity on offer through BT Infinity.
The roll-out will begin in February 2014, lifting the current top speeds of around 100-120Mbps, apparently without those customers on the top package having to upgrade their service.
The company claims that customers on lower monthly other tariffs should see also their download velocity increase by "at least 20Mpbs."
Virgin said that the speed boost will be available in all 12.5m supported homes within 12 months of the initial roll-out and is encouraging customers to keep tabs via a postcode checker.
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Double down
The new top speeds will give Virgin Media a huge advantage over BT's top download rate of around 76Mbps, but BT Infinity is available in more UK homes (around 17 million).
"Virgin Media is launching internet speeds next year which will be twice as fast as any other widely available service," the company said. "The UK's leading broadband company is set to introduce an ultrafast 152Mb speed that's far beyond BT, as well as significantly boost speeds for existing customers.
"The country's fastest widely available broadband is going to get even faster with Virgin Media delivering speeds at least double what all the providers dependent on BT's network can claim. Such speeds will be available to the 12.5 million homes across the country served by Virgin Media's superior fibre optic cable network."
It's not all good news for Virgin Media customers though as the company tempered the announcement with news that its prices will rise by an average of 6.9 per cent next year.
The company is yet to release details of when and how the changes will be applied to the various packages.
