broadband news

Virgin plans on rolling out 50Mbps broadband connections in 2008

Will cable dominate the market over ADSL as the internet trends requiring increased broadband bandwidth go beyond even the boundaries that ADSL can deliver? ADSL2 may be becoming more popular, and affordable, but bandwidth heavy online applications - including software such as the BBC's increasingly popular iPlayer - are continuously growing and stretching the limits of ADSL. And cable broadband is promising to deliver more and more compared to even ADSL2.

There is also increasing interest in online video content, and it all demands that broadband services provide bandwidth beyond ADSL's capabilities. But is 50Mbps broadband going to be attractive enough to ADSL broadband users who might not want to pay such a premium over their current ADSL or ADSL2 broadband, or even 20Mbps cable, packages?

With concerns among ISPs that their ADSL broadband structures will soon be struggling under the increased strain, Virgin Media believe it knows the future and is set to introduce core broadband network structures providing broadband speeds to users of 50Mbps - much more than ADSL.

To further dent the future of ADSL, during recent trials Virgin tested a cable broadband connection over a Virgin network on a 350km stretch between London and Manchester. Dwarfing ADSL broadband speeds, it is claimed that they achieved broadband speeds of up to 40Gbps.

Virgin Media believes that these core cable broadband systems, which the company uses rather than ADSL, could eventually support broadband speeds of up to 100Gbps. The provider will also have no need to replace the fibre linking the major nodes to achieve these broadband speeds.

50Mbps broadband is already coming, so what's next for ADSL?


23/05/2008
Author: CompareBroadbandUK staff writer

Next broadband news story

Mobile internet users predicted to exceed one million by end of 2008
- It has been estimated that the increasing popularity of mobile broadband will soon see the number of users exceed one million.
24/05/2008

Read all our broadband news stories

Sign up to our broadband newsletterStay updated with our free broadband and mobile broadband newsletter.