Network will be based on existing customers’ hot spots
Following in the steps of other service providers bolstering public networks by piggybacking on private hot spots, Virgin Media this week announced it’s planning a free, public Wi-Fi deployment in the United Kingdom using its Super Hub hot spots.
The U.S. analogy would be what cable providers Time Warner Cable and Comcast have done. Time Warner customers can access some 400,000 hot spots run by Time Warner or partner operators. Comcast claims more than 8 million Wi-Fi hot spots, concentrated on the East and West coasts, with some areas so densely covered the network can support voice-over-Wi-Fi service.
“The public hot spot will be powered by additional bandwidth being sent to the router, which will be accessed via a separate IP address,” a Virgin Media spokesman told Pocket-lint.com.
For its part, the company is selling the upcoming service as secure for customers and a good way to save money on mobile data use.
“We’ll switch on a separate Internet connection to your Super Hub,” the company said, “which will become part of the Wi-Fi network But don’t worry, the broadband you love and pay for will stay exclusively yours – and remain just as secure. It’s the perfect way to enjoy free Wi-Fi and keep your data usage down, too. With our clever service, you can automatically connect to smooth, speedy Wi-Fi wherever it’s available. That means you can crack on with tweeting, Whatsapping, Facebooking and more on the go, without eating up your mobile data allowance.”
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Virgin Media’s dedicated webpage makes no mention of anticipated data rates.
This is just one aspect of Virgin Media’s network plans. In February, the company announced Project Lightning, an ambitious plan to spend more than $4.6 billion to bring broadband Internet to 4 million homes and businesses in the U.K.
Virgin touts the claimed 152 megabits-per-second data speed as “at least” twice as fast as competitor offerings; and the company’s CEO even name-checked carrier BT, which also operates in the U.K. broadband space.
“In virtually all of the areas we have identified for expansion,” CEO Tom Mockridge said, “BT is the only option available right now. Its aging copper telephony wires are not capable of the ultrafast connectivity that Virgin Media delivers.”