Virgin Media tests 8Gbps home broadband service

A six-month hearing of hyperfast broadband technology will see 50 homeowners in a encampment of Papworth, Cambridgeshire, accept a broadband tie means of delivering download speeds of 8Gbps, some-more than 216 times a UK domestic average.

The trials are being conducted by internet use provider (ISP) Virgin Media regulating extended Ethernet Passive Optical Networking (Epon) apparatus and program grown by networking record retailer Arris, that will run over Virgin Media’s existent fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) broadband network.

This is not a initial time a residents of Papworth have taken partial in trials of new broadband smoothness technology. The area served as an origination testbed for Virgin Media and hosted tests of 1Gbps FTTP services 5 years ago, as good as for trials of slight trenching deployment – a methodology that aims to minimise intrusion to internal highway infrastructure during network builds.

“Whether it’s streaming UHD cinema on Netflix, personification a latest games online or video conferencing, faster internet connectors have altered a lives immeasurably over a past decade,” pronounced Richard Sinclair, Virgin Media executive executive of connectivity. “As speed leaders, Virgin Media is not going to mount still – this hearing is about looking forward to a subsequent decade and beyond.

“With a volume of a customers’ internet use roughly doubling each year, trials like this will safeguard we have a capability to accommodate a direct of data-hungry services in a future, be that over wire or full-fibre.”

The 8Gbps tests were exclusively accurate by SamKnows, a broadband use peculiarity checker, and central partner of telecoms regulator Ofcom, that had to fast-track a origination of a new use checking apparatus in sequence to lend a expertise.

“We magnitude broadband speeds around a universe and this hearing has been delivering speeds distant in additional of what we typically see in customers’ homes,” pronounced Sam Crawford, owner and CTO of SamKnows.

“By regulating SamKnows approved measurements, Virgin Media was means to low troubleshoot issues fast and consistently to broach innovative multi-gigabit speeds to genuine customers.”

Virgin Media pronounced an 8Gbps broadband tie could download ultra-HD 4K films and TV shows in a matter of seconds, compared with about 15 mins on an normal connection. A vast gaming file, such as Red Dead Redemption, that clocks in during 99GB of data, would take dual minutes, compared with 5 hours on an normal connection.

Applied futurologist and author Tom Cheesewright, who reviewed a hearing as an eccentric observer, said: “Each new jump in internet speeds has spurred a new turn of origination in digital services.

“Today we are only starting to glance a immersive communication and party opportunities that speeds like this will enable, bringing a earthy and digital worlds together into a rich, interactive environment.”