Following a promising trial with Nortel and Juniper Virgin Media has announced that it will begin rolling out 50Gbps network services later this year.

On trials testing a connection over a Virgin network on a 350km stretch between London and Manchester, the companies claim that they achieved broadband speeds of up to 40Gbps, although it is hoped that speeds of up to 100Gbps could be accomplished on this system.

Speaking on the successful trial, Daniel Hennessy, director of technical architecture at Virgin Media, said in a statement: “Our aim for this trial was to ensure that we continue to meet the growing capacity needs of the high-speed services we deliver,” he continued. “Our optical network will provide a solid foundation for growth as it takes advantage of technology designed to avoid electrical regeneration and, where possible, reduce the incremental cost of scaling transport capacity.”

Once the new system is put into place, Virgin Media plan to offer four different speed packages of 2Gbps, 10Gbps, 20Gbps and 50Gbps. Although an official date hasn’t been announced, the release should be later in the year.

Source: Vnunet.com

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