Virgin Media O2 announces network upgrades

Virgin Media O2 has announced a host of network upgrades, investment and digital inclusion initiatives across Yorkshire, supporting the home of the UK’s fastest growing digital industry. The company continues to invest billions of pounds in upgrading the UK to help communities remain connected, which has resulted in job creation and partnerships with City Councils to support local digital programmes.

Yorkshire now has next gen 5G coverage provided by Virgin Media O2 reaching over 50% of the population across 100 locations, including Leeds, York, Sheffield and Wakefield. Access to superfast network speeds and capacity means residents can better stream their favourite TV shows and movies, work remotely and on the go, video call friends and family and play games online.

With recent Virgin Media O2 research showing 85% of Northerners believe access to the internet is essential to living their life³, the company has also invested in significantly upgrading its 4G network, the backbone of mobile connectivity around the country. Over 61,000 postcodes have been upgraded across Yorkshire, including 13700 postcodes in North Yorkshire, 15,200 in South Yorkshire, 25,700 in West Yorkshire and 6,400 in East Riding of Yorkshire¹.

Virgin Media O2 has continued to act on its pledge to invest over £10 billion pounds to upgrade the UK, with over £188 million spent across Yorkshire in recent years. Through the company’s Project Lightning programme, ultrafast broadband has been made available to over 324,000 additional homes and businesses in the region. That includes 24,500 premises in North Yorkshire, 128,600 in South Yorkshire and 171,100 in West Yorkshire. The investment has seen over 900 jobs either created or secured, as well as additional contracts with local firms, to help build the required infrastructure to keep the region connected.

Virgin Media O2 also kicked off trials last month in Skipton, North Yorkshire, to switch on state-of-the-art XGS-PON technology on its live full-fibre network for a few hundred lucky recipients. XGS-PON is a new standard of passive optical networks which enables data to be sent and received over fibre optic cables, supporting multi-gigabit and symmetrical broadband speeds, as well as more reliable connections, in the future.

The telecoms company signed a barrier busting charter with Sheffield City Council in 2020 to unlock further digital investment. This paved the way for over 24,000 premises to be added to its network in the city, and Virgin Media O2 continues to further expand its network with the charter providing clarity and opportunities for both the council and company to work together in bringing investment to the City.

Virgin Media O2 also continues to work with digital inclusion charity, Good Things Foundation, based in Sheffield, on digital inclusion programmes aiming to improve the digital skills and confidence of two million people by the end of 2025.

Virgin Media O2 is trialling the National Databank, which is like a foodbank but for free mobile data, texts, and calls at the O2 store in Hull (Jameson Street), which is offering 20GB of free O2 data per month for six months to help people most affected by the cost-of-living crisis to get online.