News
Competition reopens enabling local residents, businesses to vote for cableco to wire up their community.
Virgin Media this week revealed the 10 locations that will get fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) connections following a competitive voting process.
The cableco’s ‘Supercharging Local Communities’ scheme encouraged local residents and businesses to vote for their community to receive high-speed connectivity as part of Project Lightning – Virgin Media’s £3 billion (€3.92 billion) network in-fill programme.
More than 7,000 votes were cast between 29 February and 29 April, and the 10 winners have now been revealed (see below for the full list).
"The collective support and demand from across the U.K. has exceeded our expectations and we’re delighted to be supercharging these 10 areas with ultrafast fibre broadband and top notch entertainment," said Paul Buttery, COO of Virgin Media, in a statement on Monday.
"This is fantastic news for the communities who will now be able to benefit from all that ultrafast broadband offers," added digital economy minister Ed Vaizey.
Virgin Media said voting has reopened for the next round of Supercharging Local Communities; the winners will be announced later this year.
"Investing and delivering better connectivity in these communities shows that ultrafast broadband isn’t just for the big cities – we urge more communities to come together and register their interest," Buttery said.
The 10 winning communities:
Kirknewton (West Lothian)
Houston, Crosslee, Craigends and Brookfield (Renfrewshire)
Bridge of Weir (Renfrewshire)
Ratby (Leicestershire)
Wilsden (West Yorkshire)
Kilmacolm (Inverclyde)
Stoke Poges (Buckinghamshire)
Lightwater (Surrey)
Hartley Wintney and Phoenix Green (Hampshire)
Oakley (Dorset)
