• A €200m investment upgrading fibre to more than 1 million homes and businesses across the Virgin Media Ireland network.  
• Enabling speeds of up to 10Gbps for Virgin Media broadband customers. 
• Providing wholesale opportunities by opening up third party access to the Virgin Media network.  
• Creation of 500 jobs in support of Virgin Media Ireland’s mission to supercharge communities with fibre broadband.  

   

Ireland, 04 November 2021: Virgin Media Ireland has today announced plans to upgrade their broadband network to full fibre, commencing in early 2022. The company also revealed it has already successfully piloted a fibre upgrade of 500 premises, delivering speeds of up to 10Gbps (Gigabits per second), with the plan now to extend to 1 million premises nationwide. The project is expected to take three years to complete. 

  

Virgin Media’s broadband network already provides Ireland’s fastest broadband, offering 1 Gigabit speeds. This new €200m investment will bolster Virgin Media’s long-term network strategy, providing customers with far greater speeds and choice, fuel future Irish connectivity needs and underpin digital innovation for consumers, businesses, and communities nationwide.  

Virgin Media Ireland has announced a €200m investment to upgrade our broadband network to full fibre, delivering speeds up to 10 Gbps for 1m homes and businesses over the next three years. CEO Tony Hanway said this will create 500 jobs during the build phase and will further significantly reduce the network’s carbon footprint.

In addition, Virgin Media has signalled an intention to provide wholesale access to third party service providers. 

 

The €200m fibre investment is backed by Liberty Global, Virgin Media Ireland’s parent company. 

 

Tony Hanway, CEO of Virgin Media, said:  

 

“At Virgin Media we’re committed to innovating for our customers and investing in Ireland’s long-term digital future. We’re now accelerating the evolution of our network by building out full fibre to more than one million Irish homes and businesses over the next 3 years.”

 

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD said:

 

“I welcome the announcement by Virgin Media that it will undertake a full national fibre upgrade, which will see the further delivery of very high speed broadband to homes and businesses.

 

“Continued investments by commercial operators such as this bring benefits for consumers. Together with the Government’s investment under the National Broadband Plan, this will place Ireland at the forefront of EU countries in terms of Gigabit connectivity.”

 

ENDS