Broadband brownie points for Virgin

Virgin Media plans to bump everybody on its 2Mbit/s broadband service straight up to a minimum 10Mbit/s – at no extra cost apparently. For people languishing on what Lord Carter's Digital Britain report says will be the target download speed to aim for by 2012, Virgin's altruism seems very laudable.

The brownie points earned by Virgin Media with this announcement will be banked in May, just a month after Lord Carter's final, final Digital Britain report sees the light of day. With BT still rolling out 24Mbit/s – for people close to their local phone exchange - the Virgin Media upgrade looks like another turning of its broadband speed dial. Being able to say that on average, your download bandwidth is greater than BT's, always goes down well with salespeople.

By Dave Bailey