Virgin Media cool on cable wholesale plans
As you were
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Virgin Media has denied a report it has secret plans to wholesale access to its cable network to broadband and phone competitors next year.
The Guardian today claimed chief executive Neil Berkett wants to open up Virgin Media's infrastructure in 18 months' time.
The firm has long considered following BT's Openreach setup by creating a separate division to provide engineering support to rival retailers. Today a spokesman said such a move remains under consideration, but no decision has been taken and no schedule drawn up.
"The report in this morning's edition of the Guardian does not reflect Virgin Media's position and we have no plans to develop a wholesale proposition," the spokesman said.
"In the context of the government's Digital Britain initiative and Ofcom's recent review of next generation access, we have considered a range of strategic options but currently remain focused on delivering market leading retail services."
In its recent submission to Lord Carter's Digital Britain review, Sky said it believed Virgin Media's closed network was "increasingly anomalous".
In public, Berkett has consistently hedged on whether his firm would allow to competition. In December he said it was "not inconceivable".
The firm appears to have the luxury of choice for the forseeable future. Ofcom recently said it has no immediate plans to force an open cable network because Virgin Media is investing in broadband upgrades. ®
COMMENTS
Ah. Virgin Media...
I had VM installed last week. The engineers were completely incompetent - they tacked the cable OVER the pavement and then covered it with a ridge of cement - they ran a cable up the back of the drainpipe and used STICKY TAPE to secure it, and they managed to rip several holes in my flatmate's rug, which they then helpfully rolled up and put out of the way so that we wouldn't notice until after they'd gone.
Still, I should be grateful they turned up at all seeing as they were due to install it 2 weeks beforehand but cancelled it without bothering to tell me.
Public Purse?
"BTW the difference with BT would be that BT's infrastructure was paid for by the public purse, whereas the cable infrastructure was paid for by commercial borrowing against future revenue."
I'm not sure the GPO installed all that many DSLAMs really. Or a backbone ATM network. Or any ISP infrastructure at all. At best you can say that BT got a head start over the competition and regulation was put in place to give the newcomers a chance to catch up - which they do indeed seem to have done.
I'm off to the Mini dealer to demand one at cost price as nationalisation in the 70's means that anything with a Mini badge on it must have been paid for from the public purse....
Old News
Isn't this antique news?. AOL has been using the Virgin Media network for year
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