Virgin Net has denied it is to dump cable company NTL and replace it with Cable & Wireless although it has confirmed that there have been problems with its technology partner. A spokeswoman for Virgin Net said that some Sunday newspapers had simply got the wrong end of the stick although she did say that NTL's contract was due for renewal at the end of the year. She also confirmed that Virgin Net -- which now has 250,000 users -- was looking at the possibility of dual sourcing and bringing another telco on board to underpin other parts of the service. Cable & Wireless is one of the companies Virgin Net has spoken to about dual sourcing, she said. According to Virgin Net, much has already been done with NTL to increase the bandwidth. US-based bandwidth is set to double in the coming months and the pipe to Europe will increase eight-fold in the next three weeks. A spokesman for NTL was unavailable for comment at press time. ®