Virgin Media's network passes 17.8 million homes

Virgin Media have now passed 17,770,100 homes, up by 1 million from the same time last year.

Of these, around 5.3 million are full fibre connections, with 1.6 million contributed to by Nexfibre's wholesale network rollout.

The provider also reports 5,726,900 fixed-line broadband customers as of Q3 2024, up by around 18,000 on the year before.

Credit: Sharaf Maksumov/Shutterstock.com

Virgin Media broadband coverage

Virgin Media's latest results report for Q3 2024, up to the 30th September 2024, has revealed a current footprint of 17,770,100 ready-to-connect homes.

That's an increase of around 1 million since the Q3 2023 report, when they had a footprint of 16,700,700 homes.

The coverage figure includes both Virgin Media's existing network, and the new network being built by Nexfibre, a wholesale initiative created by the parent companies of Virgin Media and O2.

Nexfibre are plugging gaps in Virgin Media's existing network, only building in areas without any Virgin Media coverage, so that new towns can get Virgin's gigabit-capable broadband and TV services.

As of 30th September 2024, Nexfibre themselves have reported a coverage figure of just under 1.6 million, or 1,557,000 premises passed to be exact.

By the end of 2026, Virgin Media aims to reach a total of 23 million homes, with 5 million of those built by Nexfibre as part of a £4.5 billion investment to rival Openreach and CityFibre's full fibre build targets of 25 million and 8 million respectively.

Full fibre competition

The UK's broadband market is a hot competition right now, with multiple networks vying to connect as many homes as they can to new full fibre to the home technology.

Openreach, Virgin Media/Nexfibre, and CityFibre, are currently the three biggest full fibre networks, with full fibre coverage figures of 15.2 million, 5.3 million, and 3.9 million, respectively.

At the recent Connected Britain 2024 event in London, held in September 2024, Lutz Schüler, CEO of Virgin Media O2, commented on the company's future plans to merge Virgin Media and Nexfibre's networks and become a wholesale provider for other altnets.

Schüler said that Virgin Media O2 would become a "long-term sustainable partner" for other independent networks, whilst also remaining open to acquisition opportunities, as long as they add new footprint coverage to their network.

He mentioned how Virgin Media O2 could sign up Sky, Vodafone, TalkTalk, and other resellers in the future, as each already works with Openreach and CityFibre, with Sky's CityFibre partnership now confirmed for 2025.

Schüler said, "Look at Sky, Vodafone, and TalkTalk. They are the biggest ISPs, and they wouldn't do their job - they don't have their own networks - if they wouldn't use an Openreach, a CityFibre, and also a Virgin Media network. And that will happen. So, therefore, [the deal is] not really a surprise."

Virgin Media and CityFibre already offer a multi-gigabit broadband package, with Virgin Media's Gig2 plan offering 2Gbps download and optional symmetrical uploads across their full fibre connections.

CityFibre also offers a 2.2Gbps plan through Vodafone, while Openreach's top speed is just 1.6Gbps, also available with Vodafone.

While Openreach has the greatest full fibre coverage figure, they also have some work to do, with plans of their own to upgrade existing connections from GPON to XGS-PON, with download speeds up to 10Gbps, in line with CityFibre and Nexfibre.