Around 2.5m Virgin Media broadband customers are on superfast connections as the speed-doubling programme passes more than 85 per cent of its network.
Read more about Recombu Digital’s UK Broadband Customer League TableThe first three months of 2013 saw 337,900 more Virgin Media customers on over-30Mbps connections, with 37,400 completely new broadband customers.
The latest figures secure Virgin’s second place among UK broadband providers – some 60,000 ahead of Sky – at least until Sky’s first-quarter results come out.
Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media, said: “The great value we provide through our Collections packages, which bundle superfast broadband and our next generation TiVo service, has seen new customers join and our existing customers stay loyal to us.
“This positive momentum in the business positions us well for our planned merger with Liberty Global.”
Across the business, Virgin is still nipping at Sky’s heels in the race for triple-play customers taking broadband, TV and phone services, with 3.19m customers – 17,500 more than at the end of 2012, and 100,000 more than it had a year ago.
That’s against Sky’s 3.54m triple-play punters, but Sky’s latest results will be revealed soon, and it’s unlikely to announce a fall in its own most-loyal segment.
Ironically, Virgin has also signed a five-year deal to provide Sky Broadband with network backhaul (between exchanges and the wider internet), along with mobile backhaul from cell towers for Telefonica (owner of O2) and an un-named ‘large UK mobile operator’.
It already provides backhaul services for the other UK mobile networks, making it a key strategic player in the UK’s broadband infrastructure as well as an ISP in its own right.
EE fixed broadband holding steady
EE also released first-quarter results today, adding just 1,000 broadband subscribers as it promotes fibre broadband at the expense of pokey old copper DSL.
That’s better than the 29,000 it lost in the three months prior to Christmas 2012, and brings broadband subscriber losses for the past year down to 19,000.
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