Virgin plans world's fastest broadband

Telecoms and cable company Virgin Media unveiled plans to trial the world's fastest broadband yesterday as it reported growing demand for lightning-quick internet connections.

The company said it would test speeds of up to 1.5 gigabits per second - more than ten times faster than its current premium service of 100 megabits per second and 240 times quicker than the UK average.

The trials will begin this month at four companies in an area of London dubbed "silicon roundabout", but the service will eventually be offered to homes as well as offices.

Virgin Media said the speeds were possible because it had invested 13 billion in fibre-optic networks. The announcement came as the Hampshire-based company revealed customer growth had slowed in the three months to 31 March, with 128,600 new product users, compared to 232,300 in the first quarter of 2010.

But 39 per cent of new subscribers asked for speeds of 20 megabits a second or more, compared to 15 per cent a year ago.

Virgin Media, which is listed on both the London Stock Exchange and New York's Nasdaq, said operating profit for the period grew 58.9 per cent year-on-year to 111 million on revenues of 982m.