ARRIS Works with Virgin Media to Field True Multi-gigabit Broadband Trial

 

By Bruce McClelland, CEO

We mentioned last month that 10G broadband trials will move quickly. Well today, we are proud to talk about the work we have been doing with Virgin Media in the U.K. to successfully trial very high-speed multi-gigabit broadband connections to residential consumers.

With the announcement, Virgin extends their global leadership — their trial includes 50 residences with speeds of 8.5 Gigabits per second (Gbps)! ARRIS engineers played an integral role in realizing today’s announcement:

• We created a passive optical network approach that achieves these unprecedented speeds with minimal additional costs or investments. By provisioning DOCSIS over an Ethernet passive optical network, Virgin Media could use their existing radio-frequency-over-glass equipment and simply overlay the new capabilities. That’s a huge cost and investment saving and achieves progress with minimal disruption.

• We helped Virgin go from installation to live service for its first subscribers in just 12 weeks. ARRIS provided the network design concept, project plan, and sent an expert support team. This really emphasizes the flexibility and latent capability of the existing Fiber and DOCSIS networks.

• We helped regulators in the U.K. accurately measure the network’s symmetrical performance. This new network is so fast, the firm benchmarking these new networks for the country’s Ofcom regulator had to create an entirely new tool to work at these speeds. That’s a great problem to have, for sure.

At ARRIS, we love to roll up our sleeves and do the hard work of realizing our customers’ goals.

Congratulations to the terrific team at Virgin Media - and to the 50 households who now have some of the fastest residential technology in the world.