A leading telecommunications provider specialising in providing various services to businesses across the country, Virgin Media Business Ltd is a subsidiary of Virgin Media – formerly known as ntl:Telewest until the 11th of February 2010.
Over the years, Virgin Media Business have established a sturdy reputation thanks to their ability to consistently monitor the IT environment and seize upcoming opportunities – no matter how simplistic or complex. Since they were first initially established in the business and telecommunications industry, Virgin Media Business have become a nationally recognised enterprise which continues to grow today.
The History of Virgin Media Business
During 2010, Virgin Media Business became the very first telecommunications company across the globe to re-certify their Ethernet portfolio with MEF (Metro Ethernet Forum). In February of the same year, Virgin Media Business was launched as a popular alternative to British Telecom. The ethos of the business was simple – to offer good value for money and comprehensive services to businesses across the country. Later in the same month, Virgin Media Business gave its support to the fibre-optic network in the UK government, to underpin the Public Services Network. In 2010, Virgin Media launched their first unconstrained internet access service, known as “Big Red Internet”.
Over the course of the years, the business subsidiary of Virgin Media has accomplished a significant number of things. Let’s take a look at a brief timeline:
- February 2011: A data centre module is launched, offering carrier-grade connectivity to data providers throughout the UK. The module offers opportunities to connect up to 8,000 customers with speeds of up to 10Gbits a second
- September 2011: Virgin Media Business takes the first step into cloud computing with a range of cloud products and services, including the Virtual Private Data Centre
- February 2012: The company gets the go ahead to provide cloud computing in the public centre with the G-Cloud framework initiative
- September 2012: Virgin Media Business launched Generation IP – a gigantic research project designed to help create a hyper-connected Britain by 2025
- May 2013: Virgin Media Business announce a five-year contract providing Sky with backhaul network capacities. The contract is valued at £49 million and gives a third of Sky’s unbundled exchanges speeds of up to 10Gbits a second using high-capacity services
- June 2013: Virgin Media becomes a part of the Liberty Global PLC – the largest broadband communications group in the world. From that point, Virgin Media and Liberty Global move on to serve 25 million customers over 14 countries
- March 2014: Through Virgin Media Business, TRUSTNet is launched throughout the UK by the London Grid for Lending. This project saved London schools around £100 million over three years, and enables around 23,500 educational facilities to access the latest technology without excessive cost
- April 2014: Virgin Media Business launches the first UK state-of-the-nation review into the role that technology plays in education with “Generation Tech”. Richard Branson invites 20,000 schools across the country to share how technology helps them to shape the future of children
- May 2014: Virgin Media Business creates a partnership with LondonPSN that allows for a ground-breaking alternative to satellite trucks – allowing the BBC to send footage through the internet instead of through satellite connections
Virgin Media Business Services
Currently, Virgin Media Business is the only telecommunications company in the UK with a nationwide Next-Generation fibre-optic network. Because they use fibre at the core of every service that they offer, Virgin Media Business IP technology provides exceptional scalability and flexibility to a range of companies, with Ethernet services that support highly versatile communication applications.
Virgin Media Business allows companies to constantly refresh the way that they access the Virgin media network, and the applications that they use within it. At present, the company holds the largest private network for fibre optic within the United Kingdom, with more than 38,000 street cabinets and 330 Ethernet Pops.
According to Virgin Media Business, their networks currently handle around 86,000 calls a minute, without coming anywhere near capacity. What’s more, the network has 38,000 breakout points, 186,000km of fibre cable and more. Virgin Media Business are a Cisco Gold partner and they have also established themselves as the first organisation in the UK to receive full PSN certification. What’s more, Virgin Media Business are the first organisation with a national security Cas(T) 2-2-4 certification.
Across the nation, Virgin Media Business delivers business solutions for voice and internet, carrying over half a terabyte of information every second. On top of that, their network includes around 162 telephony switches throughout the UK, which gives them a unique ability to offer services to mobile operators, network operators, and ISPs.
