Virgin Media Replies To BT Infinity Threat

Virgin Media has commented on the announcement by BT of the impending launch of its fibre-optic based Infinity product which will propose download speeds of up to 40mbps with upload speeds reaching 10mbps.

It said that BT's suggestion that users might be saving up to £7.47 per month compared to Virgin Media's own XXL service is not entirely true for a number of reason. Firstly, it offers only a 20GB download quota while Virgin Media's packages are unlimited.

Then prospective customers don't have to take their phone lines with Virgin Media, unlike BT's and then there's the fact BT Infinity is likely to come with an 18 months contract rather than Virgin's shorter 12 months one.

On top of that a Virgin Media Spokesperson said "We're not sure why people in the UK would want to wait for BT's 40Mbps service which hasn't launched yet, when they can already get Virgin Media's great value 50Mbps service" before adding that already 12.5 million households across the country can access the company's top 50mbps broadband service.

BT, on the other hand, says that its product will be available to four million homes initially before being rolled out to an additional six million others by mid 2012.

Then there's the fact that Virgin Media has already been looking into launching a 200mbps service since May 2009, something which it says would come depending on market conditions.