The five-year, multi-million pound deal will see Virgin Media Business upgrade Three’s backhaul services through its nationwide fibre optic network. The new service will provide better connections between the company’s 15 aggregation sites, already underpinned by Virgin Media Business via MBNL, the 50:50 network joint venture between Three and EE, and three core data centres across the UK.
As more people switch to LTE phones, mobile operators will face increasing pressure from their customers to deliver an instant service, it is vital they have the network capacity to take the strain.
George Wareing, sales director, Virgin Media Business, said: “In today’s hectic world, people increasingly demand more from their mobile devices. Far from just making calls, now we want to do everything from browsing the web to streaming video. Being able to meet these demands and connect people to anything at any time is a challenge for today’s mobile operators.
“Three recognises this challenge and is doing all they can to safeguard its future services. Through our network, they can meet customer expectations and deliver a fast and consistent connection.”
Bryn Jones, Three’s Chief Technical Officer, said: “Being able to browse the internet and stream videos instantly without buffering has become a minimum requirement for many customers when deciding on their provider.
“With the new high-capacity backhaul network from Virgin Media Business we are ready to welcome even more people to the Three family. Regardless of where they are, now all of our customers will receive the best possible experiences when using 4G.”
Catherine Haslam, Senior Analyst, Wholesale, Ovum, said: “As mobile operators upgrade their radio access networks to LTE, it is important that they ensure backhaul and core networks have the ability to cope with the increased speed, capacity and latency demands that will follow.
“High quality, high speed fibre networks, such as that from Virgin Media Business, deliver this. They avoid the possibility of bottlenecks appearing in the fixed side of the network that could negate the increased performance of LTE over the air interface.”