Virgin Media has launched an investigation after it emerged figures for its Project Lightening build programme may have been overstated.
In a restated 8k form filed with the US Securities and Equities Commission, the company explained that of the 1.4 million premises added to its network during 2016 there were “323,000 premises connected to networks in the UK and 142,000 premises in many UK locations where the Company understood construction to be essentially complete, but which still required power, headend capacity upgrades and/or physical connection activities”.
In February it was discovered that construction work on a “substantial number” of homes thought to have been connected remained incomplete. A review is now underway and four Virgin Media employees have been suspended.
There’s no change to the consolidated financial statements of Virgin Media or parent Liberty Global.
“Although this connection activity will impact the total number of premises that we are able to connect to Virgin Media’s network during the first half of 2017, we do not believe that any shortfall during this timeframe will have any impact on the total number of premises that we expect to add pursuant to the overall Project Lightning programme,” Liberty Global said in its filing.
On Wednesday it was announced Robert Evans had been appointed as managing director, Lightning, with full responsibility for the Project Lighting build. Evans will jointly report to Balan Nair, Liberty Global’s Chief Technology & Innovation Officer and Tom Mockridge, Virgin Media’s Chief Executive Officer.
