A total of 1.9m customers are now taking a fixed-mobile ‘Volt’ bundle from Virgin Media O2.
The operator added 31,300 customers to its fixed-line (cable) business in 2023. Its total fixed customer base has reached 5.8m. There were 63,800 new broadband connections over the year with the average broadband speed in Q4 standing at 358Mbps, five times faster than the national average, and an increase of 19% year-on-year.
The Liberty Global-Telefonica company is facing competition in the broadband market from both new entrants and the BT infrastructure company Openreach.
This has led Virgin to accelerate its own network expansion, building 833,100 premises in 2023, a new record. The majority have been on behalf of the nexfibre joint venture – VMO2 is the build supplier and wholesale tenant of this network.
“Operationally, we invested another £2 billion in our networks and services, with 2023 being the fastest year of fibre rollout as our fibre footprint reached over 4 million premises. In aggregate, our fully gigabit serviceable footprint now reaches over half of all UK homes, and our 5G network covers half the UK population,” said Lutz Schüler, CEO, Virgin Media O2.
Financially, Virgin reported stable revenues of £10.9bn, a 5.2% increase year-on-year. However, Virgin’s guidance suggest there could be a fall in 2024 revenues, outside of the nexfibre construction.
