Virgin to deploy 100Mb broadband

Without limits, for now
INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER Virgin Media has announced plans to start rolling out 100Mb broadband to homes by the end of 2010.
The cable media operator has also been trialing 200Mb broadband for some time now and said that it will be extending that trial. Currently only available in Kent, Virgin 200Mb broadband will be rolled out to Coventry this year. However if you don't live in Coventry you will have to make do with 100Mb, once that arrives.
The deployment is far enough in the distance that Virgin was unable to give us any further details or pricing. However when asked about fair use policies, the spokesman was able to say that it would have similar traffic management policies as are currently present on its 50Mb service.
According to Virgin's website, that would suggest no limits on downloads at all. On the face of it, the policy avoids various peak time traffic management tactics that reduce line bandwidth once a certain transfer threshold has been breached.
So while 100Mb broadband might seem like a boon to downloaders, Virgin Media told us that it would not rule out implementing some sort of traffic management policy should its network require it. Its network might, however, catch a breather depending on the price of this service. With its 50Mb service costing 38 quid a month without bundled telly and phone, you're most likely looking at the thick end of £60 per month for 100Mb broadband. The upside is that you will get access to a rather handy newsgroup server which the spokesman said - and we verified ourselves - has seven day binary retention.
The problem for Virgin Media is that if everyone uses its fibre-optic network to the best of their ability, without traffic management it will end up providing poor quality of service levels. With the pressure of seemingly being caught by competitors, the probability of Virgin's network buckling under its own marketing success means that traffic management could rear its head at some point. So the question becomes, will it stay at 100Mb once you start to use it?