BT has pop at “high price” of Virgin 100Mb broadband

Virgin Media launched its 100Mb cable broadband in the UK just yesterday, but already rival ISP BT has weighed in with a spot of  criticism, saying it was “surprised by the high price” of Virgin’s superfast service.

A BT spokesman said that, while it was “encouraging to see Virgin say they will upgrade their network by 2012″ and “good for UK plc that there will be another high speed network”, it couldn’t resist banging on about all the ways in which its own fibre optic broadband service is “better”.

BT is currently rolling out fibre optic broadband to a reported 17 million homes and businesses, and charges around £20 a month for it. Virgin Media’s 100Mb service, which goes live from Christmas and will reach a potential 12.7 million homes by mid-2012, costs £45 per month on its own, or £35 when taken with a phone line.

However, BT only offers 40Mb speed at the moment, and won’t be offering its superfast 100-110Mb service until next year, and by the time Virgin’s 100Mb service is available to 12.7 million homes BT’s equivalent will be available to just 2.5 million. So perhaps its criticism is a little cheeky. After all, Virgin does already offer 50Mb broadband to half the country, at the cost of £15 a month, which is actually cheaper than BT’s 40Mb service.

Virgin Media (via ISPreview UK)

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