Virgin Media Clears the Air about BT’s Infinity Comparison
Recently British Telecom has claimed that it is now in a position to offer consumers a relatively cheaper fibre optic broadband internet service named Infinity, which could help them save almost £7.47. They have also reported that their Infinity broadband product would have download speeds up to 40 MB and the upload speeds could reach 10MB. Though this seems like a good offer its major competitor, Virgin Media, has decided to promote its own product which has been in existence for quite some time now, by simply comparing its product with BT’s new offering. This step was initiated by Virgin Media because BT introduced its new Infinity product by comparing it with Virgin Media’s XXL service.
Virgin Broadband reported that, unlike its competitor’s product which has a 20GB limit per month for downloading data, its optional monthly package, the XXL service, has an unlimited downloading facility. Virgin Media also reported that the BT service required its consumers to pay rental on a new phone line for its Infinity service whereas its own service did not require the consumer to shell out extra on this count. Furthermore, Virgin Media hit back at BT for trying to compare its Infinity service with Virgin Media’s XXL service stating that there is a 6-month difference in the packages. The contract for the BT Infinity service is for 18 months whereas the tenure for Virgin Media’s XXL service is only one year.
Virgin Media also made a fresh announcement that it would soon be launching a 200MB fast broadband service; however, it did not commit on a launch date but said that it was still analyzing the market requirements for such a product. A Virgin Media spokesperson also said that the company was confused as to why consumers would wait for the launch of BT’s 40MB product when they could advantage of Virgin Media’s 50 MB product which is already available.
BT also said that by mid-2010 it would try and expand its consumer base to 6 million subscribers, but for now were concentrating on ensuring that the Infinity product was available to its current 4 million subscribers.