Virgin Media Issues Rebuttal to BT’s Claims
Competition for market share in the broadband connection category has heated up due to the imminent launch of a fibre optic product, Infinity, by British Telecom (BT), and also because BT has directly compared Infinity to a similar product of Virgin Media.
BT has claimed that its Infinity is a cheaper option than Virgin Media’s XXL service with an actual saving of nearly £7.47. Further, Infinity will provide a download speed of 40MB and upload speed of 10MB.
As a rebuttal to BT’s claim, Virgin Media Broadband has pointed out that there can be no direct comparison between Infinity and its XXL service. BT offers its customers a 20GB data cap per month as part of its Option 1 Package, whereas Virgin Media users have the benefit of unlimited downloads. Further, Virgin Media’s service users need not hire a phone line, though BT’s consumers would have to do so. Additionally, BT has an 18-month plan, whereas Virgin Media has only a 12-month plan.
Virgin Media spokesperson’s cryptic message showed that the company is all set to tackle the new competition. According to the spokesperson users need not wait for the yet-to-be-launched BT service promising 40MB speed, when they can already avail of a 50MB XXL service. Virgin Media has also hinted at a 200MB broadband speed service, although the launch dates and other details are yet to be finalised.
On the other hand BT has announced its intention to target 4 million homes in the initial phase of Infinity’s launch and then expand gradually to serve another 6 million users by the middle of the year..
