Ofcom welcomes super-fast broadband

Ofcom has welcomed the news that Virgin Media customers will be able to access super-fast broadband.

Virgin customers will be able to access the 50Mbps service which, the company says, will allow the downloading of an album in 11 seconds and a film in less than four minutes.

It also claimed that 40 per cent of its network will have super-fast access by the end of the year, with the full network during summer 2009.

"This will give millions of consumers the opportunity to take up faster broadband services," said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards.

"Alongside the plans announced by BT and other providers, this means that consumers can look forward to super-fast broadband in many areas of the UK."

The latest official figures from the Office for National Statistics, released last month, revealed that broadband accounted for 94.1 per cent of all internet connections in September.

This was an increase of 1.3 per cent from June.