Virgin Media's UK-Ireland broadband link improved

Major internet service provider (ISP) Virgin Media has taken steps to boost its 238km broadband link between Ireland and the UK.

Extra bandwidth totalling around 40 gigabytes (GB) has now been added to the connection, which previously carried 10GB across the ocean floor and the ISP says the improvements were made with minimal engineering fuss.

Peter Newcombe, leader of metro Ethernet sales at Nortel, the firm that deployed the cabling for Virgin Media, said: "This was important on the Virgin Media project because their link is 238km long and most of it is undersea. It's also an advantage on the busy undersea routes to Ireland."

The connection itself runs between Dublin and Lytham St Anne's and the greater bandwidth could help web users use applications such as VoIP solutions more effectively.

Virgin Media is renowned for its fibre optic networks delivering high-speed internet throughout the UK and the company recently launched a 50 megabits-per-second commercial service.