Virgin Media O2 doubles maximum broadband speeds with new 2 Gbps service

Virgin Media has boosted its consumer broadband offering with a new premium tier that promises the fastest speeds yet.

Gig2 from Virgin Media O2 is the first 2 Gbps service available to residential customers in the UK. It offers double the speeds of its previous flagship tier – Gig1 – and is available in a number of cities up and down the country, including London, Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow.

The service was successfully trialled over the last couple of years and is capable of downloading the entire second season of Traitors in HD in around 30-seconds. You could download a typical AAA PS5 game (of around 100GB) in just 6-minutes 40-seconds.

A new Virgin Media Hub 5x will be needed to use the service, which also comes with a 10Gbps Ethernet port for superfast wired connectivity.

"Virgin Media O2 has always been at the forefront of innovation to provide hyperfast and next-generation connectivity to homes in the UK," said Jeanie York, CTO at Virgin Media O2.

"Gig2 is our latest speed venture which will unlock endless opportunities for future technologies and the ever-changing digital needs of our customers."

Of course, as a premium service, Gig2 comes with a premium price. It'll set you back £84 per month. You can find out if it's available in your area on the Virgin Media broadband website.

Download and upload speed parity

As well as Gig2, Virgin Media O2 has launched an add-on for new and existing customers that brings upload speeds in line with downloads.

A symmetrical speed upgrade is available across all of the provider's speed plans, from 50 Mbps to 2 Gbps. Customers will therefore be able to upload files at the maximum speed their tier allows. It is only a fraction of the download speeds otherwise.

Pricing for this add-on is yet to be revealed. It's worth giving Virgin Media a nudge to see if it's available to you right now.