Virgin Media is set to offer broadband speeds of up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps). The global company says that 400Mbps-ready modems and routers “in the pipeline”.

400Mbps data transfer is fast enough to download an album in one second, or a high-definition movie in two minutes.
Virgin Media believe that more consumers will be demanding faster speeds from their connections. A spokesperson is reported as saying: “The crunch point is coming. There is a step-change in what people are trying to do with their broadband connection.”

The company is pledging 100Mbps by the end of 2010 for millions of customers and 400Mbps to come…

The European Commission has announced it’s intentions to greatly increase the number of Europeans using public and commercial services on-line over the next decade. The Digital Agenda outlines the goal of broadband coverage for all EU citizens by 2013. By 2020 it’s hoped that at least half of all European households should subscribe to broadband services with speeds above 100 Mbps.

The EU proposals also included proposals to boost legal music downloads and set up a rapid response system for cyber-attacks.

The Digital Agenda sets out plans for a range of measures, including 31 EU laws, over the next two to three years to increase the number of Europeans accessing on-line services.

Latest broadband news comes from BT. The communications giant has announced that it will expand its roll-out ofnext-generation broadband to bring super-fast services to two-thirds of the UK.

The original plan was for BT’s fibre services, offering speeds of up to 40 megabits per second, to serve 40% of the population by 2012. But now a £1billion boost will see the service rolled out to a further 20% of the population by 2015. It’s claimed the first four million people will be connected by the end of the year.