Firm bringing ultrafast broadband to Shropshire for the first time

Virgin Media has signed a deal which will see it supply ultrafast broadband for a Redrow Homes development in Shrewsbury.

The company is building 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) of trench to deliver the new broadband speeds at the housing developer's homes at Lime Tree Meadows in Ellesmere Road.

Virgin said residents who live near the trenches but who do not have one of the new homes will also have access to the ultrafast cables, which are aimed at providing speeds up to 100mb per minute.

However, unlike the roll-out of superfast broadband elsewhere in the county, it will not be open for other networks, and customers must sign up to Virgin in the hope of gaining those speeds.

The deal is one of three initially agreed between Virgin and Redrow, which will also see ultrafast rolled out to developments in Tamworth and Evesham.

Paul Buttery, chief operating officer at Virgin Media, said: "This agreement with Redrow proves that Virgin Media has the firepower to create the connected homes people need and deserve – whether it's to work efficiently from home, run a small business or simply have the very best broadband and connected entertainment.

"Redrow is among the first homebuilders to benefit from working with Virgin Media at scale and we look forward to our future together."

It will be the first time ultrafast has been rolled out in Shropshire, although Virgin says it is already available to 13 million people elsewhere in the UK.

It is being funded through Virgin Media's £3bn Project Lightning network expansion.

Mark Marsh, technical director for Redrow in the Midlands, said: "Redrow's partnership with Virgin Media also brings wider benefits to the neighbourhoods in which we're building, as it means that Virgin Media is able to expand its services into the community and bring fibre optic ultrafast broadband to new areas more quickly than might otherwise be possible."