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So most of us are trundling along at two or 3Mbps on our broadband (despite being promised more) but from next year Virgin Media customers could be getting internet at 50Mbps.
The cable TV company unveiled the new service, which is nine times faster than the average broadband speed in the UK, which means that users will be able to download an album in 11 seconds of a TV programme in around a minute.
The service looks set to roll-out across the country in 2009 with Warrington being the most likely place to start given its strangely high density of Virgin Media subscribers. Trials of the service were carried out in Kent earlier this year.
At present there is no word on pricing or whether the data throughput will be traffic managed. The new 50Mbps service will be more than double the advertised speed of nearest rival Be Broadband's 24Mbps service.
The company is also looking to add more HD channels. In a speech to delegates at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, Virgin Media's CEO Neil Berkett said that it was looking to "level the linear content playing field versus Sky," and had a plan to add four high-definition channels. But he didn't add any more detail than that.
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