Virgin Media boss says rivals need FTTH

Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology is the only way that rival internet service providers will be able to offer the same capacity as Virgin Media, the cable company's chief executive has argued.

Neil Berkett told the Daily Telegraph that Virgin Media's network is capable of carrying around 750MHz of spectrum into a home. About half of this amount is used for broadcasting - as with Sky's satellite dishes - and the remaining 375MHz supports video on demand and broadband.

Although he predicted that advances in technology will help its competitors to boost their broadband capacity to 120MHz or even more, Mr Berkett insisted there is "no path" that will get them to 375MHz.

"The only way they could ever do that is FTTH. Is that going to happen? No, because it's billions of pounds," the Virgin Media chief added.

Ten BT exchange areas are currently able to access FTTH from BT, with these locations including Ilford in Essex, Chester, York and St Austell.