Virgin Media O2 is combining the UK’s largest and most reliable mobile network operator with a broadband network that offers the nation’s fastest widely-available speeds.
In December 2021, Virgin Media O2 completed the upgrade of its entire national network to gigabit speeds, delivering nearly two thirds of the Government’s broadband ambition four years ahead of the target date and confirming the company’s status as the UK’s largest gigabit provider.
The operator completed its rollout after switching on gigabit speeds to a final 1.1 million homes for the first time, meaning all 15.5 million homes connected to Virgin Media O2’s fixed network can now access this hyper-fast connectivity.
Virgin Media O2 is the only major internet service provider to have completed a gigabit upgrade programme on this scale, rolling out next-generation services to every home on its network in a little over two years without the need for lengthy construction work. This milestone solidifies Virgin Media O2’s leadership position with a gigabit network that is more than twice the size of its nearest competitor.
True partnerships
Nick Good, Virgin Media O2’s Head of Operational Performance spoke to Business Enquirer about the latest developments in the company, and how it plans, together with its partners, to further improve services for the nation.
He himself has been with the company for 12 years, holding a number of different positions, including managing business intelligence continuous improvement, performance management, partner management and strategy/planning teams, as well as leading teams to assess how to develop technology to better suit the business and its customers. He has witnessed first-hand the business transformation under various structures, including the most recent milestone – Virgin Media’s joint venture with O2 which launched in June 2021.
Now, as Head of Operational Performance, he is responsible for five key strategic partnerships.
“Our cable, voice and power systems are all supported by third parties, such as Connect44, ISS and Ericsson. Ultimately, my team is responsible for the performance of these partner services, plus the engagement to make sure that we treat our partners as an extension of Virgin Media O2. It’s really important that we capitalise on the working relationships that we have as true partnerships with our partner community are what we build our services on.”
Asked about his specific management style, in getting the best out of his people, he highlights the importance of developing accountability. “I have been fortunate that members of my internal team are experts in their part of the network, with the required technical skills and extensive experience.”
“I like to make sure that my team develops in the areas where they want and need to, as that is ultimately how I can empower them to do their job correctly – to look after our partners’ teams. Not only in terms of managing the relationships but, in some cases, having the responsibility for the actual end-to-end service. That takes a lot of accountability. Similarly, this is the approach they take towards the external partners they manage.”
He points out that over the last two and a half years it has become clear that when engagement is established and partners are treated as an extension of Virgin Media O2, performance across all of the partners’ KPIs rises significantly.
New leader in the UK
Virgin Media O2 is relatively young. The company was formed in June 2021 as a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica combining their respective Virgin Media and O2 UK businesses. It is now one of the largest entertainment and telecommunications operators in the United Kingdom, serving around 47 million connections in 2021 across broadband, mobile, TV and home phone, and still growing.
The teams are still settling down into their working patterns, says Nick Good, but the benefits of joining forces are clear. “The joint venture has brought together two large players in the UK market, Virgin Media from the cable side and O2 from the mobile side, to provide a truly comprehensive offering in the UK market: broadband, mobile, TV and fixed line voice.”
In December, the company introduced ‘Volt’– its first ever joint product, to give customers even more from their services – more speed, more data and better value. How? Simply by being customers of both brands. Volt offers double the broadband speed, double the mobile data and discounts on connected devices when customers have or choose to take a broadband service from Virgin Media and a Pay Monthly plan from O2.
“The new joint offering came just a few months after the launch of Virgin Media O2, building on the company’s gigabit rollout momentum and at a time when 5G coverage from O2 was expanded to 210 locations. We are proud of that achievement, accomplished in a very short period of time, to bring real value to the end-consumer.” says Nick Good.
Supercharged by the pandemic
In December, a new analysis released by Virgin Media O2 revealed the impact of another pandemic year on the nation’s connectivity habits across mobile, broadband and TV networks.
Virgin Media O2 saw its biggest ever year for data use on both broadband and mobile networks, as more people than ever went online to chat, stream, share and game. In 2021, customers downloaded 19% more broadband data than the previous year, with mobile traffic up 45% year-on-year.
“Not only had demand increased but the criticality of that demand had skyrocketed,” says Nick Good. “Ultimately, our services have to support people in all of their working, educational and entertainment requirements; Virgin Media also provides services to the NHS, police forces around the UK and other critically important stakeholders. Although Virgin Media is used to operating in a highly competitive and rapidly shifting market, and is consequently used to having to respond to external influences, Covid presented a very different experience for us in terms of our ability to react. However, as a business we stepped up for our customers and have been working hard to meet that demand and keep the country connected.”
The right mix
He further points out that there is a lot of happening in the industry right now. Capitalising on 5G capability will stretch across the next few years and demands on communication will further increase.
“We’re committed to bringing 5G to over half of the UK’s population in 2023 and have already started to deploy our low-band spectrum to strengthen the experience of our network across the country and especially indoors. We’ve just added Samsung into our diverse portfolio of network vendors and also recently announced that we’re working with Ericsson to build our 5G standalone core network.”
Internally, the young joint venture is set to foster its internal team partnerships and enable its staff to provide the best service to end-customers. As mentioned before, external partnerships are an integral part of that journey. “We try to get everyone engaged as one community. Our external partners need to feel like part of Virgin Media O2, and our people need to feel like part of their team.”
“For me personally, the goal is to make sure that we optimise the partner community within our new joint venture, to understand the right mix and the right services. To have the right partners that deliver the right service is what will move us forward, to the ultimate satisfaction of our customers,” concludes Nick Good.