Like me, you may have received a flyer from Virgin Media saying that they’ll soon be sending construction crews to install their fibre-optic network. Although it may not be obvious at first, it strikes me as something that we might want to reject for three fundamental reasons:
1. to fight for public services: for the first time since this estate was built, a private business has been given permission to install its own infrastructure. We already have a public telecom network and, with broadband now an essential service for most, it could and should be provided as a free addition to telecom services.
In the US, the Biden administration is spending $100 billion on publicly-owned, non-profit full-fibre broadband. Imagine not having to switch provider to avoid being ripped-off, not having to wade through packages or not having old routers piling up in cupboards! The current network capacity is sufficient for most people’s needs but if more is needed, the public network should be upgraded rather than adding a private network owned by a multinational conglomerate which ‘will cherrypick what they offer to maximise profits for shareholders and demand huge government subsidies to cover rural areas.’ The dividends paid out by BT since it was privatised would cover full-fibre broadband throughout the UK twice over.
2. to stand against corruption: Virgin Media was a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Virgin Group, founded by Richard Branson. Since 2013 it has been majority-owned by US cable giant, Liberty Global which is majority-owned by John C. Malone, a donor to Donald Trump and director of the Cato Institute, a right-wing US think-tank lobbying for privatisation, i.e. undermining and extracting resources from public services. Virgin Group is registered in the tax haven, British Virgin Islands. Virgin Care, of which Branson was the sole shareholder, has hugely benefited from NHS privatisation vying for contracts worth over £2.5 billion since 2010. Although Virgin Care claim to make no profit, they divert money out of our health services , fragment services, poach NHS trained staff and undermine NHS Trusts - following their failed application to run children’s services in Surrey, they sued the NHS!
3. to stand for democracy: where and when was the public consultation? The Virgin Media website states that: ‘We set up friendly meetings with local groups, business owners and stakeholders 3 months before we build…Come along if you want to have your say.’ Perhaps I missed the letter! They also state: ‘we discuss our plans with your local council early on, generally 6 months before we build. Highways and planning teams will be alerted and local stakeholders will be kept in the loop to minimise disruption.’ Stakeholders is a euphemistic word - it does not refer to us, the people who will be affected by a planning decision but those with a financial stake in the project.
Final thought: it’s likely that many will welcome Virgin Media and I don’t judge anyone for that since it’s unlikely that we’ll get a comprehensive publicly-owned, non-profit full-fibre broadband service any time soon but if you don’t need faster broadband right now, why not email Virgin Media (expansionworks@virginmedia.co.uk) and ask to be taken off their sales/marketing lists and for your house to be omitted from their network expansion. They do have permission to dig the ‘service strip’ but not to force every household to become a potential customer - they’re just a private business acting for their own benefit.
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