nexfibre full fibre available to 6,000 homes in Widnes – UPDATED

Widnes is the latest area of the UK where Virgin Media O2 has gone on record with the size of their 2 Gbps full fibre footprint built by nexfibre.

Over 23,000 premises in Widnes can now get Virgin Media O2 services with 6,000 homes covered by the nexfibre XGS-PON service which brings 2 Gbps speeds and symmetrical speed options for an extra £6/month.

VMO2 says “these hyperfast connections are perfect for busy households working remotely, streaming UHD TV shows and films, video calling friends and family and playing games online” which while true the higher speeds are generally only needed if you are doing all those things at once. Online gamers are perhaps the exception, as they will take all the download speed they can get to get game updates or full digital game downloads as fast as possible, and then also want low stable latency for when actually playing.

“6,000 more homes in Widnes can now feel the benefit of Virgin Media’s services – with packages that include everything from next generation multigigabit broadband to easy-to-use TV streaming and entertainment services. 

These ultrareliable full fibre to the home broadband connections come with high speeds, providing total peace of mind that whatever you’re doing online, you’ll never be slowed down by your service.“

Julie Agnew, Managing Director of Fixed Network Expansion, Virgin Media O2

“nexfibre’s multi-million pound investment in Widnes will enable thousands of households to access the benefits of full fibre broadband, including being able to participate in the local economy and connect with the community. We are continuing to bring our high speed fibre network to more location across the UK.“

Rajiv Datta, CEO, nexfibre

Our map is actually showing a footprint of 3,000 premises and an initial sweep of the area has increased that to 4,000 premises Ready for Service so it looks likely we will end up with a nexfibre figure of between 5,000 and 6,000 premises for the town of nexfibre once complete. The map will update on Friday morning.

Overall the VMO2 press release gives an updated footprint for the nexfibre XGS-PON rollout of 2.3 million premises Ready for Service. The footprint we have mapped is 1.983 million premises so clearly some catching up to do, and we are adding a couple of thousand premises a day to the footprint as we see the footprint expand, some recent areas are Bognor Regis, Herne Bay, Moseley and Lytham St Annes.

We presume one figure in the release is due to press releases being slower to produce than the financial results, since the financial results talked of an 8 million premises full fibre footprint for Virgin Media O2, but the latest press release states “a total fibre footprint with nexfibre recently surpassing 7 million premises nationwide“.

Update Friday 7th November 2025: The map for Virgin Media has updated and the nexfibre footprint in Widnes has risen to 5,674 premises ready for service. There are some postcodes where only a minority of premises can get the XGS-PON service which are not on the map and we will endeavour to circle back and see if the rollout has progressed in a few weeks.