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Virgin Media launches new Super Hub 2ac

Virgin Media has officially taken the wraps off its new Super Hub 2ac, which promises WiFi speeds of up to 1.3Gbps. 

The cable company claims that its new hardware, which is began testing last year, outguns anything that competition has to offer by a country mile. 

According to Virgin, tests carried out by research partners Farncombe show that its new hub is faster than those offered by BT, Sky, TalkTalk and EE over a variety of distances.

Like many routers available today, the Super Hub 2ac is a dual-band device, which means it transmits data on two frequencies 2.4GHz – commonly used by most devices – and the 5GHz band. Farncombe’s tests demonstrated that the Super Hub 2ac was at least 86 per cent faster than competitors’ offerings on the 5GHz channel. 

What goes on in a WiFi testing facility? – We visit Virgin Media’s secret labsVirgin was aided in the development of its new box of tricks by boffins at the University of Bristol’s Communication Systems and Networks Group, who provided a rigorous testing process for the new equipment, allowing Virgin Media to fine-tune the device’s antennae to get the most out of it. 

Joe Lathan, Virgin Media’s Director of Broadband said: “Data usage is growing by around 60 per cent each year as customers connect more devices to their home networks than ever before.

“Our Super Hub 2ac has been designed to help our customers enjoy every megabit of their Virgin Media connection, giving them the fastest wireless speeds on our unrivalled ultrafast network – even when lots of devices are being used around the home at the same time.” 

Virgin’s current top-tier broadband connection gives users’ download speeds of up to 152Mbps, quite a way off the Super Hub 2ac’s projected 1300Mbps ceiling, making the new hardware pretty future proof. 

The device should stand up well to the rollout of Virgin Media’s 1Gbps service, which is expected to launch sometime during the latter half of 2015 or early 2016, but a new piece of kit might be in order when the company gets around to launching DOCSIS 3.1m which will pave the way for 10Gbps services

The Netgear-made device is available now to all new subscribers of Virgin Media’s broadband or Big Bundle deals. 

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