Virgin Media has today unveiled that Wilsden in West Yorkshire will be one of 10 communities to benefit from an ultrafast broadband and entertainment boost this year as part of its £3bn network expansion across the UK. Earlier this year, Virgin Media launched its ‘Supercharging Local Communities’ initiative - urging local residents and businesses to vote for their community to be one of the first to benefit from the scheme and influence the decision on where to begin. Homes and businesses across the country have been campaigning locally for Virgin Media to connect their street, with over 7,000 votes cast between 29 February to 29 April via the Cable My Street website. Wilsden was ranked fifth place in the top ten list, with works expected to begin in the area this summer. Residents and businesses who take our service in Wilsden will be connected with fibre broadband run directly to their premise offering ultrafast, future-proof connectivity. Virgin Media recently committed to connecting fibre to the premise (FTTP) to at least a quarter of the 4 million additional homes and businesses being added to the Virgin Media network as part of its ‘Project Lightning’ expansion plans. Wilsden will be one the first to benefit from this pledge. Karen Ingham, Regional Director for the North East at Virgin Media said: “Congratulations to residents of Wilsden on coming fifth place in our leader board. The support and interest from communities across the UK has exceeded our expectations and we’re delighted to be supercharging Wilsden with ultrafast broadband and better entertainment. By investing and delivering better connectivity in West Yorkshire, it shows that ultrafast broadband isn’t just for the big cities.” Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, said: "I am delighted to learn that Wilsden has made the top 10 communities in the UK in Virgin Media’s Supercharging Local Communities initiative. This follows the very high number of local residents registering their interest. Ultrafast broadband is vital for local residents and businesses and Virgin Media providing better connectivity is a very welcome investment in the Shipley constituency." For Wilsden residents, Virgin Media’s Vivid 200 broadband offers the fastest widely available broadband – with download speeds of up to 200Mbps. This is more than two and a half times faster than the top widely available speeds from BT, TalkTalk and Sky meaning that a whole household can stream movies, music and more all at the same time. For Wilsden businesses, Virgin Media Business now offers ultrafast connectivity, with speeds of up to 300Mbps – almost four times faster than its main competitors’ widely available top speeds. This enables businesses to reach their potential by delivering better services and greater capacity. This expansion uses an innovative way of bringing ultrafast broadband to people’s homes with minimal disruption. The approach, called narrow-trenching, reduces the width of the trench used to lay optical fibre cables from around 40cm to just 10cm and enables engineers to cover up to 100m in a day, making it more than twice as fast as current methods. The residents will receive the very latest broadband technology with fibre delivered direct to the home. A similar technique has been used recently in Leicester where Virgin Media is connecting six villages. As network expansion continues across the country, Virgin Media calls for those who haven’t yet registered for interest – whether in Wilsden or elsewhere – in getting connected to ultrafast broadband and better entertainment to visit www.virginmedia.com/cablemystreet