UK fixed line operator BSkyB has signed a £49m backhaul network capacity deal with wholesale provider Virgin Media Business. Under the terms of the contract, Virgin Media Business’ network will connect around a third of Sky’s unbundled local exchanges with Sky’s own wholly owned nationwide broadband network.

The five year contract will see the core of the network in place by the end of 2013, said Virgin Media Business, delivering speeds of up to 10Gbps.

“As we see traffic on our network grow significantly year-on-year, this agreement provides us with the capacity we need to keep innovating for customers and as such are committed to maintaining our high-capacity network,”  said Mohamed Hammady, director of Sky Network Services at BSkyB.

Tony Grace, managing director, Virgin Media Business added: “Whilst we’re concentrating on developing better services for the public in our consumer division, we also believe that our high capacity network is ideally placed to provide the underlying infrastructure that can help other providers with their backhaul capacity needs.”

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