Virgin is looking to cement its advantage in delivering faster broadband over traditionally slower copper-based rivals, said it was launching a trial in the Berkshire village of Woolhampton to deliver 50 Mb broadband together with its television service.

"This unique trial will allow us to understand the possibilities of aerial deployment and may provide an exciting new way to extend next generation broadband services," say CEO (right) Neil Berkett said.

Virgin Media has already announced plans to extend its fibre optic network by 500,000 new homes. It currently passes 12.6m homes with an underground network and said it had identified more than 1m homes in parts of Britain which could benefit from deployment over telegraph poles.  

Virgin said the government was considering a change in planning guidelines which would be needed to enable large scale overhead deployment.

It believes the combination of overhead poles and underground ducts could enable Virgin to roll-out next-generation digital services to rural communities, a key demand by the government.

Whether the trials could enable the telegraph poles of Scotland in places (left) like of Barra to carry internet at such speed, will remain to be seen.

Hang in there Barra!