Those on its up to 20Mb tier, 12% of the total subscriber base, will see their speed tripled to 60Mb. The 9% who take 30Mb broadband will rise to 60Mb. And the 5% who take services from 50Mb to 100Mb will rise to a speed of between 100Mb and 120Mb.

The top-tier speed – at 120Mb it will be the quickest offered in the UK – will enable customers to download a high-definition movie in about five minutes.

"As people are increasingly doing more online, and getting connected to the internet with lots of different devices, having a fast, reliable broadband service should not be a luxury," said Neil Berkett, CEO of Virgin Media. "We want to make sure that consumers have access to the best value broadband service and that means a superfast connection."

Virgin Media intends to mostly fund the programme with the remaining £100m of the proceeds of the sale of its 50% stake in UKTV to US TV company Scripps  reports The Guardian.

However, as Virgin has promised speeds that were curiously unachievable in the past, don't hold your breath that you will be one of the lucky customers getting double your speed. After paying handsomely for the fast broadband that never transpired for about a year, ComputeScotland shrugged and went back to the normal relatively slow service, which like it says, does what it says on the tin!

"We've handpicked a small group of customers to have their broadband speeds doubled - and you're one of them. And the best thing is, you won't pay a penny extra. Virgin Media customers already have the UK's fastest broadband and now it’s getting twice as fast. says the Virgin website.

But if your postal district doesn't appeal you will get the Tickle 11

We're sorry, but at the moment you can only get this offer if we sent you a tickles email or letter. We're always coming up with new ways to reward and surprise our customers, so keep an eye on your inbox.

How come?

It’s one of the nice extras we do to say thanks for being with us. We call these nice extras Virgin Media tickles, and we only give them to people we know and like – our customers. They’re things to make you smile.

We're upgrading things area by area starting in January 2012. As soon as we've upgraded your speed we'll be in touch to let you know (if you really can't wait, just use our handy postcode checker to find out now)
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Our handy postcode checker has all the latest news about when the upgrades will come to you so there’s no need to contact us.

VM have been on about 200mb for at least a year to some areas.  With the shape on their network at the moment will be at least a year before further releases or by end of 2012. BT will start releasing 80Mb downstream and 15 or 20Mbit upstream FTTC as of Q4 2011