Virgin Media's partnership with Energia is part of a wider climate action programme in which the telecommunications operator has committed to achieving a further 50% reduction in its carbon footprint by 2030.
If you’ve been busy saving money on your household bills this year, one thing you could have been thinking about when trying to decide which provider to go with is just how committed they are to preventing climate change.
With ambitious targets to be met as part of Ireland’s commitment to the 2030 climate and energy framework in Europe, businesses are increasingly upping their game and adopting more renewable and sustainable ways of providing their services to consumers to help good old Mother Earth.
One supplier doing just that is Virgin Media who has today announced an extension of its partnership with Energia.
The partnership will see the green energy provider supply 100% renewable electricity to power the Virgin Media access network, and which now makes Virgin Media the provider of Ireland’s greenest broadband.
But before we get into the finer details…
What is an access network?
An access network is a type of telecommunications network that allows customers to connect to telecommunications products on offer from a particular service provider, in this instance, broadband services.
The network itself can be made up of wires, cables and any other infrastructure that’s in place between where your telephone connection is in your house and the local telephone exchange point outside.
Ireland’s greenest broadband
The partnership between both companies will see Energia supply fully renewable electricity to the entire Virgin Media access network across the country.
The network includes nodes, amplifiers, as well as street cabinets, while the annual consumption is expected to be approximately 14,000,000kWhrs.
However, the move from Virgin Media is not the company’s first foray into the world of more sustainable practices. The new partnership continues to build on wider sustainability measures brought in by the company, including a larger climate action programme.
Virgin Media has committed to a Low Carbon Pledge which will see a further 50% reduction in its carbon footprint by 2030.
The sustainability action programme also sees Virgin Media make a 100% switch to renewable energy, as well as some of the following measures:
- Deploying solar energy panels across key technical hubs.
- More energy efficient consumer hardware.
- Improved data centre cooling systems.
- The commencement of electrification of the company’s vehicle fleet.
Commenting on the news, Vice President of Legal and Corporate Affairs at Virgin Media, Peter McCarthy said:
We have made a considered commitment to increase the amount of renewable energy in the grid that powers our networks and supports our ongoing commitment to a future with 100% renewable energy.
Partnerships like this are important in helping us get there. We are looking at ways to reduce our carbon footprint, and we know energy is one of our biggest areas of opportunity, so this is another great example of finding solutions to be more environmentally responsible.
New year, new deals
The news comes after Virgin Media waived its activation fees for broadband and TV customers at the beginning of January.
The telecommunications provider also announced a number of enticing new deals across its broadband and triple play offers at the same time which are now available for customers to compare and sign up to on bonkers.ie.
Among the bargains to be had are broadband speeds as fast as 1Gbps with deals starting from as low as €30 per month.
You can browse all offers from Virgin Media right here.
Compare broadband on bonkers.ie
If you’ve been considering upgrading your broadband connection for some time there’s no better time to do so than the present, especially with so many great deals available across providers.
If you’re considering switching your service provider you can use bonkers.ie to run a full comparison across all providers in the market and it only takes a couple of seconds.
Have a look at some of the most common questions we get asked about the switching process to ensure that you’re fully informed.
There are a number of things you should keep in mind when comparing the best broadband deals on the market. Take a look at our guide on 7 things to consider when switching broadband providers.
So whether it’s a broadband-only plan to set you up while working from home or a more encompassing triple play bundle for the entire family, you can compare each and every deal right now on bonkers.ie.
Check out this step-by-step guide to learn exactly how to switch broadband providers.
Get in touch
What do you think of Virgin Media and Energia’s partnership? Do you think more providers will follow in Virgin’s footsteps?
We’d love to know your thoughts! Comment below or get in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
