(Pocket-lint) - Virgin Media is to up the speed of its top level broadband to 200Mbps and offer customers the opportunity to upgrade starting on 1 October.

The company has also branded its ultrafast broadband services Vivid. All broadband from 100Mbps and up will be termed Vivid. For example, Vivid 150Mbps and Vivid 200Mbps.

Customers on existing packages will be given the chance to upgrade their speeds through an opt-in program. Those on 50Mbps, 100Mbps or 152Mbps can upgrade to speeds of up to 70Mbps, 150Mbps and 200Mbps respectively.

All speed upgrades will be free to existing customers.

The upgrades will be available to 90 per cent of Virgin Media customers by the end of 2015, the rest by June 2016. The company is also investing £3 billion in connecting four million more homes and businesses around the country to ultrafast broadband speeds.

"Our message is simple: if you want to be certain that you are signing up to true ultrafast broadband speeds of 100Mbps and above, Vivid from Virgin Media is the new standard," said Gregor McNeil, the firm's managing director of consumer.

"The speed of a customer’s broadband connection matters; when you have more you can do more."

The news comes as it was announced that rumoured Vodafone interest in acquiring Virgin Media from parent company Liberty Global has died down.

Writing by Rik Henderson.