On your marks, set, BOLTBAND

This is no April 1st skit; Virgin Media are seriously considering renaming their new 50Mb super-fast broadband product after Jamaican running sensation Usain Bolt.

The sprinter, who is to athletics what Rupert Murdoch is to news publishing, looks set to sign a rights deal with Virgin Media which will lead to a creation of the ‘Boltband’ brand.

Whether Virgin Media will offer mobile boltband, wireless boltband and set up a separate boltband customer service helpline has yet to be divulged. News on potential bespoke boltband dongles is also scarce.

Our man Bolt, 22, took the gold medal in the men’s 100m and 200m finals in Beijing this week, setting world record times in both events. Had Tyson Gay taken the sprint crown, then we could have been looking at a very interesting endorsed broadband product indeed. Gayband, anyone?

The rollout of Virgin Media’s 50Mbps service on its fibre optic network will take place during the middle part of next year; with the cablenet ISP looking to offer its customers speeds of 200Mbps by 2012.