Google to provide Virgin email services

Google will provide email services to Virgin Media's broadband internet customers, it was announced today.

In what will be one of the largest-ever deployments of Google Partner Edition Apps, 10 virginmedia.com email addresses with 7GB of storage will be available for each Virgin Media broadband-equipped household.

The service will be piloted by the first 20,000 new customers who sign up for Virgin's broadband service from today, with a full launch to all new customers to follow "shortly after".

Existing customers will eventually be migrated to the new Google system and will be able to keep their existing Blueyonder, ntlworld or virgin.net email addresses, or select new virginmedia.com ones.

"As the UK’s largest home broadband provider, we’re committed to providing the very best online experience to our customers," said Alex Green, executive director of online at Virgin Media. "With email so important in everyday life, we’re delighted to be working with Google and launching a brand new, feature-rich and easy to use email service. We look forward to exploring future services with Google and continuing to deliver market-leading communications and entertainment to our customers."