@Zoie_P and Kath_F,
Any chance of an update please? It's been a couple of months since the last time. Website still says services are nearly ready and will be in your area soon (I do wonder what Virgin's definitions of "nearly" and "soon" are) but it's been saying that for about 10 months now. I understand that the availablity checker probably only has 3 possible answers, yes, no and coming soon, and it isn't smart enough to know exact details, but it's quite frustrating to keep checking and for nothing to change.
Seeing Virgin and O2 are joined, I asked in the O2 shop when Virgin would be going live in Haywards Heath. They advised in the next year.
I would have accepted “we don’t know” but to say in the next year doesn’t really give an answer.
Still waiting *Yawn*
I got this a few weeks ago from the Virgin Liason Officer for HH
"Lots of activity happening, addresses are being re-planned to reduce any impact standard dig/self-build will incur.
We are looking to replan utilising the existing Open Reach network to avoid any unnecessary civil work being undertaken."
Basically they are looking to route their cabling utilising Openreach's infrastructure to avoid too much digging up the roads, it looks like most of the problems Virgin faced could have been limitations imposed by Mid-Sussex
Have not had any update since
Hm, interesting. Thanks for the info. Seems that would only apply to streets they haven't already dug up and laid cables on though right? My road for example was dug up and the cables laid 15 months ago in March last year. I was told by the workers and then later in more detail by a Virgin liaison officer that the main hurdle was getting the town linked up to the existing network in Crawley and that there were a lot of issues laying the cables and using existing ducts that had either collapsed or become blocked resulting in a lot more work than anticipated. It would make sense to use existing infrastructure where possible but I was under the impression the whole point of Virgin's network was that they owned it so they had full control over it. Unless they simply want to use existing OpenReach ducts and whatnot to feed their cabling through?
You would think the priority would be to get the town linked up to the network though and get the roads already prepared online. Every month that passes without that happening is lost potential revenue. Maybe they are already working on that as fast as possible but it seems to be taking a ridiculously long time.
Hi Oneonefour,
Thank you for your post. I'm afraid that currently there's no update beyond the one that my colleague last gave to you unfortunately. I do apologise.
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Thanks,
