Forum Discussion

Connected1's avatar
Connected1
Joining in
5 months ago

Entire Road has Fibre (including apartment blocks), except my apartment block

Every property on the street has 1130 Mbps Virgin Fibre Internet, including houses, flats, apartment blocks, except for my apartment block. There is plenty of Virgin infrastructure around: Virgin cabinets along the street, CATV boxes dotted all over the pavements including outside my building.

I believe this was installed years ago, and my apartment block didn't sign up at the time. I can get all permissions from freeholders/ management company for building works, wayleave agreements etc. We even sorted a wayleave agreement during the pandemic, but were then told all building work was put on hold (understandable) and never heard back.

Speaking to anyone at VM, I get told my flat is not serviceable, but no one says why, I get passed from department to department. Would love to get a spotter out to take a look, or other ideas are welcome. If anyone can help I'd be grateful.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    You will get a reply from the VM forum team on here usually within a few days. They may offer to take your details to pass on.

    Based on similar past topics though, you should probably set your expectations to a suitably low level as far as anything useful happening is concerned.

    • Connected1's avatar
      Connected1
      Joining in

      Thanks for taking the time to reply Alessandro - fingers crossed someone from the VM team can help.

  • Client62's avatar
    Client62
    Alessandro Volta

    You need to re-focus the question of VM service to the Landlord or Building Management Agent.

    They would have to give written permission for VM to install the service
    and for an apartment block the process and cabling can be much more complex
    than for a single home. 

    Any landlords number one concern is that services are not provided piece meal
    resulting in repeated damage to drives / paths / walls and unsightly cables draped on the
    exterior of the building.

    • Connected1's avatar
      Connected1
      Joining in

      Thanks Client62 - Landlord/Management Agent is keen for installation. The difficulty has been getting the support from Virgin

      • therealrjp's avatar
        therealrjp
        Joining in

        Currently in a similar position:

        I live on a private street with no VM cabling installed, however, 70m away the main road outside does. A friend who has previously worked for VM as an installer has looked and said the installation would be straightforward using existing Openreach ducting up to the main road. 

        Obtaining way leave permission is easy, I just need a spotter to come out. VM agents on the phone are useless and simply say ‘it’s not in a serviceable area’ or ‘it’s in the opportunity stage so we’ll be doing it soon’. Potentially/likely that all 12 houses will sign up immediately, but I can’t even get anyone out to look!

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta

    How many flats are in the apartment block? And does each have an IRS faceplate installed?

    • Connected1's avatar
      Connected1
      Joining in

      Thanks Roger - 12 flats in the block.

      I'm not familiar with IRS faceplates, just saw your explanation on another post: "IRS faceplates have been installed for years in flats to provide multiple outlets for DTT, satellite and radio"

      I don't think we have IRS faceplates. In my flat, for example, on one side is the port for BT internet (which runs on copper cables, not fibre). On the other side of the flat, coming through an external wall are brown cables which feed into the 'LNB IN' port on my TV Freesat box. Pics below. 

      If you have any further advice/insight, that would be hugely appreciated!

      BT Internet (Copper Cable)DTT Satellite LNB In Freesat