Forum Discussion

emifogel's avatar
emifogel
Just joined
8 months ago

Virgin Media cables and equipment

Hello,

I moved some time ago into a house in which previous owners had used Virgin Media at some point. We have the white box outside our house and a white cable running inside the house.

The cable and equipment are not connected to anything, in fact , it looks like some cables have even been cut as per pictures. We currently use Vodafone fibre FTTC, which I understand is a different technology vs Virgin Media as it uses the Openreach network. 

My question is pretty simple: as I am not a Virgin Media customer, can I get rid of all the cables and equipment? The white cable runs along my kitchen cabinets and is pretty ugly. I understand that as long as I use another broadband provider I don't need any of this. Am I right? And if I ever want to switch to Virgin Media an engineer would come to set it all up again?

 

  

 

Thank you very much for your help

Cable
equipment
  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person
    8 months ago

    Vm would prefer you to leave all alone. However that black cable with the connector in the 3rd picture looks like the incoming  supply. This should be terminated with a 75 Ohm cap and rolled up out of the way. The rest of the wires and boxes can be removed if not required.  That way if VM is ever needed the cable if still there for use.  Eventually VM will have no need for co-ax as they are moving to fibre similar to Openreach. 

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    8 months ago

    VM generally will not remove redundant cabling, when people have asked in past topics on here, unless it poses a H&S risk of some kind. In the past VM has responded here that you can remove it yourself.

    A convenient point to remove cabling is the omnibox outside where you can detach indoor cabling from outdoor cabling (your white box outside).

    If you have any intention of possibly using VM in the future, then you should leave the white omnibox on the wall outside and the black incoming cable in place. You would fit an adapter to the end of the black coax cable like this sort of thing

    https://www.diy.com/departments/slx-coaxial-connector-19mm/5028422001905_BQ.prd

    onto which you can fit a terminator cap to terminate the unused cable

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255046119498

    the above links are just examples only. They are generic parts and you can find best/better prices from a supplier of your choosing.

    A couple of reasons to keep the omnibox and external cabling in place are that cable installations is an area where VM is very poor in organising and managing the work (long delays can sometimes arise to get a cable fitted). If you cut the external cable yourself, VM would need to either renew or join the cut cable to reconnect you in the future. This can sometimes result in VM deeming your property unserviceable. Cutting the external cabling, without terminating, can cause issues for other VM users in the neighbourhood.

    VM has stated on here that you can cut/remove the external cabling but doing so comes with the risks above. If you leave the external omnibox and external cabling in place you do have the most straightforward path to get VM as a future option should you ever require it. IMHO it is always good to leave future connection options in place (even if you think you are unlikely to use VM at this exact moment in time).

    Edit: There is actually an adapter/coupler already screwed into the end of the white coax cable in photo #3 so you could undo and remove that, refit it to the black incoming coax cable and then fit a terminator cap to the end of the incoming cable.