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mfarrell90's avatar
mfarrell90
Joining in
5 months ago

FTTC to FTTP

Hi all

After some advice if possible.

I am currently living in a house share. The current service provider is virgin media.

The landlord paid for a fibre connection but due to the cabling from the house to the exchange, only ever received a connection speed of circa 50mb. He said when set up though the website, he was offered full fibre, so he signed up and paid. He was then told during install that the property is too far from the exchange to upgrade the cable. I have been and checked, it is quite some distance, however, there is a clear run of bt manholes leading from the exchange to the property, which should indicate a ducted route to the property. 

Virgins website currently claims we can have 1gig speed at the property but we know for a fact the cable to the property isnt suffice.

If we were to pay to upgrade the service to 1gig, does anyone know if Virgin will come and run a new fibre cable? Does this incur an installation fee? and will they at the very least, send somone to check feasilbility?

My landlord has a been paying fibre costs for about 2 years even though he has never received the speed he is paying for so i am wondering whether this gives us some levarage for them to at least come and try to install a new cable? 

We arent too worried about an installation fee, we are just desperate for an internet connection that doest feel prehistoric! 50mb shared between 6 people who all have a minimum of 2 devices each means we constantly take it in turns either buffering or disconnecting.

Any information would be great. I am trying to collate as much information as i can before i proceed with calling in.

Thanks in advance.

5 Replies

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  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person
    5 months ago

    This looks like typical sales “waffle”, & is just aimed at trying to sell you something. Those guys have little or no technical knowledge of your local network. The issue is likely you are too far from the street cabinet. The cable run is copper coaxial & the amplifier can only drive the signal down a finite amount of cable. The is NO fibre in the local network. The fibre nodes are placed 1 kilometre apart, with coaxial cabinets providing the rest of the distribution. The only way to get more speed is with more amplification, & this in itself degrades the service. VM is overbuilding these HFC networks with full fibre over the next few years, but in existing areas they will only use their own ducting. We had fibre cabinets put in alongside the HFC cabinets two years ago, but the fibre side is still not live. By the way, coaxial DOCSIS internet is capable of 10Gig download speeds. It doesn’t need fibre, it just costs less to maintain & install fibre.

    • mfarrell90's avatar
      mfarrell90
      Joining in
      5 months ago

      Hi,

      Thank you for the quick response.

      Apologies, im not clued up on the technical specifics.

      The cabinet is around 100-150metres away. With this distance and with what you have stated(Forgive me if i've understood wrong) Is there any reason why we couldnt get a faster service?

      • nodrogd's avatar
        nodrogd
        Very Insightful Person
        5 months ago
        mfarrell90 wrote:

        Hi,

        Thank you for the quick response.

        Apologies, im not clued up on the technical specifics.

        The cabinet is around 100-150metres away. With this distance and with what you have stated(Forgive me if i've understood wrong) Is there any reason why we couldnt get a faster service?

        Cabinet amps max out at 150 to 200 metres depending on local factors. Joints & splitters in the property reduce it further. The weaker the signal is the more RF noise on the line hence more data errors & reduced speed. Amplifiers themselves also induce noise, so an additional amplifier on the customers property does not always work in your favour. If there are no other fibre providers using the Openreach network you have no option but to wait until VM or another company upgrades their services in the area.

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    5 months ago

    If you are not receiving the speeds you pay for you must complain to VM. Should a tech decide that signal strength is being reduced (attenuated) too much by cable length, VM can pull another cable (RG11) which is thicker than the usual RG6 and so reduces attenuation.