Fibre fault - South Wales?

[Aidy2001]

Hi,

I have the 5x Hub and using XGS-PON in South Wales. It has been down since 3pm with a flashing red light on the router. My understanding is that this shows the router is not connected to the Virgin network and therefore I suspect there is an outage somewhere.

Does anyone know if there is an outage affecting XGS-PON in South Wales? There’s nothing showing on the service status or 0800 number and or has been down since 3pm.

 Aidy.

[Cardiffman282]

Report it as a fault on 0345 454 1111. 

It's happened before https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Xgs-pon-down-South-Wales-Fault-ticket-F0110...

[Aidy2001]

Thanks. I have called them however they were not helpful and just said no faults in my area and are sending an engineer on Monday afternoon. 
I suspect it’s a network fault though and I am just keen to see if anyone else is affected?

[carl_pearce]

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@Aidy2001 wrote:

Thanks. I have called them however they were not helpful and just said no faults in my area and are sending an engineer on Monday afternoon. 
I suspect it’s a network fault though and I am just keen to see if anyone else is affected?

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There is a dedicated 'Unity Team' that deal with XGS-PON customers.

Did you get put through to them?

[Aidy2001]

I asked to be transferred to the team and they transferred me to someone claiming to be from the team. They said no faults in the area and I need to wait for an engineer visit on Monday afternoon.

I am however not convinced the person I spoke with was from the team and suspect they just looked at the service status page and said no faults.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Aidy2001 thanks for your post here in the Community although we're sorry to hear of the concerns you've raised here.

I've looked into this for you and it is correct that there are no faults on the line (still), please wait for your engineer visit as you have mentioned and kindly update us here if you need assistance after this time and we can intervene then.

Hope this helps.

Many thanks

[Aidy2001]

Hi Tom,

The engineer says its a network fault and needs to raise a ticket for someone to check in the manholes as they cannot do this. The internet is still going down for between 12 and 24 hours and then comes back up for a few hours. 

This has been ongoing since 11pm on Thursday 11th Jan = 5 days downtime so far. 

I presume the automatic compensation now kicks in?

Aidy2001.

[Aidy2001]

Just an update - just spoke with the call centre and the fault the engineer opened is “fixed” however from my perspective there is no change and I am still offline. Second engineer visit their scheduled for tomorrow.

They also said no known faults, no such thing as a “Unity Team” that deals with 5x Hub - is just 2nd level technicians and there is no direct number for them.

 Aidy2001

[Aidy2001]

Final update to help anyone with similar issues. I am pleased to say the fault is now resolved. As originally suspected the cable was damaged somewhere underground between my home and the nearest node. This was replaced and everything is back up and running. The local Virgin engineer was excellent and extremely helpful and overall the response was probably as speedy as I could have expected from a damaged underground cable.

Some useful information for anyone experiencing similar issues:

1. A red flashing light on a 5x Hub means it is disconnected from the Virgin fibre network. 
2. This can be due to the cable / connectors being broken in your home or a fault outside your home somewhere in the network.
3. If you are using the new 5X hub and XGS-PON fibre connection and need to call Virgin to report a fault, mention that you are using a 5x Hub first so that the call can be passed to the 2nd tier technicians.
4. New fibre networks recently installed to an area may have been installed through a partnership / outsourcing between Virgin and another business, in my case Avonline. Avonline built the local fibre network for Virgin and have a guarantee to repair faults arising from the installation. A virgin engineer therefore cannot attempt to repair a network fault. Instead a ticket needs to be raised with Avonline. In my case, Avonline resolved the ticket within a few working days and their team were very friendly and helpful during their visit. 

I hope this helps anyone with a flashing red light on their 5x Hub!