Does VM use existing telegraph poles?

[centurion12]

Hi,

My mum has signed for VM broadband and phone installing around early October. My mum has been on the street over 40 years and VM was never offered as an option when it was cable only. About 18 months ago the telegraph poles in the neighboring streets including ours were fitted with what looks like FTTP termination boxes by Openreach.

Will VM utilise those and bring a new cable from the telegraph pole to the house. There are no toby boxes in the street at all unless there is infrastructure underground that I don't know about. I certainly cant see how it would be made available easily if so?

More for curiosity, in contrast to my street where everything is laid underground and no telegraph poles, lots of wide open ducts put-in from conception. Cityfibre install to the house took just one hour from commenting work to fit. FTTP.

[Adduxi]

VM are now using XGS-PON similar to Openreach installs.  They are partnered with NextFibre to do so.  However you are restricted to streaming TV only if that is an issue?  The older V6 and 360 Boxes need the older cable infrastructure to work.  So yes, they can use poles for installs.

[nodrogd]

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@centurion12 wrote:

Hi,

My mum has signed for VM broadband and phone installing around early October. My mum has been on the street over 40 years and VM was never offered as an option when it was cable only

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If Virgin is already in the street & has been for 40 years, then they have their own underground infrastructure & will use this no matter whether the connection is copper coaxial or fibre. VM are still doing new copper connections in most existing areas, as unlike Openreach the copper cable used by VM is capable of fibre speeds without modification.

[Adduxi]

It's curious if VM where in the area, why it was never offered before?  Too many users perhaps? More capacity added?  Who knows  😉

[carguy143]

Check the virgin website and stick in your parents address as the package name shown will tell you if it's regular cable or full fibre (Nexfibre). 

 

 

[Roger_Gooner]

Almost all of VM's cabling runs in underground ducts, so look for CATV pavement covers in your street.

[centurion12]

Hi, thanks for replies. She has been offered and we have signed for the M125 fibre broadband, not full fibre. I can only assume a new install will happen as prior to this we was looking at EE and the max speed they offered was 67Mbit which would indicate they wanted to utilise the existing copper incoming lines.

I only assumed that there wasn't any VM services to the street, that was the case up to 2008 when I moved out of the house. But that was in most likely when they did dig up the pavments to install their services, fast forward 15 or so years and as I can see there is no reason to do that now that they can share existing access and infrastructure from the likes of Openreach to install. Definitely no CATV or toby boxes in the street. About 10 years ago the road was extended (originally a cul de sac) into a through route and a new estate built so possibly that estate has been flooded with access to install and the fibre then been made available to mums street off the back of that.

[Adduxi]

Do let us know how it goes.  Would be interesting to see just how the cable is run to the house.  🙂

[carguy143]

Yep. Keep us posted on how it goes. 

[Roger_Gooner]

In a few cases VM uses Openreach ducts as well, in which case a CBT, essentially a fibre splitter for the nearby properties, is installed in a joint box.