Openreach & Pickr engineer

[JMP99]

Just had a Pickr engineer knock on the door on behalf of Openreach.

He wanted to check the cable and pipes into the property so that Openreach can determine if the property can have "enhanced" fibre. (not that I am planning to move to Openreach or any of the organisations that they support). 

However, he said that our current Virgin connection is actually supplied by Openreach and that it uses all their pipes and boxes. 

We have had Virgin broadband for a very long time (started when it was NTL) and I am not aware that our connection is actually provided by Openreach.  Can someone confirm if this is the case or not ?

[DJ_Shadow1966]

Hello

The Virginmedia connection does not use an OpenReach connection or equipment, all Virginmedia connection use a different infrastructure that is separate to OpenReach.

Regards Mike

[nodrogd · Accepted solution]

---

@JMP99 wrote:

However, he said that our current Virgin connection is actually supplied by Openreach and that it uses all their pipes and boxes. 

We have had Virgin broadband for a very long time (started when it was NTL) and I am not aware that our connection is actually provided by Openreach.  Can someone confirm if this is the case or not ?

---

Virgin can now use some Openreach infrastructure to provide services, but this is ONLY in areas that don’t have an existing VM service infrastructure. It also can only be used on full fibre build that has been installed in the last few years. If you are on legacy network you are using Hybrid Fibre Coax connections. These are unsuitable for use in BT ducting due to the large diameter of the cables used.

[JMP99]

I think the most disturbing part of this episode was the Pickr engineer standing on our doorstep taking photographs of the front of the property before he even poste a note or knocked on the door. The second worrying aspect was that our our estate has had NTL/Virgin for a very long time and when it was install almost everyone moved to over to NTL. This company were knocking on peoples doors telling the residents that they were actually Openreach customers. This may make them think that they are on an equal footing with many of the companies using the Openreach network. 

I am expecting a "sales" call from one or more of the Openreach network users any day!

Has anyone else had this experience ?

[Eeeps]

Did you check the family silver / bike shed?

[Roger_Gooner]

Openreach is installing FTTP to cover 25 million premises by December 2026, and Pickr has been contracted to do some of this work. The Pickr man is poorly informed about VM and no attention should be paid to what he said.