Shared cable between me and neighbour

[externo6]

Hey all,

As per the title, my neighbour seems to be using the same cable that runs under my drive. While I do understand this is fine and wont affect my service, it does make me wonder, is this normal and correct install?

The reason I'm asking is that the cable I 'think' runs under my drive, yet it may also go under some bushes that i want removed. My concern is hitting the cable and bringing my neighbours internet down (Even though i care about bringing mine down, I'd rather bring down mine than theirs!) It also means that if anything happens to the box on my house both our connections goes down. This happened earlier in the year, VM came out and did something to my neighbours connection and took mine down too, not 100% sure what they were doing but I think they disconnected the link from the wallbox. 

Ideally, shouldn't we both have our own cable that taps off the cable under the street? The wall box on my house also looks quite worse for wear and doesn't shut properly / is faulty - is this an issue and would rain etc damage any cables / splitters?

I moved in last year so the service was already run when I moved in so not sure how long its been run into the property or when this was done. 

[Z92]

Yes, ideally you should both have your own cable, so if one of you has problem such as a cut cable it doesn't affect both of you.

If you both complain enough they'll eventually get around to doing it.

[Kath_F]

Hi externo66, 

Thanks for your post and a big welcome to the forums. It's great having you on board with us in the Community. 

Usually you would have your own cable connection however there have been times where we've not been able to lay a separate cable due to issues such as wayleave or dig permissions so in circumstances like this, we would connect up to a neighbouring box. 

As it stands, we're not completing non essential work and keeping the engineer's to faults or installation calls. As you've said there are no current faults affecting you, this would be put on hold. Once we do start completing non essential work again, you and your neighbour can request separate connections. You can view more on that here: Virgin Media’s Update on Covid-19

In terms of the box outside your home, if this is broken we can get someone out to fix this. Can you please pop back here with a photo of the box so we can check if there is a potential health and safety risk. 

Thanks,