VM Broadband via OFNL

[Gmartin]

Hi,

Recently had VM Broadband installed through our existing OFNL fibre to the house infrastructure and I was surprised by the ‘legacy’ DOCSIS equipment used. I know VM is rolling out XGS-PON connections and would have thought for an area that is new to VM, they would have taken the opportunity to install the latest kit. The infrastructure is more than capable, as that is what previous providers have offered through the same fibre line.

It was a bit of a shock when the installer pulled out a coax cable and had to replace an attenuator to get a decent connection. Speed and connection to the internet seems similar, the downside, for me, is the neatness of the install. With the extra cables taking up more room and not as flexible as Ethernet cables, I can’t get everything back into the wall box where the previous kit was installed, nor can I move the hub to another room connected back to the ONT/ONU via Ethernet.

Any ideas from the community on when the next generation connection roll-out is going to be expanded and offered to existing customers?

[Tudor · Accepted solution]

Full fibre, XGS-PON, is still in trial phase, so until that is concluded it will not be release into existing areas. The VM staff on the board will probably not be able to give you any further information. 

[Steven_L]

Hey Gmartin,

Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums.

As Tudor has stated that the XGS-PON is currently in the trial phase and we don't have any further information as to when it will be rolled out. 

Kind Regards,

Steven_L

[Martyn]

have a virgin full/xgspon fttp setup externally at mine currently, just still waiting on installation still.  some pics for you

[Chris_W1]

Hi Martyn, thanks for the message and sorry to hear that the installation is delayed. 

I will send you a PM so that this can be looked into further. 

Kind regards, Chris. 

[Chris_W1]

Hi Martyn, thanks for PMing us. 

I am glad that this is on the way to becoming resolved and please let me know if you need anything further. 

Kind regards, Chris. 

[Gmartin]

Hi Martyn,

Thanks for sharing, is it really going to be a “full Fibre”, XGS-PON Connection? Are you part of the trial?

Having a fibre line into the property doesn’t automatically mean XGS-PON, you may find that they convert back to copper for connection to the Hub.

I have twin fibres coming into the house as part of the OFNL (new build) install, VM02 have taken over one of the lines to offer their services, Fibre line is plugged into an ONT/ONU and then a copper cable is connected from that to the Hub. I have noticed quite an increase in latency with VM02, throughput is still high, compared to my previous provider. Reading through the forum, this is common with DOCSIS. Would be interested in latency with XGS-PON connections?

[jward2503]

I’m in the same boat and live on an ofnl estate, virgin media has recently installed their network in our village. They have connected all the houses at the top of our street. (Not part of the new build ofnl estate) I’m wondering will they install it down our estate. How did you go about getting it installed? 

[Gmartin]

They need to connect up to the OFNL infrastructure that your site connected to. Once they do that then it’s pretty straight forward for an engineer to come and connect the second fibre (if yours is similar) to the Virgin ONU and install their router. Have you checked the OFNL post code checker? For us Virgin shows as an available ISP, alongside all the other true fibre offerings for our location. 
I’ll just say don’t get caught up on the headline throughput figures, that doesn’t give you a true picture. With the additional latency introduced with the Virgin equipment it makes some internet stuff feel slower than what I was getting with Seethelight at a lower broadband package. 

[jward2503]

 

 The ofnl checker does show virgin as been available but the virgin checker says that it’s not. Were you able to get 1gbps package through ofnl as they have been promising this since we moved in a year ago. It’s disappointing really. I’d hope with virgin they would install full fibre rather than coax as it’s a brand new virgin build site across the town and village