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Virgin Media wont service my house but my entire village has service

DaddyBoard
On our wavelength

Hi all,

TL;DR (too long, didn't read) at the bottom. Apologies for the long one.

I have been in a 5 year battle with trying to get better internet at my location...

So details first: The run from my house to the nearest virgin fibre point (the square things in the pavements) is roughly 160m. Yes I am aware that's a relatively long run. I live inside a recreational park so I am a little far from the main road.

However, this run consists of 60-80% grass and the rest is loose gravel - no concrete involved, no road closures involved. Virgin reps have told me that even just under half of the run will exceed their budget and I will basically never be eligible for their services. But my entire village of over 100 houses have virgin 500mbps Oomph packages, while I'm still stuck on a 12mbps copper cable.

I have asked about options like providing a pre-installed ducting pipe which means all virgin will have to do is pull a cable through and they can start charging me £50/£60 a month for. Or even I cover the rest of the costs from where their budget exceeds, but for some strange and stupid reason, I was told Virgin will either do the job themselves, or not at all, they will not allow customers to pay for the construction works etc.

Recently, I finally got some glimpse of hope by managing to talk to my "local area manager" who is basically in charge of deciding which houses get the go ahead with new services being installed - but he is basically saying the same thing of "it's exceeding our budget". It's literally grass and loose gravel. What's worse is they're judging this using google maps - I have asked countless times for someone to come and do a site survey, but it's either a no-show, or I get a text from someone who has merely attempted to look remotely using satellite images.

But it gets worse. The existing OpenReach ducting I have here, Virgin wont touch, nor will OpenReach/BT upgrade my copper line to fibre because my area is too heavily dominated by virgin, so they don't deem it cost-effective to service my area. So I am basically being held hostage by Virgin, who wont offer me a service.

I don't know how big their budget is per-property, but there is no way digging a small trench to lay some ducting can cost a fortune when there is no roadworks involved, no concrete work involved etc. It's all grass and loose gravel. 

What can I do to push for Virgin to install at my property? I will be on the most expensive package immediately so it will be cost-effective for them. And any future people living in this house will be using Virgin as that *would* be the only provider to provide more than 10mbps, so they're solidifying years of money coming back into the business.

TL;DR: Virgin will not service my area at all, have been trying for over 5 years. No one bothers to actually come out and do a site survey, and instead just remotely decides "nope, not happening". BT/OpenReach wont upgrade my area as Virgin dominates my village, so I'm being, what feels like, held hostage by Virgin who won't even offer me their services. 

94 REPLIES 94

Z92
Trouble shooter

Virgin typically use coax, not a fibre link to your property. Heck, half the distribution cabinets are connected via coax and not fibre. The coax is then simply split into the multiple feeds for the destinations. 

I've been offered proper FTTP via VX Fiber, but they wanted to charge me £650 for installation ! That's gigabit (apparently they don't do slower speeds), but still... 

DaddyBoard
On our wavelength

@Z92 wrote:

Virgin typically use coax, not a fibre link to your property. Heck, half the distribution cabinets are connected via coax and not fibre. The coax is then simply split into the multiple feeds for the destinations. 

I've been offered proper FTTP via VX Fiber, but they wanted to charge me £650 for installation ! That's gigabit (apparently they don't do slower speeds), but still... 


@Z92 Well then it should be even cheaper to install than fibre?? I don't get how virgin can determine that 40metres of grass out of the entire 160m run is already enough to surpass the budget without even physically looking at the job... Why the hell wont virgin let customers pay for the works? They get free installation and can start charging customers for a line they didn't even have to spend much on putting in?

 

It's so clapped, being stuck on 12mbps all because Virgin can't be **bleep** to put a line in

Anonymous
Not applicable
VM are a business they will only install if it makes money or is cost effective. If its not they will not install. unlike BT who legally have to supply the whole of the UK, VM are a private US owned business.

If they say no they say no. Not anything you can do about it. Trust me i know as I'm in the some boat

Z92
Trouble shooter

It would be logistical nightmare to allow some people to get the service's for free, but charge for some other installs. 

The problem with your install might not be the cost of installing the cable, but if there is any land not owned by you or the council, for example, and then you've got the problem of whether there is capacity at the local cabinet. If they need to upgrade the cabinet to install you, it might not be cost effective. 

DaddyBoard
On our wavelength

@Z92 wrote:

It would be logistical nightmare to allow some people to get the service's for free, but charge for some other installs. 

The problem with your install might not be the cost of installing the cable, but if there is any land not owned by you or the council, for example, and then you've got the problem of whether there is capacity at the local cabinet. If they need to upgrade the cabinet to install you, it might not be cost effective. 


Not like that at all. I live in a recreational park, the house and land is entirely owned by the council, which thankfully, my dad is high enough in the job role to accept / give permission for this type of stuff. So permission is absolute 0 issue. There is capacity at the local cabinet. It is *SIMPLY* a 160m run, 70%ish is grass, 30%ish is loose gravel. That is all. No roadworks, no road closures, heck, not even concrete works.... 

Hi you have been invited by Christy-D a virgin person to respond to a private message, on page one of the thread that should solve the problem one way or another. Regards Micky


@LittleMick73 wrote:
Hi you have been invited by Christy-D a virgin person to respond to a private message, on page one of the thread that should solve the problem one way or another. Regards Micky

@LittleMick73 Doesn't matter, being told one of the same 6 stories.

Z92
Trouble shooter

@DaddyBoard wrote:
the house and land is entirely owned by the council, which thankfully, my dad is high enough in the job role to accept / give permission for this type of stuff. So permission is absolute 0 issue. There is capacity at the local cabinet. It is *SIMPLY* a 160m run, 70%ish is grass, 30%ish is loose gravel. That is all. No roadworks, no road closures, heck, not even concrete works.... 

It's only a 160m run to the "square thing in the pavement". Engineers typically don't connect to those, they connect you to the cabinet. How far away is the local distribution cabinet? 

I have a VM grid directly outside my house, plus another 3 down the road. When I was connected, the prepull team pulled a cable through all of them and told me my nearest cabinet was in the next street some 200m away. 

DaddyBoard
On our wavelength

@Z92 wrote:

@DaddyBoard wrote:
the house and land is entirely owned by the council, which thankfully, my dad is high enough in the job role to accept / give permission for this type of stuff. So permission is absolute 0 issue. There is capacity at the local cabinet. It is *SIMPLY* a 160m run, 70%ish is grass, 30%ish is loose gravel. That is all. No roadworks, no road closures, heck, not even concrete works.... 

It's only a 160m run to the "square thing in the pavement". Engineers typically don't connect to those, they connect you to the cabinet. How far away is the local distribution cabinet? 

I have a VM grid directly outside my house, plus another 3 down the road. When I was connected, the prepull team pulled a cable through all of them and told me my nearest cabinet was in the next street some 200m away. 


That's the funny thing, the cabinet is literally right next to that square thing in the pavement, we're talking 2/3 metres away.

 

How come VM offered you a service at 200m but wont offer me anything??

BUMP

 

Two people have said Virgin has installed 200m+ runs to their house, why not me at 160 metres?