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

[DaddyBoard]

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. 

[jpeg1]

---

@DaddyBoard wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:
VM/you will also need planning permission. you can't just put in a cable without it being recorded and permission is given and the man holes will require permission as well.

Still doesn't sound like a simple (or legal task)
All this talk of easy as i know the right people. Not sure any company would want to go near statements like that as it may turn into a legal nightmare

---

It is easy - where we live is a council-provided house that comes with my Dad's job. He is in a position to give this permission himself so permission is irrelevant. I have been battling them for 5 years to get services so looks like they're trying to make it work, and the only way of making it work is doing it this way. 

There is nothing about this job that could turn into a "legal" nightmare, we've both made written confirmations of our sides of the jobs etc. 

---

Your father, as a Council employee, is giving himself planning permission for a development without going through the proper procedure?  You do realise that is totally corrupt?

[DaddyBoard]

---

@jpeg1 wrote:

---

@DaddyBoard wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:
VM/you will also need planning permission. you can't just put in a cable without it being recorded and permission is given and the man holes will require permission as well.

Still doesn't sound like a simple (or legal task)
All this talk of easy as i know the right people. Not sure any company would want to go near statements like that as it may turn into a legal nightmare

---

It is easy - where we live is a council-provided house that comes with my Dad's job. He is in a position to give this permission himself so permission is irrelevant. I have been battling them for 5 years to get services so looks like they're trying to make it work, and the only way of making it work is doing it this way. 

There is nothing about this job that could turn into a "legal" nightmare, we've both made written confirmations of our sides of the jobs etc. 

---

Your father, as a Council employee, is giving himself planning permission for a development without going through the proper procedure?  You do realise that is totally corrupt?

---

Not just a "council employee", but as in he is part of the team that can approve this type of work - still goes through the relevant bodies so, again, it's not an issue.

[jpeg1]

You are being extremely naive.  He cannot use his official position to give authority for something to his own personal benefit.  He would have to recuse himself from any discussion of the application. 

He must make a formal application through the normal procedure for the development on public land, and it will have to be investigated/approved by others on the planning  team, with full documentation..

[Anonymous]

but you are not insured or qualified to do public works.
I'm really shocked and disappointed that VM is even suggesting you can do this work for them to use.

And if you are able to get the council's permission to do this uninsured and unqualified work then yah a lot of corruption is taking place.


@ModTeam @Kev_B can we get an official reply on this one? It all seems very fishy

[DaddyBoard]

---

@jpeg1 wrote:

You are being extremely naive.  He cannot use his official position to give authority for something to his own personal benefit.  He would have to recuse himself from any discussion of the application. 

He must make a formal application through the normal procedure for the development on public land, and it will have to be investigated/approved by others on the planning  team, with full documentation..

---

You're commenting on something you know about 10% of the story.

Opposite to where we live is another councilor from the body who manages applications like this, who has already taken it through roughly and given us the "ok", all we need to do is present it properly when we're ready and it'll be fine. So please understand that this is fine.

If my father did stuff under the books, he wouldn't have had his job there for the past 35 years.

[Anonymous]

what council is it?

[DaddyBoard]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
but you are not insured or qualified to do public works.
I'm really shocked and disappointed that VM is even suggesting you can do this work for them to use.

And if you are able to get the council's permission to do this uninsured and unqualified work then yah a lot of corruption is taking place.


@ModTeam@Kev_Bcan we get an official reply on this one? It all seems very fishy

---

The work will be carried out by the council 😂 They wont be doing the work without permission fgs 

[Anonymous]

if the council are doing the work why are you asking what to buy. They will know and have what's needed leave it to them

[DaddyBoard]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
if the council are doing the work why are you asking what to buy. They will know and have what's needed leave it to them

---

They don't have/use any ducting that's is "industrially" meant for internet cables - sure we could use some weak plastic / fabric flexiduct that they do have, but I'm wanting to do this properly for Virgin too, so they don't turn us away after spending all that time.

I also don't know what tool they use to push the cable through, so in my head a jagged duct may not work. I only came here for some suggestions on what to buy - if any of this was dodgy, It wouldn't have even got to this stage. VM only offered after asking "if you could gain permission etc etc, could you put a duct in" 

[Anonymous]

virgin media new build developers guide 

I still don't think VM will use it