What on earth is this wall socket I've moved in with?

[shawcrxss]

Please ignore the dust and dirt as we are decorating!

We moved into our new home a couple of weeks ago - when trying to connect my router I couldn't find the typical wall socket usually Telewest or Virgin Media branded. All I had was this unbranded box. I have no idea what it is, and searching the QR/model displayed shows nothing. This works to give a connection to my Hub3, but it actually needs a power adapter to function. Luckily I have one of these which fits from another product I own.

I had a VM engineer visit as I wanted this removed and replaced with standard, but he said he's not trained to carry out such work and wasn't sure why he was allocated the job.

This is obviously some sort of 3rd party equipment, certainly not installed VM or the likes! I can't imagine Virgin would be happy the previous owner fiddling with the wall sockets and wiring...

So to conclude, what on earth is this box? Why does it need power to work, and how do I go about getting a standard Virgin Media wall socket to hook my router up to? I think it may be a splitter of some sorts, so I could have two full fibre ISP's if I desired... god knows.

[goslow]

You have a fibre connection from VM (the green plug underneath photo 1). The box on the wall is a VM media converter to change the fibre optic connection to a coaxial connection to the hub. It needs power to operate.

[gitty · Accepted solution]

It really is a VM device. You have fiber into your home, and this box (RFoG) sits between the fiber network and your coax-based hub.

[shawcrxss]

Thanks both - very surprised it's a VM device as it's completely unbranded and the engineer didn't recognize it either. Below is what I expected to find, how do I go about getting this fitted and changed? 

[goslow]

You can't change it. The standard wall box is used when you have coaxial cable coming in to the home. You have a fibre optic cable coming in to your home so you need the media converter to change the fibre optic connection to a coaxial connection.

[nodrogd]

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@shawcrxss wrote:

Thanks both - very surprised it's a VM device as it's completely unbranded and the engineer didn't recognize it either. Below is what I expected to find, how do I go about getting this fitted and changed? 

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That’s an HFC termination box the local distribution for this is 100% copper coax from a street fibre node serving several thousand customers. The majority of infrastructure using this is 1990s build. You have Fibre to home, with an internal node to convert to coaxial. VM only started FTTH network builds a few years ago, as it was far cheaper to expand the network that way while still using the same headend equipment, hubs & TV boxes.

The network is Virgin owned & goes to their local headend, so no other providers will use it.

[Jonny-M]

Another reason why VM should brand their equipment, but for the engineer to have no idea what it is indicates they either wanted to give up and get home or their training is abysmal.

[nodrogd]

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@Jonny-M wrote:

Another reason why VM should brand their equipment, but for the engineer to have no idea what it is indicates they either wanted to give up and get home or their training is abysmal.

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Depends who put it in. If it is on a new estate the builder may have installed it & not VM directly.

[Jonny-M]

If my new build was painted like that I'd be unhappy. Regardless, the techs should know the equipment that is in use in their area and an RFoG ONU that has been moved inside instead of the outdoor one that's been in use for 5+ years shouldn't be tripping them up.