Where can I get the VM installer to route the internal fibre?

[SusiTrooper]

Short version -
Can the fibre-optic cable from the OMNI box be run externally to get to the room where the router needs to go?

Long version -
Our BT phone/VDSL comes into the house upstairs in the small bedroom. In front of this bedroom is a flat roof.
When I asked the company to fit the OMNI box on the wall outside the small bedroom, they said, "We are not allowed to go onto flat roofs."
So they installed the box on the front LHS of the house. It is a good 10 metres of cable run from the OMNI to the bedroom so it would be quite an exercise in cable management, even externally. Also - the deadly flat roof...
An internal run is not really possible as we have concrete floors.

I'm quite happy if the VM installer runs the cable outside to a socket in the room under the bedroom.
If they would then give me a long enough length of fibre-optic inside so I can then route it to the final resting place of the router.
As long as the external run to the socket is the same armoured fibre cable, I cannot see that this would be a problem.
Would the installer be likely to do that?

[goslow]

Are you actually having a fibre optic connection installed? The term is used in a generic way but most of VM's connections are coaxial cable. Installations in areas new to VM are being installed as fibre connections. You might get a clue from the omnibox box outside. The larger one on the RHS below is used for fibre.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/2019-article-illustrations/virgin_media_external_wall...

Some VM installations have a fibre converter outside in the box and bring coaxial cable into the home to the hub. The latest installations with the Hub 5x bring a fibre cable direct to the Hub 5x inside.

It has been mentioned on here quite a few times that VM's installers don't go on flat roofs and they don't work above first floor height.

It is a bit difficult to envisage what you are describing regarding cable routes. Posting some photos of what you want to do might help.

Some customers have dealt with tricky cable routes in topics on here in the past by either helping with the cable installation themselves (e.g. climbing into a loft etc.) or they have installed electrical conduit with a draw rope inside in advance of the tech visit so that the cable can be pulled through any locations where a VM tech will not venture (roofs, lofts, under floors etc.)

[jpeg1]

Could you drill through the bedroom wall from the inside and push a trace wire out over the edge of the flat roof?  The installer could run the cable up the outside of the wall to meet it and you would pull it in on the trace wire. Depends on the exact layout of course. 

[SusiTrooper]

Thank you both for taking the time to reply.

Firstly, this is the first time this area has had access to VM services, and it is definitely fibre cable - as I slid the cover off the newly-fitted OMNI box, and there is a delicate fibre-optic tail clearly visible inside. No coax.

Pls see pic

It seems to me that unless an armoured run of fibre can be connected and pinned externally to the house walls, the connection to the fibre modem/router/hub will have to run internally.

I think I can run this cable partway through some existing trunking, but it will require me to move some furniture upstairs and get the floorboards of those rooms up so the cable can go under the upstairs flooring.

As long as the installer leaves me a 10 metre length and some bend-radius guides, I think that's one possible route.

I did like the idea of drilling my own hole through the wall, etc, but now having thought about running the cable under the upstairs flooring, I'm thinking that I can pre-run a length of central heating flexi-pipe as a conduit under the floor for the fibre to run through.

The third option works if there is enough armoured cable in the OMNI to reach the office wall. Thats an external run of about 5 metres, but that's the installer's problem. I'm sure they'll sort it out.

Thank you both so much. Your solutions have given me a few more ideas to toy with between now and install day.

[Gareth_L]

Hello SusiTrooper.

Thanks for your post and welcome back to our community.

From what has been advised already it sounds like you have this all in hand.

If you need us to give the installation team and area managers a brief description of your plans we can do from here.

That way its not going to be an installation engineer arriving without knowing what is needed.

Gareth_L

[SusiTrooper]

Thanks again all.

The installer wasn't too happy to run a fibre to my office as it would have meant drilling extra holes inside the house.

He did however leave a 5m fibre so that I could do it myself. I did just that.

In the days before install, I decided to go the Gig1 connection. As the area where I live is a completely new install, this means I got a Hub 5x and the install date was brought forward to Friday 15th (original date was 21st).

The other good news (for me) is that the connection is GPON and not DOCSIS3.x.

We had a 30s dropout on Sunday morning around 0010hrs, but other than that, all seems good.

Have heard so many horror stories over the years regarding VM's Customer Services when things go wrong. I'm just hoping that nothing goes wrong. So far, so good.....😊