XGS-PON Go Live Date

[suttonscloud]

Hi All, 

First post here, hopefully I'm in the right place!

Nexfibre have been in my area installing the latest XGS-PON infrastructure, had a few chats with the engineers who confirmed its Virgin Media's new infrastructure, and that they are using Openreach PIA to run their cables to minimize disruption.

One of the engineers told me that once i see the black boxes installed at the top of the telephone poles, they have been commissioned and the install is complete. (My house is fed via ducts in the ground but he said this is just a sign we have done our works, as mine will be in the ground) - He did say we only have a few days left in the village which was last week.

As of now, my postcode does not return anything for Virgin, i get the 'keep me posted' screen. Phoned up and on a 'separate system' they can see the build shows as 'planned' but couldn't tell me anything else.

I guess my question is, does anyone know the activation time for XGS-PON from when the works were complete to actually being able to receive a service to their address?

Broadband is miserable, people are miserable, and I think a lot of people are looking forward to moving away from Openreach's 'fibre' 20mbps connection! 😄

Cheers

[Stephen93]

Hi @Suttonacloud

      I’m in an XGS-PON area, slightly different than you, they dug up the causeway, buried the cables & grey cabinets all over the place, started the infrastructure at the end of May’23 finished in July, then Virgin Media vans appeared connecting the cabinets, went Live & started to taking orders on 1/10/23,

no point in ringing customer services, they don’t know anything, just tell you what you want to hear, they have no communication with the workmen at all

my install for 20/9/23 but that was delayed, said more external work required a hardwire, no one knew what it was, anyway they set another date 8/11/23, VM engineers came a few days before the main install, the put a brown box on the side of the house connected the puck to the box, the 8th came install complete, you get Hub 5x, just 1 cable drilled through the wall to a white box attached to the inside wall, cable is connected to the hub, I’m on their 1gig plan, never had 1gig but it’s still really fast 860mbps they say it’s because my iPad & iPhone are connected to the hub via WiFi, prior to Virgin had Sky Broadband top speed 51mbps

also have their Stream box, just £35 one off charge, it puts programs you’ve selected from the tv guide on a Watchlist, it’s lists all the series, it’s very fast, would definitely recommend

So 4 months from start of the infrastructure being installed to Go-Live

Hope it helps

[suttonscloud]

Thanks for the insight @Stephen93.

Weirdly, there is not a single grey box that has popped up in my village. I know they are using Openreach's ducting and poles for their install, but i did initially think where are all these cables even going to. I cant imagine Virgin are also using BT's cabinets for their fibre, but i may be wrong just seems like a risky gamble when already using the ducts and poles.

The engineers said nothing about extra works of installing a cab, he said once you see the boxes at the top of the poles then they have been commissioned. - looking on bidb.uk there is no more works planned in my village.

They all must connect somewhere! - I will have to ask the question should i ever see another Nexfibre engineer working. 

[Tudor]

VM never disclose go live dates, they just make announcements when it’s live. The VM staff on the board in any case do not have access to this type of information. 

[Stephen93]

Yes no poles here it’s all underground, also once your connected if you’re WiFi doesn’t stretch to other rooms you can get Virgin’s WiFi pods, they are brilliant I have 3, you get them free if your on their 1 gig plan but you have to ask for them separately, you can only get the pods by ringing them, which is a nightmare, takes ages to get through to someone, reason is anyone with their Hub 5x has a special team that deal with queries, but CS have never heard of them, after some persistence you manage to get some who knows,  they won’t send them if your speed is 30 mbps or above in these rooms where there is no WiFi,

if you are on a lesser speed plan you have to pay £8 a month

I've had no issues with the broadband, the only issue is if you have to ring them, CS read from scripts & haven’t a clue

[Roger_Gooner]

---

@suttonscloud wrote:

Hi All, 

First post here, hopefully I'm in the right place!

Nexfibre have been in my area installing the latest XGS-PON infrastructure, had a few chats with the engineers who confirmed its Virgin Media's new infrastructure, and that they are using Openreach PIA to run their cables to minimize disruption.

One of the engineers told me that once i see the black boxes installed at the top of the telephone poles, they have been commissioned and the install is complete. (My house is fed via ducts in the ground but he said this is just a sign we have done our works, as mine will be in the ground) - He did say we only have a few days left in the village which was last week.

As of now, my postcode does not return anything for Virgin, i get the 'keep me posted' screen. Phoned up and on a 'separate system' they can see the build shows as 'planned' but couldn't tell me anything else.

I guess my question is, does anyone know the activation time for XGS-PON from when the works were complete to actually being able to receive a service to their address?

Broadband is miserable, people are miserable, and I think a lot of people are looking forward to moving away from Openreach's 'fibre' 20mbps connection! 😄

Cheers

---

A black box on a pole is a CBT which splits the incoming fibre into individual fibre drops to customer premises (some are aerial drops). That fibre to the CBT probably comes from an aggregation cabinet which could be miles away.

[Martyn]

unsure what package your going, but don't go directly for the 2gig if your after that, I managed to get 1gig for £33, upload addon for £6, so £39 for 1000/1000 then upgraded to 2gig for £6! also don't buy the stream box, never used ours, the build in tv apps are better for us imo.
I've had 2 contracts on xgspon, and both were given with the stream box for free, didn't even ask for it.

[georox123]

Nexfibre dug up the pavements in my small estate during Feb 2024. They had finished by the 2nd Mar. The street cabinets were cabled at the end of May. I asked two different workmen on two different occasions as to when it would be ready to order. Neither spoke English, but one enough to tell me "one month". It's now nearly 5 months in total. It's still showing as "Keep me posted" and I still can't order.

I've been periodically emailing the build team since March to see what they can tell me. All I've managed to find out, when I last emailed 2 weeks ago, is that the build is showing as "complete". For some reason they don't have information on when it is ready to order.

Very odd way to organise and run a company. It can't have been cheap to dig up all the roads around me. I'm amazed they don't want a return on their investment? I know they owe me no explanation, but some sort of information would be appreciated. I would be happy if it was just a "Q3 24" or "Sep 24", for example. Seeing as BT have decided that my road is "uneconomically viable" for FTTP, Virgin are my only hope for getting off a rubbish FTTC connection.

[Robert_P]

Hello georox123

Thanks for posting in regards to the service roll out in your area, we appreciate you querying this via the forums.

We'd recommend contacting our sales team in regards to this on 0800 183 1234, they may have an update for you. 

[georox123]

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I called the number and it went as I expected. I was just told that services weren't available in my area. The person I spoke to had no other information they could give me. Still find it very odd that nobody in a customer facing  role is allowed to have any information on availability.

In contast, when it became clear Openreach had missed our road out of their build I was able to talk to a dedicated team who handled my query. They in turn spoke to the project manager of the build on my exchange to get an update. The answer was that it wasn't going to happen due to cost, but at least I was able to find out.