Is the 2021 Virgin Media fibre-coax network still the same as NYNEX installed in Portsmouth in 1991?

[PortsmouthUK_AP]

Virgin Media & CATV Network Today? (Based on post by wilson85uk Dec 11, 2020)
https://www.avforums.com/threads/virgin-media-catv-network-today.2331941/

In the 1990's Cable TV was rolled out across the UK to provide subscription viewing and landline services, the various franchises such as Cable & Wireless, Telewest, NTL, NYNEX etc to name a few before they all took over each other and become Virgin Media as we know it today.
In 1991 in Portsmouth + Brighton, it was NYNEX (in association with Britannia Cablesystems) 
https://techmonitor.ai/techonology/nynex_to_offer_local_phone_service_in_uk_by_year_end

See also: "NYNEX CableVision: Bromley, Derby, Solent, Sussex.(NTL)" mentioned in
https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=6658

NYNEX dug up road after road, lifting pavements slabs, cutting major tree roots, etc... cabling just about everywhere in Portsmouth then folded a few years later.

> Did they install the then-new "broadband" cable, capable of supporting a 750MHz+ bandwidth and served by a fibre-optic backbone that took cable TV forward in the mid-nineties?
> Is the Virgin Media fibre-coax network used today the original infrastructure originally rolled out in 1991? Basically, is the cabling, street cabinets, nodes etc the same from the 1990s, which carried the analogue cable TV which now carries broadband and digital today?

[MrHalfAsleep]

I'm tempted to go back to tin cans and a long piece of string.😑

[Roger_Gooner]

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@jem101 wrote:

Actually ALL data transmission, be it over coax copper or fibre is actually analogue - the 'digital' 1s and 0s are encoded onto an analogue signal. Although optical fibre is less prone to interference (although this is usually due to bad connections), it isn't actually intrinsically better than copper coax - at least not at the speeds and frequencies we are talking about here.

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This is true for the legacy HFC network as the RF output by the Edqe QAM modulates the downstream analogue laser. However for RFoG it's digital to the virtual hub as TV signals are Ethernet-switched at the hub site onto the VLAN that the virtual hub is on (so it's all-digital from the Langley headend to the virtual hubs).

VM is now inplementing Remote-Phy on its HFC network (which involves moving CCAP equipment from the CMTS out into the field), so it is all-digital to the R-Phy node as well.

[PortsmouthUK_AP]

Clarification to my statement:
"Meanwhile the CityFibre/Giganet is available in Lorne Road PO5 1RR which we know has had NO new fibre installed"
CityFibre HAS installed the new fibre in Lorne Road but NOT by lifting pavements BUT by using the existing OpenReach ducts/tubing under the pavements (according to the CityFibre guy supervising the local FTTP connection to a home) then the fibre cable is routed up to a box attached to the top of the street telegraph poles (previously used by BT/OpenReach)

What happens next when you sign a contract with 1 of the local ISPs (Giganet or Digital Home in Portsmouth's case)
is an installation company (Kelly Communications here) subcontracted by CityFibre itself subcontracted by your ISP
connects a high fibre cable between the telegraph pole & the top of the home requesting FTTP (parallel to any existing old-fashioned land-line)
then down to a new external box on the wall connecting the external (tougher?) fibre cable to the internal fibre cable 
then inside to another box (Optical Network Terminator /ONT box) converting Fibre-optic-to-Ethernet (fibre signal to internet) 
then connected to a hub such as the Technicolor DGA4134

Installation company (Kelly Communications here) subcontracted by CityFibre itself subcontracted by your ISP connects a high fibre cable between the telegraph pole

installation company subcontracted by CityFibre connects a high fibre cable between the telegraph pole

connects a high fibre cable between the telegraph pole & the top of the home (parallel to any existing old-fashioned land-line)

then down to a new external box on the wall connecting the black external (tougher?) fibre cable to the white internal fibre cable 

then inside to another mains powered box (Optical Network Terminator / ONT box) converting Fibre-optic-to-Ethernet (fibre signal to internet) 

Finally connected to a Hub, here the Technicolor DGA4134 is a powerful carrier-grade network-agnostic Digital Home enabler featuring VDSL2 WAN connectivity (up to VDSL2 profile 35b) and advanced voice services. Equipped with the latest Wi‑Fi 6 technology, the DGA4134 allows for faster throughputs, better performance in dense multi-user environments and improved battery lifetime of connected devices.

Product Specifications: 

* Integrated VDSL2 modem (up to VDSL2 35b profile)
* 1 GE WAN port
* AutoWAN sensing™
* 4 GE LAN ports
* Dual-band concurrent Wi-Fi radios
** 2.4 GHz (2x2) Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax)
** 5 GHz (4x4) Wi-Fi 6 (IEEE 802.11ax)
* EasyMesh (agent and controller) enabled
* Enabled to support

[Roger_Gooner]

Where there is suffficient demand there will be competing operators, so it's good to see CityFibre providing an alternative to VM. Note that Cityfibre is a direct competitor only for broadband as VM is, of course, also a Pay TV and landline operator.

[PortsmouthUK_AP]

Small correction regarding the telephone provision:

Cityfibre are the big guys from London providing the FTTP fibre network backbone
but Giganet is one of the local (Hampshire) smaller but very responsive ISPs 
and is providing both down & up Gb/s speeds (900Mb/s both ways for £40/month)
and with their bundled router Technicolor DGA4134 (Normally £120) with 2 VOIP FXS ports
they can provide VOIP to plugged in old/analogue telephone handsets (Receive calls only for £5/month)
or even upgrade your old landline to VOIP only to your mobile via WIFI.

In our case, directly plugged in the ONT box (indoor fibre cable terminator - fibre-to-ethernet cat6 converter)
we are using a Ubiquiti UDM router (Unsupported by Giganet)
instead of the provided Technicolor DGA4134 (which we won't return for £30 so as to get support if we get future problems)

So for £40, Giganet even supplied a pre-configured ATA box (Analogue telephone Adapter) GrandStream HT802
plugged into the UDM (cat5e) so that we can plug in our old telephone handset & keep our landline number (£5/month)