If its still only fibre to the cabinet then they wont advertise it as FTTP, they'd say "fibre" but thats UK laws around advertising. If its coax up to your property then its what we call HFC, hybrid fibre coax. or most refer to it as FTTC as you pointed out.
1gig over coax though vs 1gig over fibre really shouldn't make a difference to 99.9% of residential users as long as you get the speeds you pay for.
That all said as long as the signal levels are all good with MER and BER in spec on the line you'll have no issues with HFC. With the same going for FTTP from any provider as long as the light levels are in spec with no noise issues or dirty fibre then you'll have no issues with it.
As a side note, some parts of the Virgin Media O2 network will replace HFC with FTTP I have been hearing around some numbers and dates, so if you really are wishing Virgin Media O2 offered FTTP in your area, it might come to your area after all.
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