Virgin Media Fibre Broadband Exclusivity?

gowan007

Where I live in Newcastle upon Tyne it would appear that Virgin Media has exclusivity on the provision of Fibre Broadband on my street as whenever I look at comparison tools no one else is able to offer me fibre broadband. Normal broadband yes, but not fibre.

Does anyone else know if this is likely to be the case and if so is there anyone I can complain to about it?

Browntoa

Exclusive deals are allowed , virgin cable the estate and get an period to reclaim the investment

JJ_Egan

Generally two suppliers of services over their own network .
One BT Open Reach thats the one that any ISP can use if they choose /Runs over Fibre to the street cabinet then existing copper phone line to the house . Being slowly replaced by Optical FTTP . Any of the ISPs providing to xx property are easily found .Complaints via OFCOM.



Two Virgin Media a private company that supplies cabling services where it wants to .
You cannot complain about them not supplying services to xx street . Just as you cannot complain about M&S not having a shop in your town .


BT OR services the public under goverment licence .
VM a private company .


Very odd in 2019 for BT OR not to supply fibre if they already have ADSL bb in place.

gowan007

Thanks for the helpful reply.

Do you know how long that exclusivity usually lasts for as I understand it has been this way for over 10 years now

JJ_Egan

Put your postcode in here .


https://broadband.moneysavingexpert.com/

iniltous

Although developers can do ‘exclusive’ deals with communication company’s , the fact that you can get regular broadband from providers that use a Openreach as well as Virgin , means that in your case it’s not that.
Virgin don't have to allow other company’s access to their network , so they don’t offer it.
If you cannot get ‘fibre to the cabinet’ type service from company’s that use Openreach ( who do have to allow access, some company’s that do use OR are Sky, BT , Talk Talk but many others too ) then it’s either your cabinet hasn’t been ‘upgraded’, or you are too far away from it to benefit , or that you are on what’s called an E/O line , that is a line that comes direct from the exchange, not via a cabinet, and if there is no cabinet , you obviously cannot have fibre to the cabinet.

As already requested, if you use a checker site , it will show the options (or lack of them ) for your postcode

AndyPK

To me it just sounds like by open reach haven’t installed fibre cabinets yet

gowan007

Thanks to everyone who has posted a reply to my query, it is really appreciated.

Just to clarify that I have used the broadband checker with my postcode and only virgin can supply fibre broadband, even though there is one of the green cabinets at the end of the street, that I think is an OpenReach one, or at least OR engineers spend a long time at it!

I have heard it said it is because of a lack of rack space in the exchange, but I don't know if that would be right or not.

Browntoa

Openreach need to fibre enable the cabinet , sometimes it's an add on side unit , sometimes a new cabinet alongside. Sometimes requires planning permission and or new wayleaves.

All the above depends on the level of interest from people wanting fibre so they can cover the cost.

There's normally an option on the BT openreach web site to check what's available. Register to be told when fibres available , you may be the one to tip the balance on investment