Virginmedia contract (re-posted from another board)

TheGardener

(moved to this board as suggested by another forumite) 

An elderly neighbour moved house 3 weeks ago, I have been helping with the 'administration' of moving. He has a virginmedia contract (from old address) that runs until Sept '22. The house move process was fairly straightforward - Virginmedia said the service was available at the new address and a date was set to do the connection. A week later a series of text messages said some work to connect the house needed to be done outside.
The lack of a phone line and internet access has been challenging but my neighbour has just about managed to get by using an old mobile phone. Virginmedia apologised for the delay and said they would set my neighbour up with a dongle in the interim - this transpired to actually selling him a virginmobile rolling 30 day contract for dongle wifi. 
Subsequent conversations with his new immediate neighbours and with 3 sets of cabling workmen have revealed that 4 houses on the small cul-de-sac were, for some reason not included in what I assume is an old NTL cabling system. I'm led to believe by the last set of workmen that the old NTL system won't connect to modern cabling so either virginmedia will have to re-cable the whole estate or they will have to concede they cannot provide the service. Does this mean my old neighbour can insist virgin break the contract and refund the payments taken so far?
The only option seems to be having a BT line connected to the house. The previous elderly resident of this property did not have an internet connection and the only thing we can find is a small BT junction box by the front door which appears to be connected to the telegraph pole outside.  Virginmedia say they no longer do 'land lines'. Any suggestions? TIA

mwarby

I think virgin don't allow you to break the contract without charge just because you move out of area. Hopefully though they'll make an exception in this case given the delay in attempting to connect

flaneurs_lobster

Seems VMO2 have ended fees for people moving "off net".

https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2-ends-charges-for-off-net-home-movers/

Stick the new address into one of the broadband checker sites and see what's available. 

TheGardener

flaneurs_lobster said:

Seems VMO2 have ended fees for people moving "off net".

https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/virgin-media-o2-ends-charges-for-off-net-home-movers/

Stick the new address into one of the broadband checker sites and see what's available. 

This link is very helpful - thank you - at least we can quote Virgin's own policy when we speak to them. While looking for other providers, unfortunately, part of the problem is that houses with the same postcode DO have virgin cable - it's just 4 properties on a small cul-de-sac that don't.