Virgin Media Installation - Broadband

Altior

Hey

I have just entered into a contract with Virgin using a BF deal. They sent me a video about the installation, but only AFTER I had pulled the trigger. Now I am a bit nervous!

Background is I have had FTTP installed in my road, up to the kerb. As I understand it, that is not the end of the story and there is more work to be done to actually bring it into my house.

My property is not straight forward, I live in a maisonette. Downstairs is basically just my front door, a little entrance and internal private stairs leading to my living area. The fuse box is down there, but no heating, no power points, no telephone sockets. Currently I am running regular fibre bb with no speed issues.

If I open my front door to exit, it's raised from the ground. So I'm approximately 18 inches up, a few steps. It's about 4 foot from the front door to the ground. There is no pavement, it's the steps, then a kerb, then the public road which is block paving. The little black square thing that they laid when installing FTTP in the whole road is off to the left of my steps to the ground. This part is all on the ground, where there is earth, which I have had pebbles put on, this runs adjacent to my steps, up to the property wall. So it is feasible to run a cable under this, up to the property wall, avoiding the steps/paving slabs. I have included a photo, easier to visualise than explain perhaps!

Virgin offer a 'pre installation' engineer visit, which would be ideal, but it's not clear how to book this. The chat bot gave me a number to call, after holding for nearly an hour, the agent could not speak English very well, I could only understand 20% of what she was saying, it was futile. She made out (I think!), I would get a visit the same day (yesterday), I was highly sceptical, and rightly enough, nobody came.

So basically the question is how intrusive is the installation likely to be? What does Virgin Media need to run, is it akin to a regular router, and that's it? What will their solution likely to be for the lack of power options near my entrance. 

Ayr_Rage

Is your current connection part-fibre with the last connection over the phone line?

VM use two different cabling systems depending on what is available in your street.

They have coaxial cable and full fibre, but neither share infrastructure with any other ISP so they will bring the external cable from the street (underground) or pole and terminate that at a new box on an external wall, from your pictures that cable could be buried under the chips.

That is often done by a third party contractor and does not require you to be at home which can often result in that box being in a convenient place for that installer but nowhere near the room where the customer wants their router.

On the VM installation day the VM engineer will consult the customer as to where they want their internal connection and router, drill a hole in your wall and connect a cable from the external box to your internal termination and set up your router.

Reading your description of your property they will have to run cables to your living area as power is needed for the ONT(if full fibre) and the router.

Whether they do that internally or on an outside wall is pot luck but you will certainly get a new hole in your wall, have you checked if that is allowed?

dnpark38

Sit back and wait untill they contact you, their engineers are very good.
As you have found out the problem is the overseas agents.

Ayr_Rage

dnpark38 said:

Sit back and wait untill they contact you, their engineers are very good.
As you have found out the problem is the overseas agents.

Most VM engineers are fine.

The cowboys doing the pre-installation cabling are often a law unto themselves and turn up unannounced to do their thing without contacting the customer.

Read the stories here

https://community.virginmedia.com/

Altior

Ayr_Rage said:

Is your current connection part-fibre with the last connection over the phone line?

VM use two different cabling systems depending on what is available in your street.

They have coaxial cable and full fibre, but neither share infrastructure with any other ISP so they will bring the external cable from the street (underground) or pole and terminate that at a new box on an external wall, from your pictures that cable could be buried under the chips.

That is often done by a third party contractor and does not require you to be at home which can often result in that box being in a convenient place for that installer but nowhere near the room where the customer wants their router.

On the VM installation day the VM engineer will consult the customer as to where they want their internal connection and router, drill a hole in your wall and connect a cable from the external box to your internal termination and set up your router.

Reading your description of your property they will have to run cables to your living area as power is needed for the ONT(if full fibre) and the router.

Whether they do that internally or on an outside wall is pot luck but you will certainly get a new hole in your wall, have you checked if that is allowed?

I am in what was a brand new build, in what was a new build estate built from scratch in 2011. The broadband was dreadful for 4 or so years, literally 1-2Mbps. Then we got notified fibre would be installed, then speeds were absolutely fine, up to 100. I believe this is called part fibre, nothing at that point had changed in regard to the infrastructure around my property, I believe it happened with one of those big green boxes further up the road.

Then the whole area had FTTP installed, it was very expensive then and I didn't need it. A few years ago I signed up to full fibre with Vodafone, cancelled at the last minute (due to the concerns I have outlined here). I was lucky, NOW TV took me back at the last minute, and I've been on good deals since then, £20 pcm or so. However the most recent deal they offered me was £31.50, plus this will go up in April, on a 12 mnth contract, so it would be £35+ soon. So I looked at new deals and this was M125 for £24pcm, with £100 bill credit. Financially it was logical!

One quirk is that because I was scheduled to have full fibre installed and subsequently cancelled, on some database somewhere they now think I am full fibre, as I can no longer obtain part fibre offers outside of NOW. 

In short, currently I simply have a regular phone line plugged into my phone socket and router, which works absolutely fine. I did read (and was told by Vodafone), that everyone will need full fibre soon anyway as part fibre would be turned off.

They could certainly run something up the wall on the outside, alongside the drainpipe if that's feasible? That leads to my living room, exactly where my router is currently, but it could be put anywhere on the first floor, realistically.

I own outright but leasehold. Perhaps technically I may need permission but practically not, I've never seen or spoke to the landowner in 14 years and they are a HA, I don't appear anywhere on their radar, seemingly. Apart from paying my buildings insurance bill.

dnpark38

I do not understand then why you are moving off the fibre network you are getting 100Mbs on and chosen to go on a separate new network which can only be Virgin Media.
Just chose another Provider who will use your present network, which will just mean unplugging present router and plugging a new one.

Altior

dnpark38 said:

I do not understand then why you are moving off the fibre network you are getting 100Mbs on and chosen to go on a separate new network which can only be Virgin Media.
Just chose another Provider who will use your present network, which will just mean unplugging present router and plugging a new one.

Sorry, I have dumped a lot of info here! A few years ago I signed up to Vodafone full fibre, I had no idea it would need installation work then, I assumed having FTTP laid meant it was plug and go lol.

So I cancelled, but since I cancelled and moved back to NOW, everyone seems to think I am now full fibre. I can't access any regular broadband deals once they know my specific address, apart from 4 g which is no good.

I could go back to NOW again but the cost is escalating.

I have absolutely no need for FF, it was purely a financial calculation.

Ayr_Rage

Regarding part-fibre deals, there is most likely a stop-sell on that product at your exchange which means no ISPs can have a new connection or swap over those like you who are on that service.

You will be moved to full fibre eventually as will the majority of us, so you'll need a new cable and hole in your wall from somebody.

I joined VM a year ago and was lucky that I was home when the external work was done which meant I got to choose where the external box was placed and it wasn't where they would have done it if I wasn't around!

Best of luck!

Ayr_Rage

dnpark38 said:

I do not understand then why you are moving off the fibre network you are getting 100Mbs on and chosen to go on a separate new network which can only be Virgin Media.
Just chose another Provider who will use your present network, which will just mean unplugging present router and plugging a new one.

The OP is on part-fibre (FTTC) and will not be able to swap to another FTTC service at that location for the reason I posted at 1219.

A swap to full fibre or VM requires a new installation whichever they choose.

flaneurs_lobster

Since this is a newish build wouldn't the Openreach FTTP install be able to follow the ducting of the existing copper supply from the kerb to the first floor dwelling? 

Ayr_Rage

flaneurs_lobster said:

Since this is a newish build wouldn't the Openreach FTTP install be able to follow the ducting of the existing copper supply from the kerb to the first floor dwelling? 

I wouldn't be banking on a 14 year old property having a phone cable being in any sort of ducting internally.