Disruptive Virgin Media Street Works Cause Anger in Oldham

Virgin Media’s noble efforts to expand the reach of their 300Mbps cable broadband network have once again rubbed people up the wrong way in Greater Manchester, with local businesses and residents in Oldham complaining that they weren’t given enough notice about the disruption.

The need for loud and disruptive Street Works is a well-known caveat when installing new fixed line infrastructure, which is as true for BTOpenreach’s deployment of FTTC/P based “fibre broadband” services across the United Kingdom as it is for Virgin Media’s £3bn network expansion (Project Lighting). Sooner or later you’re bound to annoy somebody.

The latest problem appears to have occurred in the brilliantly named town of Failsworth (Oldham), which has recently observed Virgin Media’s contractors digging up local pavements along Samuel Street in order to run their new fibre optic cables to local premises.

Jenny Reed, Local Business Owner, said (Oldham Chronicle):

“On Monday morning I had no idea any work was taking place. They hadn’t given us any notice. It’s ridiculous, it’s so rude and disruptive. They were digging enormous trenches three feet from my wall.

There was no parking anywhere on the street. I could have come in on my bike if I had known. I had to cancel a steel delivery because the truck couldn’t get in. It was so noisy, I couldn’t hear properly on the phone. I could have planned to work at home.”

Strictly speaking Virgin Media are supposed to give locals 2 weeks’ notice and failing to do so could attract a fine, but clearly not everybody received the operator’s letter. Virgin Media are adamant that they did provide adequate notice, although they’ve also apologised to the residents for “the inconvenience we may have caused.”

Virgin Media’s expansion to an additional 150,000 homes and businesses in Manchester has also caused problems before, with a similar incident occurring around Bolton during July 2016 (here). But in the long run all of this disruption is sure to be a price worth paying, especially as it gives locals a new option for receiving ultrafast broadband and TV services.