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First Trial Users Live on Virgin Media’s UK XGS-PON Fibre Network UPDATE

Friday, Nov 18th, 2022 (1:46 pm) - Score 13,224
Virgin-Media-O2-Engineer-Handing-Leaflet

UK ISP Virgin Media (VMO2) has confirmed that the first trial customers on their new XGS-PON powered Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network were connected this month, which in the future will make even faster latency and symmetric speeds of up to 10Gbps possible across their entire network.

At present around 14.3 million of Virgin Media’s premises are reached via their older Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) network using DOCSIS 3.1 technology, while more than 1 million of their premises are also being served by “full fibreFTTP using the older Radio Frequency over Glass (RFoG) approach to ensure compatibility between both sides of their network.

The operator’s existing FTTP and HFC deployments are already capable of gigabit speeds, but in order to stay competitive into the future, VMO2 needed to go beyond this. The solution they chose, as announced last year (here and here), was to upgrade all of their existing HFC areas – at a cost of c.£100 per home (using their existing ducts) – to support the latest 10Gbps XGS-PON powered FTTP technology by 2028 (Project Mustang).

An early technology pilot of this approach was conducted on 50,000 premises in Stoke, Salisbury and Wakefield earlier this year, but the main rollout programme has now been running for around 6 months. The good news is that the operator has this month begun to switch on this new network and connect their first live trial customers in Yorkshire.

Jeanie York, VMO2’s Chief Technology Officer, said:

“This month marked an important milestone in the future evolution of our broadband services: for the first time, we switched on state-of-the-art XGS-PON technology on our live full-fibre network. The first trialists are benefitting from this new technology which, in the years to come, will power every broadband connection on our network building on the gigabit leadership we have today.

In future, customers could upload as quickly as they download with speeds of up to 10Gbps – ten times faster than the top speeds today – with nearly imperceptible delays … Not only does XGS-PON support multi-gigabit symmetrical speeds, but it provides a far more energy efficient networking solution. The technology uses less power, helping reduce our energy consumption and deliver our broader sustainability ambitions.”

However, at present, the operator has yet to announce what sort of packages and prices they’ll launch alongside the new XGS-PON network, but we suspect they won’t announce that until the upgrade programme has achieved better coverage (probably sometime later in 2023).

The same technology also underpins the group’s separate plan to rollout FTTP to an additional 7 million UK premises – under a new entity – to new greenfield areas by 2027, which will be offered at wholesale to rival ISPs.

UPDATE 19th Nov 2022 @ 7:40am

Sources have indicated that the only trial product currently available is their 1Gbps package, which seems to come with the usual 50Mbps upload speed. But there’s also some evidence in the documentation that VMO2 intend for this to adopt a 10:1 ratio (i.e. 100Mbps upload). We strongly suspect that 100Mbps uploads will eventually become available across their HFC lines too, so it would make sense to initially keep everything aligned. Looking longer term, VMO2 will launch a symmetric speed package.

The installation naturally requires an engineer visit to fit the ONT (optical modem) on your inside wall. But at present, the trial product doesn’t support their mesh WiFi pods or a landline phone service, although that will no doubt change by launch. A dedicated support team has also been assigned to manage the trial connections. The trial also works with their new ‘STREAM’ TV box, although it’s currently unclear whether they’ll support their existing Pay TV (Virgin TV 360) and other kit further down the line.

The trial comes shipped with a different router, which is named something like ‘HUB X’ (not sure if that’s 5X or XS at this point).

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Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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Comments
52 Responses
  1. Avatar photo Matt says:

    Any idea if they’ll trial upgrading their FTTP (RFoG) areas too, you’d think this would be easier (in terms of low/no build and just have kit swap outs – space permitting).

    I always find it a bit surprising they’ve got various FTTP areas already which will be on mismatched kit (especially areas they bought – like Swadlincote) and they’ve not announced tackling any of those.

    In my head at least you’d think it would be a “quick win” to bump those areas to 10gig “availability”

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      So far as I’m aware, everything will be going XGS-PON.

    2. Avatar photo Clive peters says:

      RFOG is effectively FTTB, no? Assume it’s based on g-pon?

    3. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      No and no respectively, Clive. Not based on GPON and is fibre to the home.

    4. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      RFoG is about running DOCSIS over fibre, and XGS-PON will be a migration (not as big as HFC to XGS-PON but still important).

  2. Avatar photo NE555 says:

    Any clues as to what boxes Virgin are providing to these customers to use TV and phone services? Or are they providing only Internet in these areas?

    1. Avatar photo anonymous says:

      Stream box would work if they wanted to as completely Ip based but does not have recording capability turned on because of rights issues.

    2. Avatar photo Alex A says:

      No announcement yet, in small trials they were using a Zyxel XGS PON router. They were trialling both the Tibit micro OLT and a traditional Nokia ont.

    3. Avatar photo Me says:

      For now just internet
      Ultimately the phone will work via the phone ports on the hub like in all other VM areas and TV will be IP based

    4. Avatar photo Ackers87 says:

      The Xpon site are using hub 5x with 10 gig ethernet port and its just broadband and telco only at moment installs started this week

  3. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

    XGS-PON is just for broadband, so RF is still required for TV (to maintain compatibility with existing STBs) and thus overlaid on the same PON. Eventually TV will go all-IP and will require a different STB.

    1. Avatar photo Anonymous says:

      That’s the RFoG fibre network. If they kept Docsis over pon that would mean still coax to the TV as current stbs are coax. So that would mean coax from outside to inside of house. The router is said to have equiv of ONT inside it. Why have those two types of connection?

      Virgin Stream is completely IP based just they can’t use the record to cloud function right now.

    2. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      Do you have a source for this, Roger? I’ve heard nothing from anywhere on this. The trials don’t involve any TV at all and there’s no plan to use HFC CPE with the overbuilt network.

      The full fibre PON trials done separately didn’t involve TV via RFoG.

      Aside from anything else a driver is to offer a wholesale product. Having a different ONT and in-home installation depending on the wholesale customer isn’t going to help.

      Much cleaner to wash hands of TV provision and run it over the top via IP. Same engineering process for every wholesale customer.

      As far as migration to IPTV goes what better time for each property than when a technician is in the home installing the new service? Far smarter than running legacy RFoG and having to come back later to provide a new set top and remediate issues.

      I can’t see any case at all for lighting up the new Mustang network with RFoG. I’ve heard what are now it seems unsubstantiated claims that Mustang fibre was being used for RFoG to fix issues with the older network but they were just that.

    3. Avatar photo Martin says:

      I guess the advantage of RFoG for TV is its a known entity, and will work with existing boxes and give full fat TV experience. It may also be that RFoG has cheaper options if not worried about DOCSIS.

      Maybe build RFoG into their ONT, that way its a single fibre connection for engineer, supports existing boxes, but can also be reused and allow for migration away from RFoG easier as new TV products expand

    4. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      @XGS Is On: The trials did not involve TV as the focus was just on broadband and VM wouldn’t want to complicate things by having to test an ONT that delivers broadband via Ethernet and TV via coax. However RF must continue for years as millions of STBs cannot be replaced until TV can be delivered over IP, so as I said there will be RF overlay as an interim measure. This is well proven with two channels for broadband (one downstream, one upstream) and one downstream channel for TV.

    5. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      @Anonymous: “That’s the RFoG fibre network. If they kept Docsis over pon that would mean still coax to the TV as current stbs are coax. So that would mean coax from outside to inside of house. The router is said to have equiv of ONT inside it. Why have those two types of connection?”
      It’s fibre to the premises with the ONT on the exterior wall as done with RFoG, so those on the HFC network will migrate to FTTP (but not as soon as some think they will). In the interim the ONT will deliver broadband and RF for TV via Ethernet and coax respectively, eventually RF will be replaced when TV is delivered over IP.

    6. Avatar photo Alex A says:

      @Roger_Gooner Virgin Media already have an IPTV product with stream…

  4. Avatar photo Peter says:

    I already have 2 fibre providers available and Virgin Media is just getting installed now. Its a thin green cable they are installing so would that be fibre? I also saw them doing work in areas that already have Virgin Media Broadband.

    1. Avatar photo Peter says:

      Just read the post and relised its part coax :/ Would the ping be simmlier to BT FTTP?

    2. Avatar photo John says:

      If this is a DOCSIS then add +15ms to latency. If you also have real FTTP ISP available then the answer is simple, don’t go with Virgin.

    3. Avatar photo Not the same John says:

      “Just read the post and relised its part coax :/ Would the ping be simmlier to BT FTTP?”

      It isn’t really part coax.
      It’s fibre right to your property wall, where it terminates to an external ONT.
      There’s then a very short run of coax to the Hub.
      The short run of coax is the equivalent to an ethernet cable between the Openreach ONT and router.

      “If this is a DOCSIS then add +15ms to latency. If you also have real FTTP ISP available then the answer is simple, don’t go with Virgin.”

      Nowhere near that much higher. About 4ms difference on Virgin RFOG from my Openreach based Talktalk FTTP connection.
      The jitter is considerably worse on DOCSIS/RFOG but the base latency isn’t that much worse.

    4. Avatar photo Ackers87 says:

      There is no coax at all its hub 5x with fibre port on back and the ont goes in side now not in omni

    5. Avatar photo Peter says:

      @Ackers87 Would there be any to tell what kind of connection they are installing in my area? They left a bunch a cables outside my house.

    6. Avatar photo FTTP4ALL says:

      Yes VM install a darkish green fibre. as for what the network is like once pasdted the external wall i dont know if they use a short run of coax But upto the box on outside of building in my road its green fibre that they are using.. They passed my property about 8mo. or so ago now..

  5. Avatar photo Iain says:

    I was wondering how this project was getting on. I almost wasn’t expecting any announcements till 2028.

    1. Mark-Jackson Mark Jackson says:

      They will want to start leveraging the advantages long before then, so it’s more akin to the DOCSIS 3.1 rollout in that they need to build a bit of scale in their coverage first, before announcing products.

    2. Avatar photo Ackers87 says:

      @peter you would of been contacted if you was in trial as they hit area hard to get there numbers in quick

  6. Avatar photo Chris says:

    Just had virgin media rolled out and installed. Coax from outside in. Fibre stops outside. Bit gutted it’s not full fubre

    1. Avatar photo Philip says:

      No need to feel any disappointment.
      The CATV signal has to switch from optical to electrical at some point.

      RFoG is now looking to be a key part of journey to XGS-PON.

    2. Avatar photo Carl says:

      I wouldn’t be concerned considering what your local home infrastructure comprises of.

    3. Avatar photo Roger_Gooner says:

      @Chris: It’s FTTP if the fibre goes to the premises, there then has to be an ONT so that the router and/or STB can communicate with the light coming down that fibre.

  7. Avatar photo Tom says:

    I don’t see how they can possibly have 100% XGS-PON coverage by 2028 if they’re just now trialing it. No way. Maybe 35% coverage by 2028. Just to convert their current RFoG customers to XGS-PON will probably take them 2-3 years, let alone everyone else who is on coax to the cabinet. I hope I’m wrong.

    1. Avatar photo Winston Smith says:

      2028 is for PON vailable to all customers, not installed. They may be hoping to have better contractor availibility if other ISPs are winding down FTTP installation from 2025/2026 onwards.

  8. Avatar photo Jason says:

    That would explain why all the streets are dug up by virgin in North Wakefield at the moment…

    1. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      East Ardsley, Tingley, etc in WF3?

      Yes: combination of new full fibre build and overbuilding the barely junior school age standard cable build.

      Weird bit: that’s the area with a Wakey postcode that’s actually in Leeds. There’s a lot more going on in that area than the Wakefield metro district itself.

      There’s been work ongoing on LS10, too. Middleton, Robin Hood and Rothwell have been busy.

      Bit further out their contractors blitzed Batley.

      They seem to be doing a combination of a few bits of work at once and going in gang handed. I suppose they only have access to so many contractors at once.

    2. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      They’re also busy in Ossett and Horbury unblocking and building new chambers.

      Not a massive surprise. The Wakefield cable network isn’t great.

  9. Avatar photo Oli says:

    Which areas are VM conducting the live trials?

  10. Avatar photo Anthony says:

    Any sign of the fabled IPV6 rollout on this new network?

  11. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

    ‘Sources have indicated that the only trial product currently available is their 1Gbps package, which seems to come with the usual 50Mbps upload speed.’

    Well. I’m cancelling my existing services the moment VM arrive in this case.

    What XGSPON, short for 10 Gigabit Symmetrical Passive Optical Network, can do: https://freeimage.host/i/yf-upload.misjLP

    So what could be smarter than hamstringing it to mid-split HFC speeds?

    Their fixation with supplying the same thing everywhere is beyond comedy. If they can’t handle provisioning different tiers on the trial the production product should be fun.

    1. Avatar photo Iain says:

      Sure, it’s disappointing they’re not trialling better speeds.

      See the CTO talking about “future”: customers “could” have a 10Gbps symmetric plan. That’s vague about timescales, but is it more committed to symmetric than any Openreach statement ever?

      I also doubt Virgin Media will allow Openreach to have faster tiers (1.2Gbps or 1.8Gbps). So I expect higher download speeds soonish, even if those speeds (alas) pale in comparison to your existing uncapped XGS-PON service.

    2. Avatar photo NG-PON2 4 ALL says:

      @Iain, yep that sounds about right. Cant see VM02 sitting on their hands and watch BT pip them to the post to become the “UKs fastest provider”
      I did ping BT/BTO to ask if they were looking for any additional trial participants as i live in the trial area for that 1.2/1.8Gbps.. No joy as of yet!

    3. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      Oh for sure they will release a 2000 Mbit service over the coax and RFoG, however might well end up back at a 20:1 ratio after a brief period at 10:1.

      Not fair to compare to my niche service, VM always caveat with something about availability, but it’s really strange to run 50 up on a trial when symmetrical should be very doable.

    4. Avatar photo Chrissy says:

      None of the Virgin Media 02 build will use any Openreach or BT Group infrastructure. The previous Virgin Media / ex-NTL network was owned and leased to them by BT. There is an article explaining that quite well on ispreview. The new XGS-PON network being built now in Newport Pagnell, Milton Keynes is entirely new and nothing to do with BT and it’s group companies. It effectively provides Milton Keynes with among the UK’s largest choice of direct to home, independent of BT, fibre infrastructure. BT’s monopoly in their once prized “new town” and test-bed, is no more.

      Reply
      XGS Is On says:
      November 20, 2022 at 4:38 pm
      Was a matter of time. It’s ironic given the history of cable in MK that a fair amount of the build will be using Openreach / BT infrastructure.

      Mike says:
      November 20, 2022 at 2:35 pm
      Currently building out across Milton Keynes, starting with Newport Pagnell area.

  12. Avatar photo 10GbE 4 All says:

    The rate of change regarding connection speeds Is staggering, A french ISP company (I forget its name) already offers 10GbE type connections this guy was showing the speeds and line stats it was mental. I know some altnets offer some niche packages B4RN, etc which i assume these types of networks will only contine to grow and serve customers with very fast connection symmetrically! in time.

    Another thought I had this week as i was busy upgrading parts of my own home network when looking for CAT8.2 2000MHz spec cables for 25GBaseT/40GBaseT backbone run was infact already obsolete when it comes to enterprise kit (Already deeply discounted on ebay) 100G and 400G kit Brocade and CX4 stuff.. So, in essence from my limited observations UK ISPs are ramping up both the speeds of residential connections and pace of deployment, as i can imagine once they have the infrastructure inplace its only then a matter of lighting up extra fibre strands until we all start to see speeds thought to only be possible in episides of Star Trek.

    1. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      It’s a generational thing. It won’t be driven by technology in most cases but demand, though for sure they can feed into each other.

      People can buy 25G in Switzerland right now: https://www.init7.net/en/

      Very few people in UK on networks that would permit it for right now but will certainly be a thing in the UK by the middle of the decade though not from Openreach, CityFibre or VMO2. XGSPON is more than enough for a while.

    2. Avatar photo keeper says:

      1 or 10 or 25Gbps both ways for the same price!. Mental is that

    3. Avatar photo Iain says:

      @keeper, isn’t it just!?

      IIRC there’s a different set up fee for the different products, because the ISP directly needs to buy more expensive hardware for the 25G product. But yes, it’s amazing that bandwidth is cheap enough, and their pipes are fat enough (or actual demand is low enough) that there’s no ongoing premium on 25G.

    4. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      They use a fibre equivalent of LLU to lease the fibre to the customer so no additional costs for bandwidth there and use on 10G and 25G isn’t much different from 1G. A couple of 100G backhauls at each ODF site, one to use, one for redundancy, works fine.

  13. Avatar photo Mike says:

    Currently building out across Milton Keynes, starting with Newport Pagnell area.

    1. Avatar photo XGS Is On says:

      Was a matter of time. It’s ironic given the history of cable in MK that a fair amount of the build will be using Openreach / BT infrastructure.

  14. Avatar photo Matthew says:

    i had a virgin engineer in today and he told me 2 things next year they are getting ride of there coax and making a new hub 5 so the fibre can plug right into the hub and they are going electic vans to that he was not happy about he told me it will be a couple of mounths away the now until all this

  15. Avatar photo Hb says:

    I was working for VM in about 2013 and one of the architects put a proposal in for GPON, VOIP and IPTV. Needless to say they knocked him back. How things might have been different for VM. A wasted decade. I think they have too much catching up to do and 2028 might be too late.

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