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Hey Virgin, what you doing?

nimdy

Pro Member
I did my usual weekly look at BIDB to see if there was any Netomnia or BT roadworks in my area in the hope my property gets some form of FTTP soon. We have hybrid fibre from Virgin as an option, but I'm not keen on them, their services or their pricing compared to my current FTTC or Altnets (if/when we get them).

I was surprised to see a sea of red Virgin Media roadworks planned in and around my sleepy semi-rural town in Bedfordshire. Usually we have at most 4 splodges from one of the main contractors on this map.

Does anyone know what this might be? As I say I can get Virgin and I thought most of the town could, so is this the Nexfibre rollout? I thought they were only targeting current non-Virgin areas?

1729848970719.webp
 
As it's already a Virgin area, it's more likely to be an upgrade of the existing cable network to FTTP I would have thought? Allegedly this is happening (Project Mustang) but not sure anyone's live on it yet...
 
New cabinets, ducts and the very occasional new chamber for connection back to Biggleswade as part of the XGSPON overbuild.

A teeny cabinet appears right next to the existing one in nearly all cases, and is so close to the chamber in front of the old cabinet no need for more dig, reinstating the base of the new cabinet gets them to the current chamber. If a small dig is needed to get to the chamber that happens. Doesn't take long, they blitz areas. After that they'll complete cabling work, commissioning and then you're at the mercy of VMO2's billing system getting its act together so that it can handle XGSPON in old cable HFC areas.

TL;DR it's basically Nexfibre.
 
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New cabinets, ducts and the very occasional new chamber for connection back to Biggleswade as part of the XGSPON overbuild.

A teeny cabinet appears right next to the existing one in nearly all cases, and is so close to the chamber in front of the old cabinet no need for more dig, reinstating the base of the new cabinet gets them to the current chamber. If a small dig is needed to get to the chamber that happens. Doesn't take long, they blitz areas. After that they'll complete cabling work, commissioning and then you're at the mercy of VMO2's billing system getting its act together so that it can handle XGSPON in old cable HFC areas.

TL;DR it's basically Nexfibre.
Ah that's cool, I didn't think this would be happening in my area. Still not keen on Virgin Media as a company, but if their pricing is ok (and as you say the billing system actually allows it) I might consider it.
 
VM charges the same for its asymmetrical speed tiers up to Gig1 regardless of underlying network type (HFC, RFoG or XGS-PON). Only XGS-PON has Gig2.
 
The price isn't the problem, the billing and provisioning systems being able to handle XGSPON in HFC areas is.

The billing and provisioning system was built around DoCSIS and is a customised version of an off the shelf solution. There isn't really a way to incorporate XGSPON into that painlessly. This was enough of an issue that CableLabs came up with DPoE, DoCSIS Provisioning of EPON, to allow cable companies to more easily use PON without the fun VMO2 are having.

No idea how far along that is or if it's about ready to go, thought it would be done by now.
 
The price isn't the problem, the billing and provisioning systems being able to handle XGSPON in HFC areas is.

The billing and provisioning system was built around DoCSIS and is a customised version of an off the shelf solution. There isn't really a way to incorporate XGSPON into that painlessly. This was enough of an issue that CableLabs came up with DPoE, DoCSIS Provisioning of EPON, to allow cable companies to more easily use PON without the fun VMO2 are having.

No idea how far along that is or if it's about ready to go, thought it would be done by now.
Their systems struggle in only xgspon areas
 
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I did my usual weekly look at BIDB to see if there was any Netomnia or BT roadworks in my area in the hope my property gets some form of FTTP soon. We have hybrid fibre from Virgin as an option, but I'm not keen on them, their services or their pricing compared to my current FTTC or Altnets (if/when we get them).

I was surprised to see a sea of red Virgin Media roadworks planned in and around my sleepy semi-rural town in Bedfordshire. Usually we have at most 4 splodges from one of the main contractors on this map.

Does anyone know what this might be? As I say I can get Virgin and I thought most of the town could, so is this the Nexfibre rollout? I thought they were only targeting current non-Virgin areas?

View attachment 20356
Just for reference for you, I pay £45 for 2000/2000
I originally signed up for 500/500 for £39 (33+6upload add on) volted to 1000/1000 few months later asked if they had any deals for upgrading to 2gig (wasn't planning on doing it, was happy with 1gig) but they offered it for £6, so I took it. It’s been ok tbh.
 
Seems that Nexfibre is coming to take the crown from OR here (as is Virgin already building in this area as well) 👀 at least, from where I can see things going.
1731078625885.webp
 
Same thing around me, most have the ref starting nk101firbeup.

I was starting to think that Project Mustang was a myth.

The cynic in me was wondering if was because Brsk started planting poles around the area or if it was always planned for now? OR nowhere to be seen as it is a DIG area.

BIDB map, South Birmingham.

Anyone seen any pictures or video of how they decommission the coax and pull the fibre to the premises?

Thanks.
 
Just as @XGS_Is_On said, they came and blitzed the area over a few days. One a few stones throw from my house and I didn't notice them! What happens next, will they come and wire them all up at a later date?
 
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I thought mustang was happening here, but when I checked reference codes, none of them had FIBREUP. Instead they all were/are EMID.
 
I thought mustang was happening here, but when I checked reference codes, none of them had FIBREUP. Instead they all were/are EMID.
Seems to be a per-contractor thing. Some areas generic references with more interesting stuff in the description. Reference isn't gospel.
 
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