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how long does it take for Virgin PIA installs?

Martyn

ULTIMATE Member
Noticed some Virgin boxes on the telephone roles around my area, is there a rough eta on how long it'll be before I can order this?

I've googled and figured out it's going to be installed via PIA, but I can not find any information about when Virgin will actually be available in my area. I am excited because I currently get 24mb, which is useless for pretty much everything.

Regards
Martyn
 
It really depends. Some users recently had VM PIA installs, you can probably infer some timelines from https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/no-fttp-for-ages-then-three-come-along-at-once.38189/ around page 6.

My own installation I believe took 3 months? but that was not using PIA.

Sidenote, the VM website will not always update the packages you can buy until you search for your address again, so be sure to do a full search each time you check (or you know, use bidb 😁)
 
It really depends. Some users recently had VM PIA installs, you can probably infer some timelines from https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/no-fttp-for-ages-then-three-come-along-at-once.38189/ around page 6.

My own installation I believe took 3 months? but that was not using PIA.

Sidenote, the VM website will not always update the packages you can buy until you search for your address again, so be sure to do a full search each time you check (or you know, use bidb 😁)
Never heard of https://bidb.uk/ always used one.network! so thanks for that!

it is showing Virgin in my location, well nearby, but the postcodes don't work in Virgins Postcode checker which is good, as mine doesn't yet either.

Will check out that thread, thanks
 
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I have sent you a PM. I would like to understand how bidb reports differently to their site and fix that if it needs fixing!
 
from ordering took about 3 weeks for me. orderd when it went live (4 months ago) within 2 days the external install had be done (line from telegraph pole to a new virgin box on side of house). the it was about 2 weeks later they did the internal install if i remember rightly (may of been 2 weeks overall)
 
Just a little update, I am now on a Virgin Media trial for the pure fibre, Installation is on the 28th, weird how things turn around so quickly, the plan was to have all the networking under the stairs, I thought I had a year or so to do this work, but no! so rush rush now haha, the story goes...

On the way home from the Gym one afternoon, see a random virgin media guy looking at the open reach poles, he was an inspector, asked him how long until its all live, he said its a couple of months he thinks, explained that I was looking forward to this for some time and that my current internet is shockingly bad (syn'd at 22mb currently) he said there were actually people in the area that were looking for trialist, gave him our information, and said he would pass along if he sees them again, he didn't have to but was nice of him, and off I went, in the hope of a call, I had a little search around the area for people but no joy, 30 minutes later had a call from the guy, over the moon, we find out where about he is so we can talk in person, was just down one of the side roads nearby, the guy was so helpful and pleasant to deal with, unsure how many houses he'd been to but was happy to sign us up for this, turns out this trial is free for 6 months, you get 1gb internet, and a free stream box, and all setup free, oh plus £200 amazon vouchers?! with an " unbeatable offer after the 6 months" amazing deal imo.

35oWaiM.jpg
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after we spoke to the trial rep, he seemed to WhatsApp the information over to someone, and in 20 minutes we had someone call us to setup an account and set an install date, we wanted it asap, but they must have lead times, this was on the 13th so install was just over 2 weeks, on the 28th.

from then on we were kinda on our own, getting texts to check agreements etc, confirming we agree to them, and texts stating we need to go to virginmedia.com/boundary to sort the outside installation out, which I thought was normal, they did have to install stuff outside the house, but they had no idea about the whole PIA system, and I thought I was doomed and never getting it installed, yet AV Online just randomly turned up the next day to install it from the pole to my house, extremely nice guy to chat to, could get my proper nerd on chatting about it all, they didn't even realise it was for trial, as the neighbour comes out and asked if I was getting fibre, and I said yeah then he told the guy he's at the wrong address :P

the guy did mention the network could do 20gb? So I guess since AV Online has done all the networking here they'd know somehow? if it's true, it's nice to see Virgin doing some future proofing, after living on just shy of 23mb for 2 years, I can honestly say I'll take the highest they'd give me.

Overall there were 5 people and 3 vans, 2 vans/3 people mostly on the pole, with 2 being up in the box and one helping feed the cable, and another doing work on my house.
NtVfh0t.jpg

A9nGBTC.jpg

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I origally asked for it to be installed on the side of the house above the porch, so it wouldn't be in on show on the front and easier for cable routing since it was going to be put under the stairs (hopefully) but they said they couldn't do that, and now its down the front, which I don't mind but the misses doesn't like it >.< haha in the way of her plants.

s9wWjZZ.jpg
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0htUGHs.jpg

few extra images of the "under stairs work" if you've survived this long :P
cy9liqO.jpg

GShV9u8.jpg

the other side of that wall was nothing, unsure why, we expected to see some sort of flooring at least, but we've lifted and insulated the front room floor, so we can add a little bit of insulation here, as we planned to do the hall way too,
F4CMc85.jpg

stairs didn't seem to be resting on the wall either weirdly, but when we decide how big our "pull out units" will be that we want there, I'll install some 3x2 bracing my self, even that wood on the bottom right, isn't attached to the stairs, it's just for the extremely horrible lath and plaster that's everywhere -.-

I'll hopefully have a board on the left with all the networking stuff, and a shelf for the (hopefully hub 5x, not the 5, unless it can be mounted) and cloud key (gen 1, might be tempted to switch to tp-link oc200, or just getting the gen 2+ cloud key), switch (GS308E) and PoE switch. (GS305P) which I use to power a UAP-AC-PRO, I've been tempted to buy some upgrades 10gb/5gb switch etc but I can plug my PC directly into the hub, in the 2.5gb port, for now, and not too worried about having over 1gb on wifi, I'll most likely get another AP if the PRO doesn't work as well, but I definitely want and outdoor AP, maybe the TP-link EA225 one will do.
xR6QFn2.jpg


my plan today is to wire brush the wall to get any loose paint off, take that window out possibly, brick it up, as there's a porch on the other side, and hopefully sort out the old tumble dryer vent.

and if all goes well feed some power to the cupboard, still unsure where to pull it from, can get it from the wall to the left, easily or pull a new bit from the tv area in the front room, which weirdly is on its own breaker.

I'm hoping they will install the cable under the floor, up to the stairs, I'm going to setup a pull rod, so they'd just have to pull it, but is this something they'd do?
9DaBOxM.jpg


If you got this far, thanks! :P
 
If you make their life easy they'll probably route it the way you want, but it depends on the engineer on the day.

"the guy did mention the network could do 20gb?" - well, single-mode fibre is capable of essentially unlimited speeds, but he might have meant they're deploying 25G-PON equipment, which would be cool. Or maybe he meant XGS-PON (counting 10G down and 10G up together to make "20G")

Thanks for posting, and do let us know when it's up and running, especially what models of equipment they give you for ONT, router and/or TV box.

P.S. with that nice under-stairs comms cabinet you might want to consider a small wall-mounting rack - even if most of your gear isn't rack mountable, you can get shelves to fit, and a patch panel is always good if you're extending cables elsewhere.

My space is very limited so I have a 6U/220mm one with the rack ears hinged on one side. Mine came with the top and bottom covers, but they are now sold separately.

 
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Depending how many ports you need you could do worse than getting something like a https://mikrotik.com/product/crs305_1g_4s_in or https://mikrotik.com/product/crs309_1g_8s_in - pop SFP+ modules in it as you need to, and you can even network bits of the house with fibre giving basically limitless speeds going forwards.

Just need a switch in each room with an SFP+ port and regular Ethernet ports. I have some Zyxel thing with 2 SFP+ ports, 2 2.5 GbE ports and some regular gigabit ports under the main TV.

It's a slightly different way of going about things from having a single big switch: I've basically split the network into 2 tiers which is huge overkill, so whatever works for you.
 
can we see the ONT? if this XGS trial or just normal fibre and then turns into the shitty docsis cable?
 
need to see the ONT and some speedtest and ping test would be nice, thank you
 
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From what I have seen of the latest VM PIA trial install there is no separate ONT, the fibre plugs directly into the Hub 5x / F5685LGB-VMB which is made by Sagemcom.

Pics taken from the VM forum.

VM_PIA_hub5x_connection.jpg
VM_PIA_hub5x_sticker.jpg
 
speedtest and ping test would be nice
Yep +1 to that, would be nice to see what sort of speeds you're getting and the latency you're getting too & would probably be relevant to know where you are in the UK to go along with that if you haven't mentioned already.
 
If you make their life easy they'll probably route it the way you want, but it depends on the engineer on the day.

"the guy did mention the network could do 20gb?" - well, single-mode fibre is capable of essentially unlimited speeds, but he might have meant they're deploying 25G-PON equipment, which would be cool. Or maybe he meant XGS-PON (counting 10G down and 10G up together to make "20G")

Thanks for posting, and do let us know when it's up and running, especially what models of equipment they give you for ONT, router and/or TV box.

P.S. with that nice under-stairs comms cabinet you might want to consider a small wall-mounting rack - even if most of your gear isn't rack mountable, you can get shelves to fit, and a patch panel is always good if you're extending cables elsewhere.

My space is very limited so I have a 6U/220mm one with the rack ears hinged on one side. Mine came with the top and bottom covers, but they are now sold separately.

Depending how many ports you need you could do worse than getting something like a https://mikrotik.com/product/crs305_1g_4s_in or https://mikrotik.com/product/crs309_1g_8s_in - pop SFP+ modules in it as you need to, and you can even network bits of the house with fibre giving basically limitless speeds going forwards.

Just need a switch in each room with an SFP+ port and regular Ethernet ports. I have some Zyxel thing with 2 SFP+ ports, 2 2.5 GbE ports and some regular gigabit ports under the main TV.

It's a slightly different way of going about things from having a single big switch: I've basically split the network into 2 tiers which is huge overkill, so whatever works for you.
Thank you guys, will look at these, @candlerb @XGS_Is_On do you use any control panel software? unifi? tp link?
can we see the ONT? if this XGS trial or just normal fibre and then turns into the shitty docsis cable?
need to see the ONT and some speedtest and ping test would be nice, thank you
my install is on the 28th, will share everything then 11 days :S its going to feel like forever,


Wonder if someone can recommend anything, I have a wall between where the cables are coming down from and into the understairs, there is space for the cables to go through quite easily, but I want to add a bit of protection of some sort, I thought of getting the black plastic tubular stuff?
images

but wondered if there wasn't anything that was a bit better.
1681751160853.png

from above you can kinda see I will bring all the ethernet cables down the otherside of the stairs ( easiest acces since the wall above it is not solid itse lath and plaster (fml right) so I have pulled down 2 cables already, one for the AP one for the gaming room/office which is closest really.

but the bit where it goes over the wall I want some sort of protection or something, like a corner bracket with holes in it like this that I can feed the cables in nicely with a nice radius bend on them
1681751749515.png
 
From what I have seen of the latest VM PIA trial install there is no separate ONT, the fibre plugs directly into the Hub 5x / F5685LGB-VMB which is made by Sagemcom.

Pics taken from the VM forum.

View attachment 6071View attachment 6072
I contacted Sagemcom about this a few days ago.

"Your inquiry has retained our full attention, but because Sagemcom Documents’ Retail business was transferred to X-GEM as from 1 August 2015, as of that date, all of Sagemcom Documents’ after-sales service commitments relating to these products have been assumed by the company X-GEM. Therefore, your request should have been addressed to X-GEM, its agents (mandataires) or successors."
 
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There's this very unofficial looking but interesting video of the new FTTP system on youtube.

yea the video you sent is for fibre to home but transfer into docsis unlike what the guy made this thread is getting full fibre, no docsis cable which is much better. still mind blown how VM gettins to install fibre to home but changes it to docsis anyway LOL, waste of time and money tbh.
 
Yep +1 to that, would be nice to see what sort of speeds you're getting and the latency you're getting too & would probably be relevant to know where you are in the UK to go along with that if you haven't mentioned already.
I'm in North Yorkshire, Scarborough YO12, there are still some houses around here still yet to have the PIA Virgin Boxes moved up the pole, so they definitely rolling it out as and when rather than waiting for the whole town, which is what it felt like. Although I'm pretty sure it's been over a year or close to, that I've been following this.

I'm hoping and expecting it to be pretty good since it's only going to be trialist on it, I need to set up some sort of think broadband monitor, so can tell over a long time, a Sam Knows box might have been better possibly, I wonder if I can get the unifi control panel to run the periodic test.
 
yea the video you sent is for fibre to home but transfer into docsis unlike what the guy made this thread is getting full fibre, no docsis cable which is much better. still mind blown how VM gettins to install fibre to home but changes it to docsis anyway LOL, waste of time and money tbh.
Guess they needed all the extra revenue from TV services as they didn't have an equivalent IPTV service at the time.
 
I contacted Sagemcom about this a few days ago.

"Your inquiry has retained our full attention, but because Sagemcom Documents’ Retail business was transferred to X-GEM as from 1 August 2015, as of that date, all of Sagemcom Documents’ after-sales service commitments relating to these products have been assumed by the company X-GEM. Therefore, your request should have been addressed to X-GEM, its agents (mandataires) or successors."

It is unlikely they would give out any information regarding the Hub 5x anyway as it is not a retail product, it would be down to VM to release specs.

Would be interesting to know if it runs the same awful middleware as the Hub 5 and if modem/bridge mode is available via the 10GbE port?

Also wondering why the WiFi6 certified logo is covered up? Is it not certified?
 
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