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Nexfibre - Rollout Discussion

Speaking to Openreach outside our offices a couple of weeks back, they said they had had the heads up that Nexfibre was coming and they were throwing teams at the town....
A similar theme in our part of Shifnal. OR started its rollout in 2019 and stalled ever since. Along comes Nexfibre and they complete their install in under 2 months followed by OR finally finishing their rollout weeks later. Call me a cynic but I don't think that's a coincidence.
 
Is that your duct or Openreach? I don't think VM, generally, use OR ducts, so will probably need to dig up your driveway or find some way up to your house.
thanks for replying.

I guess it is openreach, i needed a new line some years ago and was already on my second pair so they had a run a new one. on the pavement it was just a buried armored cable (no duct, just buried in the ground). they made a new pit at the end of my drive to where the buried cable was and pulled up my driveway (block paving) and put a duct in from the pit to my house. Hopefully nexfibre dig into that pit area where they can use the duct. i can lift the lid on the pit and see both the copper cabling in the ground and the entry into my duct
 
This gives me hope that CF will use the existing VM duct under my front garden, as it's just recently been re-done, but I am not holding out much hope

Personally I do not see any issue with it.
 
Is that your duct or Openreach? I don't think VM, generally, use OR ducts, so will probably need to dig up your driveway or find some way up to your house.
They're doing a similar build to CityFibre, except they are more willing to build in areas with zero duct or poles as they seem to have a pretty generous budget and are building more efficiently than CF were :)
 
This gives me hope that CF will use the existing VM duct under my front garden, as it's just recently been re-done, but I am not holding out much hope

Personally I do not see any issue with it.
They absolutely may not do that. It's VM's duct, not theirs, and there's no infrastructure sharing provision in place.

Also: your VM duct is off your VM Toby/termination box and there's a drilled hole or external duct between that and the duct within your property. CF have no way to access that without drilling into the VM network outside the property which is a huge no-no.

CityFibre shouldn't touch that duct, they've no right to, and VM can sue them if they do. It's VM's duct even though it's on your property.
 
A similar theme in our part of Shifnal. OR started its rollout in 2019 and stalled ever since. Along comes Nexfibre and they complete their install in under 2 months followed by OR finally finishing their rollout weeks later. Call me a cynic but I don't think that's a coincidence.
It isn't. Some people will try and claim it is but of course it isn't.

It's actually really simple. If Openreach upgrade an FTTC customer to FTTP they get a little extra money each month. FTTP price - FTTC price. If they keep a customer that would've moved to an altnet that's the difference between the FTTP income and zero. They win a customer back from an altnet / VMO2 again difference between FTTP income and zero. To do anything else makes no sense from Openreach's point of view.

They do the same thing when altnets survey their infrastructure for PIA and start working on it. The altnet starts reporting what they've done to Openreach, Openreach see they're building and, if they haven't already, plan and build to the area as soon as they can, often starting with the rest of the exchange so they get FTTP there before other operators do: easier to retain customers than to get them back, and those who want to move and were able will be under contract to the other network.

Areas with no other options they have tied up regardless.
 
They do the same thing when altnets survey their infrastructure for PIA and start working on it. The altnet starts reporting what they've done to Openreach, Openreach see they're building and, if they haven't already, plan and build to the area as soon as they can, often starting with the rest of the exchange so they get FTTP there before other operators do:
I have seen this first hand. Definitely is true.
 
They absolutely may not do that. It's VM's duct, not theirs, and there's no infrastructure sharing provision in place.

Also: your VM duct is off your VM Toby/termination box and there's a drilled hole or external duct between that and the duct within your property. CF have no way to access that without drilling into the VM network outside the property which is a huge no-no.

CityFibre shouldn't touch that duct, they've no right to, and VM can sue them if they do. It's VM's duct even though it's on your property.
That’s fair, hopefully the engineer/installer comes up with a decent solution, at the end of the day it’s a bit of plastic tube buried in the ground

That’s like saying, Anglian water can’t use Yorkshire waters pipe because Yorkshire water laid it and did the ground work 20 years ago

I am obviously ignorant on the subject

Chances are the CF toby box and the Virgin distribution box do not line up, so it can't be used anyway... I only have this to go off:
1712666308669.png


Which as far as I am aware is what CF left, then later buried and concreted over as it was only there for a few weeks and then it had gone.

We'll just see what happens on Friday, whatever happens i'm geting a better connection

My point is: At some point, it stops becoming theirs and falls into general infrastructure, sometimes VM don't want their kit back when you cancel
 
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Nexfibre & Openreach have both descended on Bridgnorth in the past 2 weeks and currently fighting to roll their full fibre networks out. It's like a wild west of telecom vans on every street. Speaking to Openreach outside our offices a couple of weeks back, they said they had had the heads up that Nexfibre was coming and they were throwing teams at the town....less than a week later Nexfibre engineers arrived.

Bridgnorth is a completely new area for VM as they have never offered any cable services in the town before. From what I can see they are rolling their network right into some rural areas outside the town too, almost half way to Kidderminster, so covering all the outer villages. Interesting times.
Shame Nexfibre will be the better tech
 
Shame Nexfibre will be the better tech
Nexfibre could be delivering my packets via a gold plated Rolls Royce, the fact that it's piloted by Virgin Media puts me off altogether :)
 
Update for anyone interested:

Had my CF installed, as it turns out there was no ducting, Virgin just buried the the cable under the membrane of my gravel feature, fair enough, CF followed pretty much the same route, only deviating for the Toby, very nice install. You wouldn’t even know was there!

I unfortunately cannot be connected right away as there is a blockage between the toby and the cabinet, which who knows how long that’ll take to fix, the blockage crew came out the same day as (apparently there’s not a lot of work for CF in my area according to the installers)

So now I’m awaiting the blockage clear to happen, watching one.network like a hawk to see the icon 🤣

Interestingly the CF guys offered to disconnect the VM cable which I declined, as it turned out that was a good thing because of the blockage….
 
Interestingly the CF guys offered to disconnect the VM cable which I declined, as it turned out that was a good thing because of the blockage….
That is a big no-no. Thanks for the information, though: I'll let a contact at VM know. Their disconnecting VM's cables can cause issues for other customers, the cables are supposed to be left in situ with all points capped off or disconnected at the cabinet and the connector capped off.
 
That is a big no-no. Thanks for the information, though: I'll let a contact at VM know. Their disconnecting VM's cables can cause issues for other customers, the cables are supposed to be left in situ with all points capped off or disconnected at the cabinet and the connector capped off.
You’re welcome, I hope that was a one off and not a common practice! They did also complain about VM not burying the cables deep enough… every network provider seems to say the other is terrible, VM engineer said CF kept cutting the VM cables on accident

I know they’re supposed to cap it off at the tap if there is no connection there
 
Hello @Brumski

I live not to far from you in Telford. Similar kind of thing happening my new build (2017) too. Openreach built fttp infrastructure back in spring 22 and my area moved from in scope to no plans.

Nexfibre look to be building in my area in Telford at somepoint in 2024, regarding Openreach when it became active, did you see any engineer activity in your area or was it switched on?

I’m expecting once nexfibre becomes active in the area Openreach to decide we can have fttp :D
 
regarding Openreach when it became active, did you see any engineer activity in your area or was it switched on?

Hi mate,

So taking your question as it is no we didn't see any OR activity when their network went RFS (aka active).

However, we saw plenty of OR activity in the years before they went live including them installing CBTs and blowing straws in 2022 and that was the last we saw of them before RFS.

I hope that makes sense.
 
Hello @Brumski

I live not to far from you in Telford. Similar kind of thing happening my new build (2017) too. Openreach built fttp infrastructure back in spring 22 and my area moved from in scope to no plans.

Nexfibre look to be building in my area in Telford at somepoint in 2024, regarding Openreach when it became active, did you see any engineer activity in your area or was it switched on?

I’m expecting once nexfibre becomes active in the area Openreach to decide we can have fttp :D
I’m not in Telford but I had an email out of the blue to say we were planned for build by Openreach, within days, contractors were pulling fibres in, within a month of the email we could order and less than 2 weeks from that I was live.
 
Thanks both,

So openreach have pulled the fibre and there is cbt’s under the pavement. The estate up the road built in 2018 has fttp just stopped. Openreach pulled the fibre all the way down the path past my estate.

Based on your reply @Brumski it could just happen one day lol. Openreach are very annoying lol. I’m hoping that nexfibre hit our estate soon more choice the better :)
 
Last week contractors for Nexfibre installed grey subduct, the odd purple straw and, at the entrance to the estate where they'll connect it to the existing VMO2 network, green microduct into Openreach duct and chambers here.

We are surrounded by HFC with some XGSPON available in the city perhaps a couple of kilometres away.

Anyway, point is we're an infill of about 80 SDUs and a small apartment block, so looks like these are a thing also, even if surrounded by HFC for now.

Will keep an eye on it and let folks know. While we're well served already might be good news for those currently unable to get any FTTP services but surrounded by the cable network.
You think they will do the HFC streets around you as well or they be left for later years?
 
Nexfibre & Openreach have both descended on Bridgnorth in the past 2 weeks and currently fighting to roll their full fibre networks out. It's like a wild west of telecom vans on every street. Speaking to Openreach outside our offices a couple of weeks back, they said they had had the heads up that Nexfibre was coming and they were throwing teams at the town....less than a week later Nexfibre engineers arrived.

Bridgnorth is a completely new area for VM as they have never offered any cable services in the town before. From what I can see they are rolling their network right into some rural areas outside the town too, almost half way to Kidderminster, so covering all the outer villages. Interesting times.
Its interesting to hear alt nets say they consider it a sin to go into each others areas, but OR is the opposite, someone starts rolling out, they rush in.

I am so glad no decision was made to just have OR exclusively provide FTTP everywhere, they have left most of my city alone, to clarify its not even planned for them.

My city when cityfibre have done should be 90% covered by them, then there is spotty coverage of a few streets here and there by grain, some MDUs covered by hyperoptic, and 3 exchanges (out of many more) covered by OR FTTP. So its largely one provider for the majority of the city with some areas here and there getting a 2nd provider, and some unlucky ones will have no FTTP coverage at all.
 
I am pretty sure that is why Openreach built my street after realising Nexfibre is all over the rest of the town (We have long had VM presence here). What I now can't understand though, - all OR had to do was pull fibres and install kit into the chambers and it was suddenly live. OR's FTTP has been around a lot of the town for years, and in fact, literally if you turn right out of my cul-de-sac and drive not a few hundred yards, you come to an area where there was no room to drop a green cabinet in, hence they've had FTTP for many, many years. Why did they wait?
 
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