New build conundrum... empty CATV grids

[RainmakerRaw]

I recently moved into a new-build house with my girlfriend. She secured the property via her local Housing Association. When I went with her to view the house, we noticed (having purposefully looked) that there was a large grey CATV manhole cover on the pavement and that each house had a small, square black CATV grid adjoining the front of the building. Great start!

Since it was a new build we knew the postcode wouldn't show up on the checker yet, and proceeded to move in. Having emailed the Cable My Street team we have been told that the local Officer has said this street/estate is not part of an active project for cable laying.

What on earth? Why install all the ducting and CATV grids and never lay any cable? :confused: Someone even drilled into the front of the houses last week and threaded a white cable from the small CATV grids into the houses' living room walls all along the street.

Does anyone have the slightest idea what may be going on? VM have been decidedly unhelpful and the Housing Association don't seem to know either. But SOMEONE is clearly doing something. Our nearest exchange is ages away and we'd be lucky to get 7Mbps on ADSL2+ with Sky. I miss VM's 100Mbps and TV XL! TIA.

[m419]

I recently moved into a new-build house with my girlfriend. She secured the property via her local Housing Association. When I went with her to view the house, we noticed (having purposefully looked) that there was a large grey CATV manhole cover on the pavement and that each house had a small, square black CATV grid adjoining the front of the building. Great start!

Since it was a new build we knew the postcode wouldn't show up on the checker yet, and proceeded to move in. Having emailed the Cable My Street team we have been told that the local Officer has said this street/estate is not part of an active project for cable laying.

What on earth? Why install all the ducting and CATV grids and never lay any cable? :confused: Someone even drilled into the front of the houses last week and threaded a white cable from the small CATV grids into the houses' living room walls all along the street.

Does anyone have the slightest idea what may be going on? VM have been decidedly unhelpful and the Housing Association don't seem to know either. But SOMEONE is clearly doing something. Our nearest exchange is ages away and we'd be lucky to get 7Mbps on ADSL2+ with Sky. I miss VM's 100Mbps and TV XL! TIA.

Where abouts are you? It might be a BT cable franchise like where it was policy to have every new build accessible as it is classified as the primary tv reception source and communal TV service and may not be on Virgin Media's records yet, even though they would only offer BBC1,BBC2,ITV1,ITV2,Channel 4 and five for £4 per month, there is no Broadband and they can no longer give out Analogue set top boxes

[RainmakerRaw]

I've moved over to the dark side and now live in Liverpool (L11 area). :)

Edit: Frustratingly, every street around us has VM but as we are new build we have nothing...

[Kymmy]

It may be the developers being pro-active.. Put the conduits/grids in and hope that people/Vm will use them later.. It's probably amazing as to how many prospective owners/tenants probably look for the CATV grids :D

Are there antenna restriction there?? May be a feed for a SKY distribution.. Not all of them are on walls..

[m419]

I've moved over to the dark side and now live in Liverpool (L11 area). :)

Edit: Frustratingly, every street around us has VM but as we are new build we have nothing...

ahhh a Nynex area, they did that with a lot of streets,when the company became Cable and Wireless, many unfinished streets came to a halt and funding stopped, the same applied to Isle of Dogs in london although there,most streets are cabled,for some reason,Cable and Wireless stopped funding it after Bell cable Media became Cable and Wireless and NTL said it was beyond repair, only pre-2005 telephone customers remain there.

Perhaps the white cabling you see are BT phone lines or a communal aerial? On your rent statement, you would likely see 'TV Reception' or 'IRS System' if it is, the council charge me 87p per week for that.

[RainmakerRaw]

ahhh a Nynex area, they did that with a lot of streets,when the company became Cable and Wireless, many unfinished streets came to a halt and funding stopped, the same applied to Isle of Dogs in london although there,most streets are cabled,for some reason,Cable and Wireless stopped funding it after Bell cable Media became Cable and Wireless and NTL said it was beyond repair, only pre-2005 telephone customers remain there.

Perhaps the white cabling you see are BT phone lines or a communal aerial? On your rent statement, you would likely see 'TV Reception' or 'IRS System' if it is, the council charge me 87p per week for that.

No it's not a phone line or aerial or the like, that much we DO know. We've been living in the house a couple of weeks now and the white wires only appeared a week ago while we were out. We don't have a phone and the developers had already installed the aerials and sockets etc before we moved in.

They (the white wires) emanate from the CATV grid but seemingly aren't "plumbed in" to anything, and the wire simply pokes into a hole in our wall on the front of the house, it doesn't connect to anything indoors and the hole doesn't go all the way through the wall into the property for some reason. There's a lot of blue string going through the duct and coming out of each house's mini CATV grid as well. They seem to be doing something but God only knows what. According to VM, whatever it is they're up to it isn't installing cable. :(

I've barely been here a fortnight and I want to move!! We could of course install Sky TV which is fine, but it's the 100Mbps internet I'm going to miss, badly! Suppose I'll have to catch a suit on-site and see what they have to say. Thanks guys, I'll let you know when I do.

[m419]

No it's not a phone line or aerial or the like, that much we DO know. We've been living in the house a couple of weeks now and the white wires only appeared a week ago while we were out. We don't have a phone and the developers had already installed the aerials and sockets etc before we moved in.

They (the white wires) emanate from the CATV grid but seemingly aren't "plumbed in" to anything, and the wire simply pokes into a hole in our wall on the front of the house, it doesn't connect to anything indoors and the hole doesn't go all the way through the wall into the property for some reason. There's a lot of blue string going through the duct and coming out of each house's mini CATV grid as well. They seem to be doing something but God only knows what. According to VM, whatever it is they're up to it isn't installing cable. :(

I've barely been here a fortnight and I want to move!! We could of course install Sky TV which is fine, but it's the 100Mbps internet I'm going to miss, badly! Suppose I'll have to catch a suit on-site and see what they have to say. Thanks guys, I'll let you know when I do.

Do any neighbours not know? Because if someone was drilling a hole into my house or hanging about I would ask them what they are doing

[RainmakerRaw]

Do any neighbours not know? Because if someone was drilling a hole into my house or hanging about I would ask them what they are doing

They're all housing association houses and the street is only half built, literally. Only one side is finished the other is still a building site, and the builders are still up and down doing last minute jobs to the properties. As such the few people who have already moved in are well used to the state of affairs and just let the builders get on with things, so nobody knows anything. Frustrating isn't in it! I'll try to find someone on-site who does know and report back, to bring closure to the thread if nothing else. :)

[m419]

Well I would suggest sending another email to cable my street with all the residents that want Virgin Media and highlight the empty ducts and equipment. That will slightly get things moving.

The other thing is that BT may upgrade BT Vision to Virgin TV's standard in a few years or so considering its recent investment in content and roll out of infinity.

[redone]

Liverpool has never been a nynex area and if the estate is where I'm thinking of it will be cabled but you may have to wait until the street is complete. Had the same problem under the bridge in Garson they had to wait until the building work had been completed as the ducting had been damaged during the pavement works

[Tim Deegan]

They're all housing association houses and the street is only half built, literally. Only one side is finished the other is still a building site, and the builders are still up and down doing last minute jobs to the properties. As such the few people who have already moved in are well used to the state of affairs and just let the builders get on with things, so nobody knows anything. Frustrating isn't in it! I'll try to find someone on-site who does know and report back, to bring closure to the thread if nothing else. :)

Why don't you visit the building site office, and ask the site manager. He must have an idea who he is dealing with.

[RainmakerRaw]

Well I thought I'd update this thread as the problem has been solved. I actually rang Sky the other day but decided, for whatever reason, to hold off ordering and to call back. Luckily I bumped into a guy in a suit on my driveway yesterday and he happened to be wearing a VM hi-vis vest...

He was inspecting the CATV grid outside the houses, and I briefly told him what had gone on re Cable My Street and the New Build Officer etc. He looked confused, told me he was the regional manager from Manchester, and that our street was not only already fully laid with cable but that he was out today (yesterday) to sign it all off so it was provisioned for activation.

In other words, in a few days I'll be able to book install as normal and it'll be a ten minute job to hook me up.

Considering 40+ people already occupy houses on this street and we'd all been told to go to Sky or BT previously, this is quite startling! Someone in VM dropped a ball somewhere, but luckily it wasn't too late and I can rest assured VM is coming my way soon and I don't need to suffer slow speeds on ADSL2+. All's well that ends well... thanks to all for their replies and input. :)

[MrIca]

Good news for you but there's still loads of new builds in Liverpool where no cable has been installed.

VM must be losing a fortune in Liverpool. The amount of old terraced housing that has been pulled down and replaced with new houses is staggering. The old terraced houses used to have VM, but the houses that have replaced them don't.

Meanwhile, in Bromborough over the water there's a couple of large new developments that haven't been cabled, they are both in cabled areas but the developer/VM just haven't bothered.