Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Is that map specific to your local council? Or is it available for all councils? Thanks.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

http://roadworks.org/

They have data for many councils.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

A bunch more have arrived. Even though I won't be covered I am pretty psyched. This is very promising for other areas just through the scale of the build.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

How many homes would you estimate they are adding in that build then?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

The total build is about 9,000 premises all told. Those aren't all of it, more were added earlier today which represent about 1/3rd of it I would guesstimate.

This is, of course, a tiny fraction of the overall Lightning project.

The top image above now looks like this - each phone is a street getting cabled:

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/05/8.png

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Like you say though that's a lot of new homes in one area. Impressive!

I wonder what the prospects are for small towns that were intended to be done but never were? I can think of a town that has about 8000 homes, and is linked to a neighbouring Virgin Media town with empty NYNEX ducting.

I didn't envisage Lightning adding that many homes at once, I just thought it would be a couple of hundred homes here and there.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Those are the sort of places vm will be going for.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I once thought it was a good idea to buy shares in some of these old cablecos. If I had known then what I know now about how much time and money was wasted, I wouldn't have bothered. I wonder how many other small towns have empty ducting but no cables running through them.... No wonder Sky won the pay tv battle.

Good to see ignition's area getting sorted out at last.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Think this new build is going to give them a bigger opportunity to take Sky on in new areas. Where they do compete head on, they do very well against their competitors but have finally realised that you can't grow a customer base when all of the major players move customers between each other tempted by introductory offers and tend to grow revenue through yearly price rises.

I agree on the old cable co's but VM/LGI shares have done incredibly well.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Do you think they will go for wealthier suburban areas this time? Areas with large 1930s semis and big detached houses? Surely people in wealthier areas are more likely to subscribe? But of course build costs more as the houses are more spaced out.

Seems to me like in the past they went for mostly council estates and terraces housing areas in this area (with the exception of where the hub site is based).

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Are they? Or are they more likely to watch less TV, not care that much about the Internet as long as it's usable, as they are more affluent and can have more nights out and have more hobbies?

Higher uptake tends to come in less affluent areas as TV along with the Internet are the main forms of entertainment.

That the build costs are also lower per premises is a bonus, and then you have the install costs going up long drives.

---------- Post added at 10:37 ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 ----------

The general area is getting sorted which I'm delighted about. My immediate area is not in the rollout :)

They literally ran out of money overnight and downed tools.

---------- Post added at 10:39 ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 ----------

A lot of shares have done very well. We'll see if this is a permanent trend or just asset inflation from QE and other things.

Home entertainment is probably a good bet for right now. People have less cash and staying in has indeed become the new going out for many.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I'm sure I read somewhere that the VM rollout these days is based on how many people are likely to go for the higher price packages though? Hence why they have rolled out to areas like Papworth.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

You've clearly missed the impact the recession has had on middle class lifestyles ;)

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I mean over time Igntionnet. Can rememember when VM shares were 8 dollars in 2007, LGI bought them at 17 dollars per share plus percentage of LGI and they are now at 56 dollars with investment houses suggesting they may rise to 64 dollars in the short term.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Far from it, the wealthier the less they used to pay. Nowadays more households with higher incomes are paying for TV/BB in the early days though your council estates the cabinets were rammed with customers.

Alot of older people though still stick with BT for phone ect. Can't get rid of GPO and use them news companies

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

This confuses me a bit. Virgin Media shares don't trade anymore. Their entire share capital was acquired by LGI.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

LGI payed £30 per VM share plus a $17 per share dividend.....

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

We seem to have wandered a long way from the subject...:erm:

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Nah. I don't see it. Maybe the share price discussion. But the rest of it, no. We are discussing where they might expand to.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

It is indeed a big body of work. The icon right at the top on the left is also more VM and all the stuff bottom left is them too.

No doubt the gap in the north-east between Ring Road and Thorpe Road will be plugged along with the missing streets in between, and we'll see if there's any more to go in the project.

Either way this is what a VM build looks like on roadworks.org.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/05/5.png

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Something is definately happening in Welwyn, Hertfordshire. The area to the bottom right is the limit of the build in Welwyn Garden City, & whatever is going in is going toward Welwyn old town, which has no cable. The descriptions on all of these are similar in format:

"...Build chambers & lay duct in footway verge and carriageway (road crossings)..."

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Hmm.

That seems to be going to the telephone exchange which makes me wonder whether it's for cable or leased lines. Not to mention that in this build they are building outwards, not just along a main road, so that they can sell as they go.

If it is for a single leased line there's going to be one hell of an excess construction charge on it.

We'll see :)

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

It could also be a VMB install for the Police station

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I've noticed that Virgin often seem to have ducting coming from small local BT exchanges. Even when the hubsite or switching site (I'm not sure of the terminology or difference to be honest) is in a completely different town.

I'm not sure why they need to link into the BT exchange at such a local level. Surely it would make more sense to link into BT's network at a more regional level?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

The BT links are normally business, could be either company leasing fibre from the other.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I thought someone mentioned once VM have some reliance on BT's exchanges for their POTS service?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I've seen equipment in BT exchanges labelled as Virgin Media, the label is placed on top of another that says NTL though obviously in other areas this would be different. They aren't DSLAMs. It just seems odd that they wouldn't just take the POTS stuff back to the hubsite and then connect into BT's network from there.

One I'm thinking of in particular runs from the BT exchange (I've not seen any equipment in that exchange with a VM label on it) right down to the little council estate in the small town, nowhere near any businesses. The council estate is the only cabled part of the town. The town is linked to the rest of the VM network via a duct running along country roads a few miles to where the hubsite is.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Depending how old it is could it be part of VM's mobile mast backhauls? They wouldn't necessarily be sited anywhere near normal businesses.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Virgin do deliver a lot of leased lines with BT tails...

---------- Post added at 21:21 ---------- Previous post was at 21:20 ----------

No, you're thinking of a maintenance contract with BT on some ancient PDH kit.

VM's POTS service is delivered via in-cabinet MSANs connecting to a PDH network which then goes to the SDH network.

---------- Post added at 21:26 ---------- Previous post was at 21:21 ----------

Indeed not. They'll be edge routers/switches to take traffic onto VM's MetNet.

Must be some VM kit lurking in that exchange somewhere to take hand-off from BT. Should be buried in the OLO hostel with the LLU DSLAMs and other goodies.

EDIT: One actually quite obvious thought is that that exchange was being used by VM for BT Wholesale DataStream services and was a handover point, or there may have been some leased circuits on BT tails going in there which are now decommissioned. Makes sense to take the tail back to the nearest cabled area so that it can then use the existing ducting there rather than a brand new fibre run all the way back to the MetNet POP.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Makes sense. In one exchange (where VM have no presence whatsoever) there's a bit of kit with a Virgin Media sticker on. However it also has a yellow Openreach sticker on to say it's now decommissioned. This sounds like the type of thing you're talking about (decommissioned leased lines).

Near the VM hubsite in the BT exchange there's some very old equipment in the OLO area labelled as NYNEX. presumably how they route POTS calls onto the BT network.

Yeah the ducting probably isn't really old. It says CATV rather than Cable & Wireless (which is what the manholes in front of Virgin's boxes in that area say). So it must have been put in after them, probably in the last 15 years.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

There's a story on Edgadget today about Project Lightning expansion in Manchester starting this week. 150,000 additional homes.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

It's the local paper too - looks like they are going for it big time

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....inging-9497983

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

No choice but to, given the coverage target they've set themselves. 20,000 in the first phase in Manchester however they will need to be building at 800k premises per year. This is just their warming up and many more projects will come online in parallel.

They're about 1/4th through the 9,000 premises expansion in South Leeds now, with I'm sure loads more to come once this initial build is done as then come the areas to our immediate north, Belle Isle and Hunslet, which will be sandwiched between cabled areas once Middleton is complete, and then to our south a few thousand premises worth of orphan plant in Tingley.

Tingley build then sandwiches uncabled and cabled bits of Wakefield, etc, etc. Without going far at all outside of existing build there's an entire West Yorkshire expansion programme to be done across Wakefield, Leeds, Bradford and surrounds.

Something I did note was that, contrary to the initial announcement, VM are open to building to entire new towns if they have existing plant in a neighbouring town. This will I'm sure get people's attention.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Do they consider Dundee a "neighbouring town" to Aberdeen?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Sadly not, especially given they've no network of any description north of Dundee.

Excuse the colouring - PR piece.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/06/3.jpg

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Interesting, how do you know this? Is there a statement somewhere that I've missed?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

In some sites the headend/hub planning is going to be fun....

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Correct, Aberdeen was served by the defunct Atlantic Cable. There is duct infrastructure, and I would assume some antiquated plant of some description.

Atlantic's national network was rebadged as "Gamma Telecoms" and still operates fairly successfully today. But I assume running a cable franchise was not part of their future business plan.

http://www.gamma.co.uk

So there is infrastructure there, but I doubt VM would have stomach to buy it and invest in it.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Depends on if they're aware of it being there. If they could get it very cheap it would make a lot of sense to buy it.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Yeah, was aware of that. But on the other hand, Dundee is the nearest city, hence neighbouring, right? :dozey:

Would also stop them having to lose money to BT et. al. on 4G mobile backhauls in the region.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I've been reading up on that old cable network in Aberdeen. What a nightmare, seems it was leased from BT.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...p/2851335#M200

Virgin aren't going to spend all that money getting to Aberdeen, population 250,000 and perhaps 100,000 premises, even with options to reduce the cost of 4G backhaul.

They can and do lease connectivity from Aberdeen for use with their existing mobile backhaul deals.

The Greater Manchester infill alone passes as many premises as there are in Aberdeen, with change. Tons of other towns and cities that either have incomplete cable coverage or have the required Virgin plant running nearby.

---------- Post added at 11:03 ---------- Previous post was at 11:01 ----------

Indeed. The one here needed upgrades to Middleton hubsite along with extra kit in Seacroft.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Dundee's a lot smaller, what made them build that far?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Presumably that decision was taken by a local cable franchise as oppose to today's VM.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Tayside Cable Systems Ltd bought the franchise for both Perth and Dundee, so they made the call to build the cable network there.

The Virgin core network connected up the franchises as they were assimilated. Dundee and Perth were relatively close to other franchises so relatively little fibre needed deploying compared to somewhere like Aberdeen.

Looking at the historicals Aberdeen isn't an HFC network, it's an all-coax with microwave backhaul arrangement. Atlantic Cable went down the pan at the same time ntl and Telewest were beginning to really hit the rocks so there wasn't the cash there to either buy the network or give it the comprehensive rebuild that would've been needed.

EDIT: Incidentally the existing network is actually leased from BT and runs at least partially inside BT ducts. ntl were unable to strike a deal with BT over Milton Keynes or parts of Westminster so no reason to think VM would have more luck - they'd have to build from scratch.

So a buyer would've had to purchase the franchise, at best do a full HFC network overbuild and almost certainly a full new build, and extend their core network about 100km to Aberdeen.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Yes I mentioned that earlier in the thread. So actually what I thought was as simple as VM buying the network wouldn't be. The main thing they'd want is the ducts, but there aren't any in the Aberdeen network as it all went through BT ducts so it's a complete non-starter.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

VM have little Core network up there. The trunk/core fibres from Uddingston (Glasgow) to Perth and Dundee is leased from Vodafone. The route down the East from Dundee to Edinburgh is VM owned, except for the Tay and Forth crossings.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Practically nobody has much core network 'up there', hence everyone's scrambling to build new fibre down the coast.

I'm surprised VM haven't gotten in on the act...

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Will Project Lightning cover industrial parks? I know round here the industrial park seems to be cabled. Over the years a few of the cabinets have opened from time to time. Most seem to have no customers but otherwise look like they could accept customers. There's one I the retail park now with its door open, it has what looks like a thick coax cable coming into it that's been cut and is just flapping around. Next to it is a thick (possibly 50 pair) copper cable which is terminated on strips for POTS. again, no customers. Makes me wonder why industrial parks and retail parks were ever cabled with HFC, no one seemed to really took them up on it.

I guess the ducts now will have fibre in them serving business customers that way, so I wonder if the ducting would be expanded or do they just dig when a business orders a leased line?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Making great progress in broadening this build. Already been expanded in scope a couple of times.

VM are, without question, serious about this project.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

They certainly are, I've seen/heard where they plan on in my franchise, and it shall be a whole lot bigger than it currently is.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Having a friendly council helps a ton. They're being pretty co-operative.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2015/07/9.png

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Yes, this Mr Mockridge.

http://about.virginmedia.com/press-r...and-businesses

Great news for the city.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

So is this something different to the roll out you've been describing in your posts?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Nope, I have been talking about the Middleton build.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

There's Virgin network expansion in Glasgow south side. Network being expanded from Speirsbridge Roundabout up to a newer housing estate that wasn't there when it was first built.
Now only about 200 metres from my parents house where they are building ~200 new houses and about 100 social housing. There is cable up the road and now just a bit down the road from them. Infill chances?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

The new houses would be extremely likely

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Only if VM have the tender to provide services there of course. VM can't build on unadopted roads without the developer's consent so if they aren't involved from the beginning it might have to wait until the roads are adopted.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Belle Isle next. Just as well these guys work in teams ;)

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2015/08/32.png

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Just had confirmed today that VM aren't building on the unadopted roads here unless something changes, and the emails they sent out to people indicating they were in the plans were in error, so adoption status is definitely a thing.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

More small infill starting to crop up. Devon this time.

Mulberry close Paignton. Lay 320m of ducting & associated chambers.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I can see a bunch of small

Small-ish

And not so small infill in progress.

All over the place.

The budget per home passed being raised from £300 to somewhere between £500 and £750 has brought a lot of properties very close to existing network into plan.

Good.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Leicester Villages project now under way. Currently installing in Enderby & Countesthorpe..
http://about.virginmedia.com/press-r...roadband-boost

Entries on roadworks refer to FTTH install, so looks like its not HFC.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Correct it is FTTH

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Think Leicester Villages is about half done now. It's RFoG.

The Leeds project continues, Middleton and Belle Isle / LS10 build is about complete. There are 10 items of work currently left, most of which complete in a fortnight, another couple in 4 weeks and the last and largest street in mid-February.

Some in-fill going on around the city for right now, odd streets in Beeston and other places, pending the next phase of the larger build.

Having been potentially the single person most responsible for the 'damage' I remain without cable for a few unfortunate reasons. That's life :)

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Is there any information as to which areas are planned to be included in Project Lightning or is it a case of waiting to see if VM registers work on roadworks.org?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

While there are some bigger areas where local authorities are getting involved in the expansion, a lot of it is down to customer demand being shown. The new areas also have to be close to existing VM infrastructure.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

VM announce larger bits of work, though the announcements seem to be made when they are part way through them.

VM know what they are going be building and roughly when. I'm aware of a few larger builds that haven't been announced to the public, however I'm not discussing them on here.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

They really should communicate with potential new customers!

http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/141...their_doorstep

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Yep! That sounds really, really bad!

"Councillor Mike Badcock, who represents Caldecott, said at least three residents had contacted him with complaints."

Perhaps they hadn't paid attention?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Strangely they managed to build to nearly 10,000 premises here over the course of 7 months operating on the same statutory notices without a newspaper article listing complaints.

There were certainly complaints to local councillors and a bunch of issues, as you'd expect from a construction project of any size, and where Virgin messed up the construction defects were resolved. I'm aware of some of them given I'm kinda to blame for it all :angel:

I'm not aware of anyone doing what are minor street works like these informing residents in advance. They don't need the residents' permission, they don't need to 'consult' on minor projects like this and are well within their rights to start at 8am.

I have no idea about the access issues beyond to say that there were issues here, however they were kept to a minimum through opening barriers on demand and using covers to permit access to and from properties, and regarding the rubble, yes, it was kept near properties, but on public land. If the parking spaces are private property the residents have a point, however the story implies they are not.

Given that this estate of less than 300 properties has managed to produce more public complaints in 3 days than ~10,000 premises here over 7 months, and this build includes considerably more new build than Caldecott Chase, I'd suggest that it's not Virgin Media that have the biggest issues in this instance.

I did get a chuckle out of the woman claiming that the residents there are quite 'tolerable' and complaining about Virgin 'bowling' up, though.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2016/01/23.jpg

That or the best she can say about that estate is that the people there are 'tolerable'. In which case, well... :angel:

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I agree that a bit of communication from VM would seem to be a bit of a obvious thing to do. It let's people know there's going to be disruption and also what the benefits are going to be. That said, as we're talking about a new build estate in Abingdon, I suspect that whatever VM did, the residents would still complain!

Speaking for myself, living on a new build estate where the rest of the village has cable, I'd imagine that we must be prime candidates to be included in Project Lightning. Why can't they just tell us if there is chance we'll get cable like they do with our BDUK project? I'd rather know now than find out that VM are about to arrive just after agreeing a 24 month contract with a OpenReach based ISP.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

They're hedging their bets. Until an area has been planned they can't really comment with certainty. BDUK was for the most part far easier as it was nearly all fibre to cabinets.

Once an area has been planned people who have pre-registered receive emails. In theory.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

As I haven't heard anything, I'd assume there's nothing happening in the foreseeable future. :-(

I suppose I could start a campaign to get people on our estate signed up to the Cable My Street page. I thought I read somewhere that VM were going to put together a campaign pack. Has anyone come across any such thing?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Come across it, received it, distributed fliers, have the cheesy badges and a lanyard.

---------- Post added at 14:11 ---------- Previous post was at 13:56 ----------

Have your roads been adopted by the council yet? VM probably won't plan it until they are.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Ahh! Do you have a link perchance please?

Yes certainly, back in 2014 I think it was.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I just went back and I can see that they aren't actually ready for widespread use just yet. I must've received some kind of 'ad hoc' thing. Should be good to go soon reading the website.

I have a penchant for pulling strings and bending ears.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

This case is quite interesting to me. They were digging right outside people's windows with no notification, and parking on their drives! I wouldn't be best pleased either.

It does seem unusual that the drives are council property also, I live on a new build estate and the drives in front of the houses are definitely our property. Though we do also have a pavement in front of the driveways. Which the houses in the pictures in that article don't. Imagine if a company suddenly arrived and started digging up what you thought was your driveway one morning.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Well none of that is happening here - the council won't allow VM to dig the newer build even when it's public it seems unless they full-width reinstate afterwards which makes the enterprise way too expensive.

With that the Middleton build is complete - about 1,300 properties short of the entire ward but as was originally expected.

It's likely that by the time it becomes possible to construct without having to do full-width reinstatement VM won't be interested due to cost anyway. They were planning on breaking the bank and there will be way easier fish to fry.

I loathe the telecomms farce that is this estate.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

VM are doing some new build in the area, not just in-fill next to adjacent areas.

http://outsizefiles.leeds.gov.uk/str...001&CallerID=3
http://outsizefiles.leeds.gov.uk/str...089&CallerID=5

That's about a mile and a half of duct with shiny new network to branch out from it covering both villages.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Ignitionet, read your blog about your area, didn't realise you were in a new build, does throw new light on past posts...

I'm not clear though, are you receiving a FTTC service now? There are now two FTTC cabinets in your area, but you didn't say whether one of them was the one you wanted, ie cabinet 82???

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

The two FTTC cabinets are both connected to PCP 82.

Each FTTC cabinet can hold 288 connections. There are ~450 FTTC connections coming off PCP 82.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

....ok, but are you getting a FTTC service now?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Per my services box yes. I've business FTTC that runs at 64/19 give or take.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/local/2016/01/3.png

I did have 2 of them but cancelled one to allow another person to use the port. Cabinets are regularly full as uptake is high.

My main driver for wanting a cable or other service is resiliency as I'm a home worker. Having 2 FTTC lines that may come from the same cabinet via the same copper cable into the home and going through the same copper back to the cabinet, then fibre within the same ducts back to the exchange where they terminate on the same switch isn't ideal.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

...no, of course not.

I'm assuming by lack of telegraph poles on your estate, that there are underground ducts, when I assume BT now own as opposed to the developer.

Putting a positive spin on things, at least you may in the future get upgraded to FTTP. It's a lot easier with ducts, rather than blokes being sent up poles which is what the wider MIddleton area has. So, after all the wait, you may in the end get a much better service.

Glad its all sorted.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

The properties are all fully ducted. I have the cabling plans for some of the development.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

From what I'm hearing sounds like VM are somewhat 'annoyed' with how things are going in Leeds and it's debatable how much further their patience can be stretched before they pack it in and find friendlier climes.

It was all going so well... :)

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Some streetworks porn for those so inclined.

EDIT: Heh, just realised, those 3 BT cabinets in the photo, there are now 2 VM cabinets nearby, one across the larger road, one across the smaller side road.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Thought of you yesterday as I drove past all those roadworks.

Cheers

Grim

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Sadly none of it in my street but it's all good for those who are being served :)

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Middleton near as damnit finished. On to the FTTP builds in the 'villages' to the east of the city now.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

I take it they aren't particularly rural then? What are some of these "villages" called? I would be interested to look them up at Google Maps. Would maybe give me a hint as to Virgin's plans round here.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Sure.

All West Yorkshire: Methley, Allerton Bywater, Kippax, Swillington, Great Preston, Garforth.

You can find the details through the maps on http://www.roadworks.org

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Thanks, I've managed to find all of those places. Some are much smaller than I expected with a few miles of countryside to the nearest VM network. Do you think the villages will be RFoG? What do you think is the thinking in serving villages with RFoG and more built up areas with HFC? I can't think of a reason why they wouldn't just do the lot using RFoG.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

If it's an " infill" I.e an area surrounded by existing network, was planned to be built back in the day but never was. Then it will likely be HFC.

If it is new areas beyond what was the original planned footprint then it's a good chance it will be fttp and therefore RFoG.

VM are not really looking at GePON at the moment, they were looking at doing it.

They were actually looking at providing fttp in Cabled areas separate from HFC, similar in how fibre 10G circuits are offered to business.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

My opinion is that is the way to go!

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Wouldn't it need different set top boxes and routers though?

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Too expensive. Comcast have done this but only delivering FTTP when ordered, not to replace existing service. Delivered as Metro Ethernet, so point to point fibre between home and customer.

Expensive, long contract, high install charge.

CenturyLink used the existing coax to pull through a new coax + fibre drop and sold 1Gb over GPON. Lower pricing and more of an FTTP on demand scenario. Eases load on the existing HFC plant by overbuilding it when heavy users stump up the money.

---------- Post added at 20:53 ---------- Previous post was at 20:51 ----------

If you're referring to RFoG, no. An ONT in the home converts the fibre to coax for distribution to existing STBs and hubs.

In the case of the Metro Ethernet solution existing coaxial drop carries the TV, a new Metro Ethernet switch terminates the new fibre connection and connects to a customer's own router much as modem mode on a Superhub works.

Re: How big are VM's infills?
 

Also fibre intensive, you need a fibre pair from the customer location back to the head end.

Still ,It was being looked at so they could claim the country's fastest broadband tag.

RFoG is a bit pants IMO. But it enables fTTP roll out without wholesale change to the VM network delivery and as I see it, at least the fibre infrastructure is at least in place and other solutions can be delivered over it in the future should things change.