still installing cable to new areas?
 

Are virgin still installing cable to new areas?

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

no, they're not for the forseable future

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Oh dear. The estate the wife want to move to isn't cable and the bt postcode checker says 1.5 Mb/sec. Great. 18.6Mb/sec to 1.5. :(

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

By 2012, the majority of the UK cable network infrastructure will have been upgraded.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

but not extended I suspect. :(

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

I wouldn't be so sure... ;)

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

And where's the money going to come from for this upgrade?
VM still owe over 6bn, They already cover most of the most poulated areas of the UK, so wouldnt make financial sense at the moment to extend the cabled network

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Why don't they do what BT do on new build estates (adjacent to cable areas), and get the ducting in when the roads are put in? Cheaper option to digging up the roads etc.

Our town is cabled, but the new estate at the bottom of my garden isn't.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

When VM well telewest/ntl cabled the roads they did a servey in all areas to see who was interested and then installed cbls where the most interest was the chance of more cbling is very unlikely as vm are now using off net virgin.net

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

They might extend Off net via ADSL but they will not extend the Cable side ;)

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

I think it will.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Could it be extended in certain regions only? Hence the differing answers from posters 'in the know'? ;)

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

They're pushing the Tivo box hard enough, you'd think they'd extend the cable network for more customers, if anyone can make the investment, surely it's Virgin. I'm gutted that I can't get cable here, particularly given that Sky is a rip off and in a small way I'm lining murdoch's pocket! Now is the time to grab new potential customers who've had enough of Sky and who have been waiting for an alternative to come along. Here's hoping!

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

They do extend on rare occasions, one scheme where I live got done as they could dig through the grass instead of pavement which makes it cheap to do

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

We don't do it on rare occasions, we do it every day, and have done for the past 4 years! We are adding 30k New homes to the network each year and are on target to add over 100k homes this year alone!

Progress doesn't happen overnight guys ;)

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Oooh! That's encouraging. What are the odds of you reaching Morecambe bay anytime soon? lol. Having said that, I haven't looked into Tivo in depth because we don't have cable but I would only sign up for it if it had a multiroom facility like Sky does (large family), and I know that BT vision doesn't offer that option.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Morecambe Bay is a Smallworld Cable area, not Virgin Media, so you'd need to ask them.

Try here
http://twitter.com/#!/smallworldcable

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

I cannot understand why we do not utilise micowave transmitters to distribute internet sigals in the UK like the do in Spain.
Our house there has a small "squarial" type receiver on the roof pointing to a transmitter and I get 2mbit up and down constantly.More than enough for most things we need to do.

Also years ago when I moved into a new estate in Bracknell it was cabled by Diamond Cable, but in the center of the estate we had a satellite downlink to receive the signal and then it was piped to each house in the normal way.

Seemed sensible to me.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Substantial parts of southampton are being cabled as we speak and due online very soon.
They are using very old dis-used cable ducts by stripping out the old cables and installed new.
Mainly woolston area i believe..

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

I believe we are extending alot of the non serve areas to serviceable Devizes hasn't had anything ever. Now extending the network to the majority of Devizes. How long this will take to duct iam unaware of.
Although lets hope this isn't another project like weston super mare we duct then never utilize.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Devizes is a long way off VM's network, cant ever see that getting done?

Weston Super Mare was partially ducted at the time of main build by the cable overbuilder at the time (United Artists i believe) just ran out of money and some areas were left partially built but not connected. Not uncommon im afraid, but duct in the ground isn't everything, building the electronics to get the service to you is probably even more expensive on a scale like that.

---------- Post added at 16:28 ---------- Previous post was at 16:27 ----------

70k homes in the Northern areas of Southampton/Eastleigh including Shirley, Bassett, Chandlers Ford etc

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

We have towns on the trunk route but they will not look at them hubsite half empty because we never went back to cable up the streets :td:

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Same problem along most trunk routes, Scotland has a few good examples of that as well.

;)

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Hi,

Great to see some knowledgeable answers floating around on this board. I was on the phone for half hour a few days ago trying to find out if and when Melksham (particularly SN12 7F*) was ever going to get VM.

There's a planned FttC rollout from BT due by 31/12/11 but even with that I'd be lucky to get 30mb as I'm about a mile or so from the exchange. Would be ace if VM came along and boosted that to a 100MB line.

Does anyone know if there are any plans to add cabling to this area?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Tim

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

The Videotron MATV, quality network that, remember both visiting Southampton hub and wandering around some cabinets there.

It's a big job in those parts as the networks have no fibre and no phone lines, should be good when done but it's a total overbuild for those guys, new everything from taps and drop cables to trunk coax and everything in between.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Vm are in partnership with Persimmon and poss Barratt in the near future that will see all new developments fitted with catv. i work for access.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Thanks, but is that for new developments only? Ours is 10 years old you see.

I've raised a request with VM to consider it, but I'm a sceptic. :s

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Yes its for New Builds only, we have agreements with a lot of developers not just the 2 named but its only for deploying infrastructure on brand new build sites.

If you live in an area that is already built and doesnt have service then drop your details in an email to cablemystreet@virginmedia.co.uk and the team will look at this for you.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Hi Weesteev,

Thanks for the reply, but I've already done that. Do you know what the likelihood is of them actually doing it? I mean, do you know what kind of boxes need ticking before they go ahead and do the work, and what kind of timeframe I might be looking at from request to actually getting a decent broadband connection lol?

Cheers,
Tim

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

If its cost effective then it will happen, timeframe depends on the number of homes being served, realistically though if its a large estate (100+ homes) then it wont be cost effective and wont be done for the forseeable future.

The Cablemystreet team will report back results to you when they know if it will work out or not.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Thanks mate. It's around 40-50 houses I think. I'd say it was a small estate.

Oh well, fingers crossed then. Failing that, it'll be BT infinity at xmas.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Unless theres VM duct on site already that we dont know about then its unlikely, you never know though! Keep us posted.

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

I can vouch for the team as well ,i have sent in a request and got a reply in 48 hrs i was told that they will look into my enquiry ,i gave them details of the existing network which stops in the next street and details of the new houses(1800) being built to extend the estate which will be cabled so i am very hopefull as we are smack in the middle

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Yes im aware of this project Martyh (Scotswood), we will have an answer for you soon!

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

didn't realise we where that famous :D

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

trying to find out when virgin cable is or when it is coming to our area. its like platting fog.
our area is: high green, sheffield, s35

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

I live in CHandlers Ford - one of the areas mentioned for VM expansion.

Back around 1991-1995 ish we had Videotron cable tv and phone. I then moved to an uncabled area (twice), though still within walking distance.

Right now I'm "over the road" in a new estate away from the old videotron area which at it's closest point I'd guess is 200m away. This estate to my knowlede has ZERO cable (though does have bt infinity). It does seem to have ducting for cable everywhere - mini manholes every 20m or so, larger ones further apart.

Is VM just overlaying the ex-videotron area or are they expanding at all?

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

I live on a new housing development (Taylor Wimpey) just outside a medium sized market town.

This new development currently has about 300 houses on it, and is scheduled to end up at 2200 houses within the next 7 years. Currently, they are building about 5 houses a week.

Every single house suffers from diabolical BT telephone line length. Broadband speed ranges from 500kb to 800kb, or may just drop out completely, and this is the same for everybody. Every house also has an unsightly satelite dish attached to it.

Apparently, it's not financially viable for Virgin to cable this estate. Despite me coming out of my house and walking 500 metres up a straight road with soft grass verges to run cable in and straight past a Virgin cabinet serving the next estate.

In my last home, I loved my Virgin connection, it was always quick and reliable and the TV on demand was in a different league to Sky. So what really annoys me now is the constant bombardment of Virgin TV adverts that are posted through my door, advertising a service that I cannot have!

I realise cabling is expensive, but when you have a situation where nearly every resident and new ones being added every week would be delighted to have a Virgin service and the take up would be massive, you have to ask, does that make network expansion in general not financially viable?

Re: still installing cable to new areas?
 

Same boat here, I live on quite a large estate with new builds all around but still not worth it according to virgin.
In one direction cable is 0.4 miles away and in another is about 0.2 miles from empty ducting that was laid by ntl ten+ years ago and was never used.
Instead of wasting money trying to get more money from existing customers you would think they would want to find new customers?
If its too expensive to cable why not use the empty ducting?