BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Hi

In March of this year I received an email from Mr Anthony Cronshore at the Chief Executives Office. In which he stated "Major works in my area are due to be finished by mid June 2012"

Are the upgrades finished ?

Kind regards.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

You'd be better off asking Virgin Media this officially, either via their 'support' forum or via email to the CEO office.

All you'll get here is speculation and rumour...

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Which of course also includes speculation on whether "Major works in the CEO's intended context not only includes Cat C resegmentation (which can often involve civil engineering work, relate planning/highways permissions, notice of works et al to physically split an existing O/E node into two or more separate nodes) and perhaps even "street Cab upgrades", additional upstream channels and corequisite CMTS/uBR upgrades (denser line cards etc)!

It probably "clouds-the-issue" and potentially confuses but for the last year+ I've attempted to keep a record of published (VM H&S and service page) faults in Brighton area, and tracking various estimated dates etc.
You can find my notes here > Brighton VM Problems
A number of utilisation issues appear to be co-dependent on Cat C re-segmentation but not surprisingly we the customers are not automatically informed when a F00 reference is formally closed or specifically which one relates to a particular Cat C reseg. As each CMTS could have 8 or more nodes and Brighton has 17 CMTS chassis (3 of which - brig15/16/17 are
newgen Cisco 10012 DOCSIS 3 compliant) then naturally some of the listed faults may already be closed as equally there may be a number of faults that haven't yet been published on VM forums!

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Worthing subscribers are typically provisioned from Lancing CMTS cluster(with 7 CMTS chassis).
"lanc6/7" being the most referred for many problems, you can check by host name from your reverse dns, eg > MyuBR

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

I'm in the back of Portslade/mile oak and have not experienced any of the problems people in central Brighton do, I have friends that live up London rd area and it's awful.
until recently I've been on the 20mb service and always got between 18 and 20meg and I've just moved onto the 60 meg service and seem to be getting a constant 58+ meg and that's on wireless.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Hi

I received the following :

Thank you for your recent email.

With regards to the works in your area, these are now complete however the last stages of testing are still underway. These should be complete over the coming weeks and then a date for releasing the rest of the bandwidth will be announced.

With the above in mind I have now changed over to the VM Superhub and I am very pleased with the results.

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/11/67.png

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

There's already evidence that upstream bundling has started. As of 8am Sunday I've had 2 upstreams on US0(45.8MHz) & US2(27.4MHz) on a BN3 node serviced from Brig15 CMTS. Nothing yet on my Brig16 monitor.

Possibly test/pilot trials or start of rollout…. Whatever, but it hopefully won't be much longer. ;)

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Oops - I tell a lie! Brig16/BN3 node just got UBG implemented about 7am today. Same US0 and US2 channels.
Could actually be rolling out unless VM are testig various nodes/CMTS concurrently?

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Don't see why not. Upstream bonding has been deployed in many places.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/11/48.png

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/11/49.png

...Certainly somethings being done on the Brig16 CMTS

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

You should probably save those before they disappear

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Brighton has been broken for about 18 months, in a similar way to Bristol. Unbelievable VM's fix times...

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Wish the "peering bump" on Linx would disappear from that live snapshot as quick, but if that was a serious suggestion then I still have access to the "history/previous days" snapshots anyway!

Also judging from DB133's Hub stats he kindly supplied via his other thread it appears "brig17" also had it's UBG implemented around 9am yesterday morning. Although I note with interest it's using US1(35.8MHz) and US2 (27.4MHz) on Davids BN1 node (but then I suspect my BN3 nodes still have an outstanding SNR/FEC issue on US1 anyway)

That hopefully completes all 3 D3 chassis (AFAIK) in Brighton and assuming VM have sensibly configured Load Balance Groups one hopes a significant improvement in upstream utilisation problems…. ;)

Time will tell….

---------- Post added at 05:57 ---------- Previous post was at 05:33 ----------

Can't speak about Bristol but some will attest to variable "hot/not spots" utilisation issues in Brighton for years!…. :(

Accompanied by much cynical discrediting of VM's "planning permissions" reasons for protracted delays. Regarding the latter, just out of interest, I'm currently awaiting a "Freedom of Information" response I submitted recently regarding VM's previous and planned "Street Works" from B&H council. ;)

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

How do I 'save' them before they disappear ?

Regards.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Brilliant! Hope the information gleaned can be useful :)

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

right click, save image

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Well we'll see as target date I've been given is 28thNov so protracted bureaucracy of city administrators must almost be equivalent if not greater than VM's own! ;)
I'm expecting a token charge around £10 or so but how informative/presentable the actual data is let alone "usefull" remains to be seen….

I'll hopefully be able to update here in a few weeks after also checking on "legalities of disseminating any info derived from the source" but suspect it'll probably amount to a "damp squid"…. :(

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

what did they used to look like?

can they fix mine now?

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

A previous Thursday in June:http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...21-06-2012.png

and the other brig16 connection a Thursday in May:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...24-05-2012.png

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Lancing is over subscribed and I can confirm that Lanc6 is bogged down a treat. The sooner Virgin Media do something about this the better.

Seemingly the network team is set to resolve this on 14/11/2012. But all I ever see on the VM forums are dates getting pushed back multiple times. So I won't bank on any fix in BN15.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

ok what specific work was done in brighton then, I want the same in my area :p

Although of course I am not hopeful because as I understand it somehow the people in brighton managed to make lots of noise about it, press involved etc. and even then it took VM a long time to fix it, so my guess is what happened in brighton is above the normal congestion relief policies.

When I try to compare my US congestion to others in my area, it does seem as if I am on the only one bad channel because even other ip's in my ip subnet have significantly less jitter. About 5-10% or so have the high jitter rest dont, and even my neighbour a few doors away doesnt. But VM are stubborn and refuse to move me to a diff US channel group even with my neighbour on it. Whenever they talk to me about utilisation levels (CEO office) they just compare my US to the other 2 US's on my port so dont use different areas and groups which have much lower utilisation as a comparison. So given the barriers I have come across within VM this does seem unusual practice in how brighton got fixed.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Moving customers to BT Infinity.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Other than the fact you appear to have the same numerical number of CMTS chassis as Brighton (17), I don't see any other obvious (technical) similarities between Brighton and Leicester?

Unless you specifically know that your City planning/street works/highways have comparable "works" notification process, your HFC topology,age and RF plant is identical, same CMTS/uBR models, linecard types, configuration and up/down stream channel/freq plans, same HPPN, user demographics, churn rate etc etc I confess that with my ever increasing senility I don't otherwise see how you can accurately compare them with any sort of objectivity?

Perhaps you'd be kind enough to elaborate in simple terms for this aging retired network engineer? ;)

Seriously though, there will be far too many variables to reach any objective form of comparison. It's still very much a post code lottery and VM don't elaborate on any useful details!. :(

Just for the record it would be churlish and naive to deny that local media publicity doesn't have some degree of influence on VM local strategies, however there has over past years been several articles (typically bi-annual) in Brightons Argus/Leader publications. Albeit, merely as a local resident I don't see any evidence that this has increased any more over the last years than places like Bristol or Newcastle?
Ergo I don't think anything "special" has happened but merely as a end result of longterm capacity planning?
Just check this help site for past issues 2+ years ago wrt Brig15 and BN2 area issues.
Perhaps you have specific links/stats to qualify your inferences?.

It is also rather premature to conclude all "over utilisation" issues in Brighton are "fixed" as inferred by your comments. There is evidence that additional bonded downstream channels have been deployed on many nodes over the past several months and that upstream bonding has recently started to rollout over the last week or so. However there also remains other RF (including SNR/FEC) impairments that still remain in some areas along with the potential requirement for VM to still address static and dynamic load balancing to "fine tune" after this years major Cat C re-segmentations where necessary?

In that regard it's entirely possible that VM CEO office refuse to change your upstream for entirely practical reasons. You probably know more details at what stage Leic14 et al CMTS and associated nodes are at in terms of upgrades & Speed doubling but to deploy a specific config for your Hub/CM would no doubt require excluding you from current load balance group and configuring your account/line connection for a specific u/s channel (and assuming this set's a precedent for similar requests) will potentially cause a disproportionate maintenance/admin overhead, particularly when they also eventually start to rollout upstream bonding groups in your area!

I really don't want to devolve this into yet another "you prove it is" or "I prove it isn't" time wasting discussion as those arguments are "Waring" a little thin… if you get my drift? ;)
Neither do I want to antagonise/inflame you considering the real issues you're still encountering but I think we all (myself included) underestimate the complexities involved - and I'm not defending VM's lack of foresight / investment by saying that either!

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Looks like some work has been done down lancing at the exchange. I have been informed that load balance measures have been taken with cables and upstreams. The job ref is still open while information on performance is monitored. I rebooted my SH and was placed on channel 51. I have only ever seen 49 and 50.

I hope this helps.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

On a side note. Is anyone experiencing issues with buffering on YouTube?? I have been finding it terrible for days now.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

BN41 has been upgraded about 2 weeks ago to the higher speeds, my 20meg is now sitting around 57meg

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

was more of a tongue in cheek comment. The reality is I probably wont be on VM too much longer hopefully so isnt a huge issue, but it is notable that you did get some publicity even if it was local rag only and have a very long thread on VMs forums, and even with those 2 things it took a long time for this fix to come about. I very rarely if ever see a ubr port go from super congested to looking very good, so to me it looked unusual, maybe you see it more often I dont know.

Yes the upgrades on my port are not existing other than what may or may not be planned for new products, as far as the CEO office is concerned there is no utilisation issue, but what was interesting is their information never matched to what tech support told me on the VM forums. I have had VM tech support on the forums say over utilised fix at such and such date whilst at the same time CEO office saying, is core network problem no UBR upgrade planned. So there is some misinformation flying around as well.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

mine got done last night 30meg to 60meg, at last!, only nearly 18 months wait, well feels like it since 1st announced that we was getting the free double speed upgrade

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Have you checked the roll-out schedule recently? For mine back in St Helens it got pushed back from September to December, putting in my address says March 2013 now

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

An interim update -
B&H Highways rang me this morning to explore the scope of my information request wrt VM street works.

While still awaiting the actual detail(2-3 week delay) we now have the following stats on Streetworks notices issued by VM in B&H area:

Past 6months = 750 requests/notices
Currently Planned as of today = 27 reqs.

Bear in mind that VM are only required to submit notice where the works will affect highways surfaces/traffic flow, so for example it won't cover cable repulls/repairs using existing ducting.

B&H now also partake(and my source says have done for past 3+ months) in roadworks.org which gives current status of ongoing works which is worth subscribing to using it's alert service and is therefore in the "public domain". (Assuming anyone is remotely interested of course! ;) )

What I found interesting is when I enquired as to "amount of notice required prior to commencement" then I got this information:

Works upto 3 days duration = min 3 days notice
4 days and more = 10days notice
Works requiring road closure = 3 months notice!

Here's one example from roadworks.org which shows 5 day period of work in Blatchington Rd BN3 Hove to repair (what I surmise to be) ducting blockage:
https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/11/30.png

Whether any of this goes some way towards supporting/defending/explaining or conversely challenging the "perceived protracted delays" in VM's upgrade (Cat C majors works) of course is questionable as VM won't expand on their equipment upgrades,procurement lead times and other resource considerations anyway. :(

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

you got me worried for a moment, still dec 2012, I been checking almost daily tho.

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

No idea why thats been pushed back then, I thought St Helens was in the same rollout schedule as you. Ahh well luckily im living elsewhere

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Yeah, your upload schedule on BT/Sky was nationwide on the same day ;)

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

say what?

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

craig if you curious openreach do have a query email address that can contact, even if you not an isp reseller.

That email address is the one that told me my 6 dec date.

nga.enquiries@openreach.co.uk

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

I live in BN1 (area ref 20) - central Brighton - and my speed has just increased from 50 to 100Mbs (speedtest currently indicating 75Mb download, 5Mb upload, but that's at 10pm). Logging onto Virgin Media shows they are recommending I select a link to order a free superhub, esp if I intend to use wireless networking. is that needed as I use a Cisco wireless router?

Re: BRIGHTON Major Works ?
 

Just keep on doing what you are already doing.