Something like this..
Signal levels are adjusted on route to ensure you get a connection and inside the home if necessary.
Speeds are not affected by distance from the cabinet/node.
The speed you get will mostly be determined by the load on the downstream/upstream channels you share with other subscribers on the same node.
Cable uses a Docsis architecture, rather than BT's ADSL/VDSL system.
ADSL/VDSL is affected by cross-talk, which reduces speeds over distance on separate users telephone lines. Whereas VM users on the Docsis system share the same VM cable by use of "channel bonding".
Cross-talk explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkVmej4urx4
Channel bonding explained:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4-9ZtThZHs
VM supply a minimum of 8x2 channels on the Superhub 1/2/2ac cable routers (those cable routers are capable of 8x4 max) and usually anywhere from 10 to 16 downstream channels with a Superhub 3 (capable of 24x8), depending on the CMTS used in your area (Motorola, Cisco, Arris) and the number of fibres they've connected to that node.
Each 256 QAM downstream channel has 50 Mbps of useable bandwidth, shared between users on that cable. At a quiet time you should get your full tier speed. At peak times it depends on the utilisation levels in your area.
Upstream channels usually come in the form of two 16 QAM or 64 QAM channels, providing 17 or 27 Mbps respectively per channel, but since the upstream is shared between all users on a node (and possibly across nodes), the upstream is still traffic managed:
https://my.virginmedia.com/traffic-m...or-higher.html