How big are VM's infills?

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

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

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

Excuse the colouring - PR piece.

[MrIca]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

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.

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

[vm_tech]

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

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

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

Excuse the colouring - PR piece.

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.

[MrIca]

Originally Posted by Pierre

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.

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.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

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

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

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

[MrIca]

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

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

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

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

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

Virgin Media expects to connect more premises in neighbouring postal towns prioritised according to demand from consumers and businesses.

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 ----------

Originally Posted by vm_tech

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

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

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Virgin aren't going to spend all that money getting to Aberdeen, population 250,000 and perhaps 100,000 premises,

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

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

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

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

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

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

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.

[MrIca]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

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.

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.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

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.

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.

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Pierre

VM have little Core network up there.

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...

[MrIca]

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?