Work in street! Could it be.......?!

Associate
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24 Dec 2006
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Worcs.
About a year ago contractors turned up on my estate and buried what looked like junction boxes at each end of the streets (on each side) with pipework linking each side of the road. VM put a leaflet through my door stating VM was coming. One of the guys said it was VM work when I asked.

About 3 weeks ago contractors turned up and dug street length trenches, laid cable and are now re-surfacing the pavements. They have only done the main road through the estate and one or two other roads off this. My street has not been touched since the work a year ago. Some off the trucks state ‘working on behalf of VM’ down the side.

On 25 Jul I received an email from Openreach saying that work was on-going to upgrade the network in my area and that as I had registered my interest in Ultrafast fibre they will keep me up-to-date as and when they hit significant milestones.

So what is going on? Is it VM, Openreach or both? Is this typical? Any thoughts on likely wait? I have 65/18 FTTC at present so not so bad but would like FTTP! Once the main route is done is it a case of any work along my specific street is done as/when people order?
 
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Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
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7,176
You can’t order till work is done, so no. Whoever is laying cable of whatever type will be in touch with you as soon as it’s live as they want to get a return on the investment, sadly you just have to wait.
 
Caporegime
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18 Oct 2002
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It's a new cable, it's not the same cable as VM, it might be laid at the same time but unlikely. If your phone line comes in overhead then your Openreach fibre will as well.
 
Associate
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5 Jan 2014
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Looks to me that Virgin Media is expanding it network and openreach (BT) encouraging you not to switch.

On 25 Jul I received an email from Openreach saying that work was on-going to upgrade the network in my area and that as I had registered my interest in Ultrafast fibre they will keep me up-to-date as and when they hit significant milestones.

They could be doing work but if they where laying cable near you they would have informed rather you than sending a vague message about it?
 
Man of Honour
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15 Jan 2006
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Tosche Station
I am not aware of the exact politics/nature of how a partnership would look between VM and Openreach, but it makes sense to share subterranean infrastructure wherever possible (outside of the actual cabling of course). Does it make sense that these new ducts could be a shared venture?

If not, and they are always separate, it seems like OpenreachBT are aware of the VM expansion just doing some marketing to prevent people moving en masse when VM arrive.
 
Soldato
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9 Dec 2007
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Hants
Unless things have changed bt never used to let vm use their ducting.

Source : had a vm business circuit installed and had to get a road and carpark dug up despite existing bt duct work.
 
Man of Honour
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15 Jan 2006
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Tosche Station
Unless things have changed bt never used to let vm use their ducting.

Source : had a vm business circuit installed and had to get a road and carpark dug up despite existing bt duct work.

Makes sense, and does match my limited understanding of how competitive they are. I wonder if we'd have better or worse last mile infrastructure if it wasn't for this fierce competition/duplication of effort? Probably cancel each other out and be about the same :p
 
Soldato
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19 Apr 2012
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5,182
What I have noticed around the city where I live is that once the likes of Vodafone or Virgin start deploying, BT are soon to follow.
I've seen a few streets being dug up for cityfibre to lay fibre then a few months later they are dug up again for BT to lay theirs.
 
Soldato
Joined
29 Dec 2002
Posts
7,176
VM and OR do not share ducting, VM is a privately owned network, the only time I have ever seen them share anything was where a 3rd party developer had installed ducting and both had agreed to use it as they had no other way of gaining access to a building or development without major works that wouldn’t be permitted.
 
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