Virgin Media network expansion

jca

No sign of it here though. Can the coax system do 1gig speeds or is it topped out at 360?

TallGlass

jca wrote: »

No sign of it here though. Can the coax system do 1gig speeds or is it topped out at 360?

As far as I remember, the cabling itself should have no problem with handling the speeds of 1GB, it would just require a serious amount of investment on the TX end of the Coaxial system. There's more than likely an operational reason why they don't launch it as FFTH. Another reason could be that, the actual RF equipment for the 1GB speeds on Coax just doesn't exist as it might be more worthwhile for the likes of Cisco to develop there fiber products.

PAKNET

jca wrote: »

No sign of it here though. Can the coax system do 1gig speeds or is it topped out at 360?

Cable TV is well able of doing 1Gb and beyond.

The 16 analogue channels which remain on the cable system are taking up about 800Mb of usable downstream bandwidth alone - shutting those down would free up a fairly big chunk of spectrum.
(DOCSIS2.0 gives you about 50Mbps per 8MHz channel and DOCSIS3.0 allows you to bond multiple 8MHz channels together)

I think - but totally open to correction on this - most areas currently have 24 channels set aside for the downstream leg of cable broadband as it is, or about 1.2Gbps of usable bandwidth.

So if they were to re-purpose the 16 analogue channels alongside the existing 24 already set aside for internet that would grant some 2Gbps of available bandwidth to a particular cable segment.

They also have some 20+ channels set aside for digital TV broadcast - in the UK they are exploring the idea of switching from a broadcast methodology to a multicast streaming one to set aside even more spectrum for higher data rates. This would also form a natural progression towards fibre as opposed to co-ax.

jeffk

Nevermind downloading, id like uploads to be faster.

Backing up a hardrive to the cloud, six days, could download it in about one. So love to see upload speeds jump like download did.

There are plans for a DOCSIS 3.1 rollout but it would require a lot of work in the back end and the closure of the analogue channels as was mentioned.

Gonzo

Karsini wrote: »

There are plans for a DOCSIS 3.1 rollout but it would require a lot of work in the back end and the closure of the analogue channels as was mentioned.

I am guessing all customers would need new modems as well?

Gonzo

Gonzo wrote: »

I am guessing all customers would need new modems as well?

The new Hub 3.0 (Compal) is software upgradeable to DOCSIS 3.1 but the rest would need to go.

Mgit

Virgin media rollout in dundalk looks to be in full swing. Most footpaths look to be dug up in bay estate. Siro ftth is not currently available in Bay Estate, and its an old Estate that prob hasn't power cables in ducts, so I thought Virgin may be targeting non siro areas of town until my neighbor said that Virgin media was around a couple of weeks ago, and said our area is being cabled soon. Virgin address checker is saying broadband coming soon to your address so lots of random addresses in town I checked. Seems strange that they are rolling out in a town with siro, especially with coax when they could as easily put Fibre in. They are digging the footpaths and putting manholes outside each house, guess they must dig through grass to get cable into house then.

GSBellew

The letter I got from Virgin a few weeks back said it was FTTH and this is what they are laying:

Mgit

GSBellew wrote: »

The letter I got from Virgin a few weeks back said it was FTTH and this is what they are laying:

I seen that tape in dundalk today, that's unreal that homes in dundalk could have ftth from more than 1 provider. My folks can get siro, eir ftth, eir fttc, and also virgin. Seems like they should target homes that can get none of above.

jca

GSBellew wrote: »

The letter I got from Virgin a few weeks back said it was FTTH and this is what they are laying:

Laying fibre cable directly in the soil:eek: That looks very sloppy. Here they put ducting in newly dug trenches and then pulled the fibre through the ducting to the newly installed cabinets, put that green tape over the ducting and then closed the trench. As far as I could make out a big fat coax leaves the cabinet and is strung around the estate (all underground) to various manholes and amplifiers. Anyone who got connected the installer insisted on running a new continuous run of coax from the connection outside to the terminal in the house, they were told by management not to use any of the old cable no matter how good it looked.

Mgit

jca wrote: »

Laying fibre cable directly in the soil:eek: That looks very sloppy. Here they put ducting in newly dug trenches and then pulled the fibre through the ducting to the newly installed cabinets, put that green tape over the ducting and then closed the trench. As far as I could make out a big fat coax leaves the cabinet and is strung around the estate (all underground) to various manholes and amplifiers. Anyone who got connected the installer insisted on running a new continuous run of coax from the connection outside to the terminal in the house, they were told by management not to use any of the old cable no matter how good it looked.

If thats true it seems crazy not to put in a duct when going to trouble of digging concrete paths. I notice they have little or no manholes for long runs of cables, even around bends in estate. Guess there will be lots of issues if someone digs through cables, they would have to dig concrete for hundreds of meters to replace full lengths of cables, or else bury a dodgy joint underground.

The tax man

They are micro-ducts you are looking at. The fibre is then blown through each duct. Nothing is put directly in the soil. It's just a smaller duct and probably tougher than the larger ducts used for coax. Larger micro-ducts are used for multicore fibre cables.

As for someone digging through the cables, any construction crew with two brain cells would see the scar along the path or road and know something is under it, dig slowly and they'll unearth the tape. Unfortunately no utility company can combat against the brain dead crews out there.

Anyway, there's your evidence that they are doing FTTH.

ED E

jca wrote: »

Why would they rewire the whole town with coax( which they did in fairness) rather than fibre? Disregarding the fibre wording that all isp's are using have you any evidence of this vm ftth rollout? Is it anywhere else?

Remember two things here.

1. VM move slowly. Always have. They never spend too much in a single year.

2. PON field staff didnt really exist in Ireland in 2015. Now everyone wants them and has to train up for it, can't hire it in. Makes sense that VM will have a few trial towns to work out the kinks with whatever vendor they'll use, test the software on whatever crap box they buy (always go cheap on the CPE), then make a bigger push. No rush to do so when 3.1 buys them 5yrs more life in the HFC network.

jca

The tax man wrote: »

They are micro-ducts you are looking at. The fibre is then blown through each duct. Nothing is put directly in the soil. It's just a smaller duct and probably tougher than the larger ducts used for coax. Larger micro-ducts are used for multicore fibre cables.

As for someone digging through the cables, any construction crew with two brain cells would see the scar along the path or road and know something is under it, dig slowly and they'll unearth the tape. Unfortunately no utility company can combat against the brain dead crews out there.

Anyway, there's your evidence that they are doing FTTH.

Was Dundalk using VM cable already or is it a totally new install for VM?

Mgit

jca wrote: »

Was Dundalk using VM cable already or is it a totally new install for VM?

totally new, town never had cable service before

jca

Mgit wrote: »

totally new, town never had cable service before

Ahhh, that makes sense. No need to deal with existing analogue cable customers just go in with fibre from the start.

godskitchen

A small are in Castlebar is being dug up and Virgin are laying fibre rather than coax.

Does anyone know if they will be offering a higher speed than their coax network?

Gonzo

godskitchen wrote: »

A small are in Castlebar is being dug up and Virgin are laying fibre rather than coax.

Does anyone know if they will be offering a higher speed than their coax network?

most likely they will, nobody knows what sorts of speeds yet.

Exciting to see Virgin Media expand again, would love to know what other towns are planned. Navan might get Virgin Media at some point as my friend who lives there now gets a message about VM expanding and to keep checking back for further updates. Previously he would just get all the X's for not available.

murphaph

My mother's house in an "old part" of Newcastle, Co. Dublin is showing "coming soon" also.

The newer estates always had cable but our old family home was served by a community aerial set up and FTTC for about a year now.

I thought we'd see Siro or Eir FTTH before CATV to be honest. Good to see.

Mgit

godskitchen wrote: »

A small are in Castlebar is being dug up and Virgin are laying fibre rather than coax.

Does anyone know if they will be offering a higher speed than their coax network?

looks like No based on links posted a page back. Seems that they bring the fibre into your house and then use a converter to convert it to coax / docsis over glass, then use the same modem and kit as coax customers.

I guess that makes sense cause coax customers would feel like they are on an old technology if some has ftth and it would cause a marketing nightmare if they were advertising ftth and only a few percent of customers could get it

In most areas they run fibre to the local cabinet and then co-ax to the premises. Hence the name HFC (hybrid fibre co-ax).

Mgit

Karsini wrote: »

In most areas they run fibre to the local cabinet and then co-ax to the premises. Hence the name HFC (hybrid fibre co-ax).

from http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2016/05/virgin-media-names-first-10-ftth-communities.html
"The company says its "narrow-trenching" FTTH deployment technique, which reduces the width of the cable trench from around 40 cm to 10 cm, enables its engineers to deploy up to 100 m of fiber-optic cable in a day."

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Community-Natter/Check-out-Virgin-Media-in-Ireland/td-p/3216685/page/2

seems this is the way forward
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/11/virgin-medias-parent-commits-gigabit-speed-broadband-2018.html

Gonzo

Mgit wrote: »

from http://www.lightwaveonline.com/articles/2016/05/virgin-media-names-first-10-ftth-communities.html
"The company says its "narrow-trenching" FTTH deployment technique, which reduces the width of the cable trench from around 40 cm to 10 cm, enables its engineers to deploy up to 100 m of fiber-optic cable in a day."

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Community-Natter/Check-out-Virgin-Media-in-Ireland/td-p/3216685/page/2

seems this is the way forward
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2016/11/virgin-medias-parent-commits-gigabit-speed-broadband-2018.html

Gigabit internet could become standard then by 2018 in VM areas.

I'd expect Eir to replace the 150 and 300 plans to gigabit by then also and hopefully just have plans based on upload speeds or data.

ED E

Gonzo wrote: »

Gigabit internet could become standard then by 2018 in VM areas.

I'd expect Eir to replace the 150 and 300 plans to gigabit by then also and hopefully just have plans based on upload speeds or data.

Your timeline is way optimistic. 1G wont become standard until we have 10GPON and that wont be next year.

There are VM areas congested as is with a base 240Mb base package, think 2022 not 2018 in my eyes.

godskitchen

I was talking to the lads laying the cable in Castlebar yesterday. They said they are also just finishing up in ballina.

Castlebar and Ballina will now very shortly have Eir @ 1gbps Siro @1gbps and virgin @300mbps, with head room to go to 1gbps.

If you had said that even 3 years ago you would have been laughed at.

godskitchen

I was talking to the lads laying the cable in Castlebar yesterday. They said they are also just finishing up in ballina.

Castlebar and Ballina will now very shortly have Eir @ 1gbps Siro @1gbps and virgin @300mbps, with head room to go to 1gbps.

If you had said that even 3 years ago you would have been laughed at.

Tonio

Came across this thread when looking for info on VM expansion plans. I'm in Midleton Co Cork. I believe the town used to have MMDS in the past and wondered if it is on the list of VM expansion towns. The reason I ask is that when I input my address on the VM site it tells me that services will be available soon. This surprises me as I have not seen any work going on but I would love to know if this is true. Anyone here have more info?

Irish Steve

VM have a mountain to climb in some areas, they recently recabled some areas of Ashbourne, but the legacy distrust as a result of suffering years of appalling service at the hands of Cable Managment and Chorus is going to take some serious PR work by VM,

We had to move out for 7 months in 2002, so cancelled Chorus as it wasn't available at the rented house, and when we moved back, we never went back to them, as the quality of service and signal meant that too many things just didn't work correctly, and the customer service and technical support didn't care and couldn't fix the issues. I still hear horror stories about issues with the broadband around the town, so I am very reluctant to trust them to provide a service here, given the history.

There will be a lot of people around the town here with similar experiences, I've heard nothing to indicate that the latest incarnation of what was Chorus have really changed their spots.

jca

Irish Steve wrote: »

VM have a mountain to climb in some areas, they recently recabled some areas of Ashbourne, but the legacy distrust as a result of suffering years of appalling service at the hands of Cable Managment and Chorus is going to take some serious PR work by VM,

We had to move out for 7 months in 2002, so cancelled Chorus as it wasn't available at the rented house, and when we moved back, we never went back to them, as the quality of service and signal meant that too many things just didn't work correctly, and the customer service and technical support didn't care and couldn't fix the issues. I still hear horror stories about issues with the broadband around the town, so I am very reluctant to trust them to provide a service here, given the history.

There will be a lot of people around the town here with similar experiences, I've heard nothing to indicate that the latest incarnation of what was Chorus have really changed their spots.

I felt the very same as you but when I saw the amount of work done here in Enniscorthy I took a chance and got it installed. To be fair to them they gutted the old system completely replacing every single millimetre of cable with new cable, brand new modern connector boxes on every house, the works. I have it since last October and never had a bother with it, it just works away without a hitch. IF they've done the same amount of work in Ashbourne I'd recommend it but only if it has been completely replaced. Many people were hesitant here about rejoining VM but bit by bit more and more people are getting it installed.