Virgin Media network expansion

dam099

Gonzo wrote: »

Wonder what the upload is with it. .

The linked press release states 52Mbps. Not great, given the 1Gb FTTH packages generally do much better than that.

Westnet: Paul

Gonzo wrote: »

For Siro customers it most likely will also be the first Siro reseller to offer cap free FTTH in areas that aren't covered by Airwire Siro.

thenightman

Would the 1GB be possible here or require more a lot more upgrade works? UPC at the time upgraded our estates cabling etc about 9 years ago, before that we couldn't get broadband off them at all.

Marlow

Gonzo wrote: »

For Siro customers it most likely will also be the first Siro reseller to offer cap free FTTH in areas that aren't covered by Airwire Siro.

Nah .. Westnet have no cap either and cover SIRO areas, that Airwire don't. Just not all.

And with the advent of Virgin joining SIRO as a wholesale partner ... they may introduce caps ..

Sky did, once they started selling FTTH on SIRO and OpenEIR.

/M

KOR101

Virgin Media, which is starting work on bringing broadband to nearly 3,500 homes and businesses in Midleton, has ruled out extending the service to other parts of east Cork.

She was also told there is no business case being compiled for Youghal, which is the second biggest town in the East Cork region.

Mr McAteer said it isn't commercially viable for the company to hook up broadband for small pockets of populations.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/virgin-media-rules-out-expanding-broadband-rollout-to-more-areas-of-east-cork-955736.html

alpha2003_

So while Virgin Media UK is getting Gigabit speeds and a newer Modem/Router (Hub 4), were stuck with the old equipment and Slower speeds for the next 2 years

lotas

Where did you get 2 years from?

KOR101

Virgin's biggest threat, by some way, is Eir. As noted above, the former incumbent has pulled the trigger on a massive upgrade plan for its urban networks, switching out copper for new fibre. When completed, this obliterates Virgin's broadband speed and quality advantage.

It looks like the company may respond in one of two ways. It may consider expanding beyond the core urban areas where it has confined itself for two decades. And its parent company, Liberty Global, may consider a strategic merger with Vodafone, as it has done in Germany, or a Vodafone-related entity such as Siro.

Earlier this year, Virgin Media executives predicted that the company would grow its network reach by between 20,000 and 30,000 this year, following construction of new builds. This would bring its overall fixed line reach to 950,000. But this may not be enough to combat the fibre-based pincer movement happening between Eir and Siro, the joint venture between Vodafone and the ESB.

However, there have been persistent rumours that Virgin Media has been discussing the possibility of tie-ups with local rivals, either selling its own services on other Irish networks or even allowing rivals to sell their services on its network.

https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/news/smooth-operator-eirs-new-mobile-offering-aims-to-take-a-byte-out-of-its-main-rivals-38602546.html

KOR101

Virgin launches gigabit broadband services across Greater Manchester

https://www.telecompaper.com/news/virgin-launches-gigabit-broadband-services-across-greater-manchester--1313179

Gonzo

KOR101 wrote: »

Virgin launches gigabit broadband services across Greater Manchester

https://www.telecompaper.com/news/virgin-launches-gigabit-broadband-services-across-greater-manchester--1313179

probably only a matter of time before they do that to parts of Ireland. Virgin are currently building their FTTH network in Dunshaughlin which is capable of 1-10 gigabit speeds. Virgin have also been building similar networks in other Irish towns over the past year or two.

KOR101

Project Lightning that is growing the footprint is a mixture of RFOG (i.e. FTTP) and traditional coax, the RFOG is invariably used in totally new areas, where as the coax is used where an existing network is simply being extended.

The future of Virgin Media took a bit of a leap on Wednesday when a new five year MNVO deal was announced with Vodafone. This deal replaces a BT Enterprise contract that has been in place since 2017 and is set to end in late 2021. The new deal runs until 2026.

While clearly a blow to the BT Group and the EE mobile brand i.e. loss of a major MNVO that they picked Vodafone is actually of little surprise when you look at the deals that have been happening in Europe where Liberty Global sold its cable operations in Germany, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to Vodafone then it is clear that the two groups are talking a lot more than the average person will be aware of.

The future for Liberty Global is going to be interesting as while there are rumours of wholesale access to the Virgin Media network in the UK, the big question is when and how big will the rumoured Liberty Fibre FTTP roll-out be. Our understanding is Liberty Fibre would be a distinct operation from Virgin Media, but Virgin Media would be one of several big name retailers buying the service at a wholesale level. In short Liberty Fibre looks set to be Liberty Global version of Openreach and by building outside the existing Virgin Media footprint they may have opportunities to be more aggressive on pricing. One speculative idea is that there might be co-operation with CityFibre to not over build each other and therefore push the UK footprint to grow faster and make it less problematic for large retailers such as Vodafone to sell full fibre services on both networks.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/8585-virgin-media-results-and-new-5-year-mnvo-deal-with-vodafone

KOR101

BT faces further pressure as Sky nears broadband deal with Virgin Media

https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/911539/bt-faces-further-pressure-as-sky-nears-broadband-deal-with-virgin-media-911539.html

KOR101

The number of Virgin broadband subscribers fell by 1,000 to 378,200, while its home telephone subscriptions dropped 9,600 to 335,100.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/media-and-marketing/virgin-media-ireland-loses-7-100-subscriptions-in-fourth-quarter-1.4173979

Xertz

I wouldn’t be that concerned about drop off in landline voice subscriptions. That’s more to do with the loss of interest in landlines generally. A lot of people just don’t use them anymore.

Virgin’s key issues are probably being driven by the lack of movement on a new STB. I know quite a few people who’ve moved to Sky or who’ve moved to Eir and are using their TV service combined with Netflix etc.

The Horizon box Virgin are stuck with is really not very compelling at all.

jeffk

Id say more would move if there was competition


Eir up to 12 v Virgin Media up to 500 in my area in Blanch

rogue-entity

Xertz wrote: »

Virgin’s key issues are probably being driven by the lack of movement on a new STB. I know quite a few people who’ve moved to Sky or who’ve moved to Eir and are using their TV service combined with Netflix etc.

The Horizon box Virgin are stuck with is really not very compelling at all.

I remember the good old days when you could buy your own Integrated Receiver-Decoder, tune in the channels from the frequencies published in one of a number of magazines and all you had to do was pop the card into the slot. There exists no technical reason this couldn't have continued to be done, no reason that VM couldn't authorise a third-party Nagravision CAM to work with their card which could have popped into the back of the TV or an off-the-shelf STB since it's all standardised.

Ironically in the US the cable companies are legally obligated to allow this but neither our regulator nor the EU ever saw fit to apply a similar requirement.


It's nice that VM's expanding their network, even though they're unlikely to touch "pockets" that they don't consider economical. It would have been nicer too if they'd been granted a DVB-T licence in lieu of losing the MMDS service as they could have more economically provided some services to those areas where running cable wouldn't net them a sufficient return. It also would have made for a nice alternative to Sky in areas where IPTV isn't a viable option either.

lotas

rogue-entity wrote: »

There exists no technical reason this couldn't have continued to be done, no reason that VM couldn't authorise a third-party Nagravision CAM to work with their card which could have popped into the back of the TV or an off-the-shelf STB since it's all standardised.

only technical reason i can think of would be related to on demand and possibly recording, but the main issue is financial... they (sky or vm) control the box, they control what you can do with it, they control everything. and they make money watching what your watching by selling that information to advertisers... its that simple... FreeSAT will get you a good chuck of TV stations from the UK, and i have seen cards that can decode certain channels (legal and not quite leagal...) but sky/vm dont know what your watching, dont control the ecosystem, so they dont want it... Its actually weird that Eir went with the Apple TV setup... supppose, they can still get info about what your watching on the Eir app, but not anything else on the device...

Xertz

There’ll come a point though where VM may tip into market regulation as a significant market operator like Eir and will have to open their network. It’s a while off, but I would wonder sometimes if they deliberately keep their rollout limited to avoid that scenario, as it would really shake things up.

dam099

Xertz wrote: »

There’ll come a point though where VM may tip into market regulation as a significant market operator like Eir and will have to open their network. It’s a while off, but I would wonder sometimes if they deliberately keep their rollout limited to avoid that scenario, as it would really shake things up.

Not sure that will happen now. Their footprint overlaps a lot with prime locations for urban FTTH so there will likely be 2 or 3 networks in a lot of their areas as time goes on preventing them becoming as dominant as Eir would have been historically.

Xertz

Both come from a history of licensed, legal monopolies. There was no competition for the predecessors of either company, albeit cable had was challenged by satellite TV and direct UK overspill and unlicensed rebroadcasters in some areas.

However, until relatively recently nobody else could rollout an alternative access network.

Eir would however also contain the legacy of state aid as it inherited a vast duct and cable network from the days it was a state service. The physical access poles and ducts are far more valuable than any tech platform they had.

KOR101

Virgin Media has made 1Gbps speeds available on almost all of its national network, covering nearly 1m homes in Ireland.

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/virgin-media-gigabit-broadband

Commenting on the launch, Daragh Cassidy of Bonkers.ie welcomed the availability of 1Gbps broadband. However, he said that “the price isn’t exactly cheap” and that customers should ensure beforehand that they can avail of gigabit broadband.

This is a network that is crying out for competition.

KOR101

Got to laugh.....


1Gb Broadband

and 50Mb upload speeds

Gonzo

KOR101 wrote: »

Got to laugh.....


1Gb Broadband

and 50Mb upload speeds

what is it with service providers really limited the download/upload ratio as much as possible in this country. 1000/100 isn't a great ratio but 1000/50 is a bit of a joke and it's generally more expensive than the FTTH providers after 6 months. Siro had 1000/200 for the first few years which was a decent ratio but even they have now rolled back to 1000/100.

Gonzo

Virgin Media are going to trial hyperfast broadband with speeds of 2.2 Gbps download and 214 Mbps upload to customers in Thatcham, UK.

Will probably be a year or more before this is rolled out generally.



https://telecoms.com/506614/virgin-media-hopes-to-lead-gig-economy-with-hyperfast-speeds/

CoBo55

There's nothing in the ordinary household that can handle those speeds, it would take serious investment in hardware to use it to its potential. How much speed does anyone need?

Johnboy1951

CoBo55 wrote: »

There's nothing in the ordinary household that can handle those speeds, it would take serious investment in hardware to use it to its potential. How much speed does anyone need?

What about multiple users?

CoBo55

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

What about multiple users?

There's no user in a home setup that can get higher than a gig download. I'm on the 360 and many users in the house, phones, sky boxes, smart TVs etc and never had any problems. Having no cap is more important in my house.

Gonzo

CoBo55 wrote: »

There's no user in a home setup that can get higher than a gig download. I'm on the 360 and many users in the house, phones, sky boxes, smart TVs etc and never had any problems. Having no cap is more important in my house.

I'd say give it another 5 years and speeds beyond 1 gig will become more widespread. Definitely agree once you have FTTH or fast cable having no cap is what makes a connection shine and having not to watch the clock on a daily basis.

marno21

From what I have experienced, better speed distribution from the drop point to individual devices within the home would be more meritorious than higher speed in the door.

The speeds on WiFi at home are reasonably poor from the Virgin router but much better from a TP Link homeplug located further away than the main router.

(I am aware about swapping out the router - but the public at large may not be as aware - and change providers rather than take action)

CoBo55

Gonzo wrote: »

I'd say give it another 5 years and speeds beyond 1 gig will become more widespread. Definitely agree once you have FTTH or fast cable having no cap is what makes a connection shine and having not to watch the clock on a daily basis.

I'm not so sure, I think saturation point has been reached and many are finding that dropping to the lower speed offering offered by their ISP (cheaper) is perfectly adequate. With most homes being exclusively WiFi many will never get the speeds available.