Will Virgin Media offer a FTTH like product?

n!ghtmancometh

Is it technically possible with their network and would it cost them a lot to do? FTTH through the likes of eir/Siro seems to be becoming more widely available so would be interested if Virgin would try to keep up with those providers headline speeds.

colm_mcm

They use coaxial cable to the home so no, FTTH wouldn’t be possible using their existing cable.
More likely they will move to DOCSIS3.1 which is supposedly capable of massive speeds.

There’s a lot more to being a good provider than headline top speeds though.

n!ghtmancometh

colm_mcm wrote: »

They use coaxial cable to the home so no, FTTH wouldn’t be possible using their existing cable.
More likely they will move to DOCSIS3.1 which is supposedly capable of massive speeds.

There’s a lot more to being a good provider than headline top speeds though.

Oh, I know about the tech they currently use (have had bb with them since the early ntl days) and that the headline speeds alone aren't an indicator of quality. Just thought that, purely for marketing purposes VM would be keen to keep up with the FTTH speeds. But sounds like it would be a big enough job to do.

Marlow

TDC (former danish incumbent Telco) is the first to have rolled out Docsis 3.1 in Europe with being able to deliver Gbit/s. In the areas where they deliver through coax that is.

But to be honest, Virgin still have tons of their network on the old tech not being able to even deliver 240 or 360. So it's probably more important to get those upgraded before going the next notch up.

/M

tsue921i8wljb3

They are deploying FTTH (RFoG) both here and in the UK on new builds so they definitely see the merits in it. The analogue switch off that they are undertaking is a precursor for DOCSIS 3.1.

colm_mcm

Marlow wrote: »

TDC (former danish incumbent Telco) is the first to have rolled out Docsis 3.1 in Europe with being able to deliver Gbit/s. In the areas where they deliver through coax that is.

But to be honest, Virgin still have tons of their network on the old tech not being able to even deliver 240 or 360. So it's probably more important to get those upgraded before going the next notch up.

/M

Didn’t think there were that many places left like that. I know a lot of Galway was like that and some formerly MMDS fed cable tv areas, apartment complexes etc.

Marlow

colm_mcm wrote: »

Didn’t think there were that many places left like that. I know a lot of Galway was like that and some formerly MMDS fed cable tv areas, apartment complexes etc.

Shantallagh and College Road in Galway were pretty bad. I don't know how much of that they've upgraded in the last few years though.

Over half of Athlone is still on sub 100's with very low caps.

Just 2 examples.

/M

colm_mcm

The max speed for UPC used to be 30mb back when it was ED2, don’t know if they managed to get higher than that in those areas in the meantime.
Far as I know though there are up to date package versions of the old speeds (to be bundled with the newer phone packs) so should have totally unlimited usage, only the legacy 8mb/12mb etc that we’re gradually upgraded over the years without the customer changing their package should have the old 500gb fair usage.

Marlow

colm_mcm wrote: »

The max speed for UPC used to be 30mb back when it was ED2, don’t know if they managed to get higher than that in those areas in the meantime.
Far as I know though there are up to date package versions of the old speeds (to be bundled with the newer phone packs) so should have totally unlimited usage, only the legacy 8mb/12mb etc that we’re gradually upgraded over the years without the customer changing their package should have the old 500gb fair usage.

No ... They're most certainly still enforcing lower caps with path to upgrade in areas of Athlone and I've also heard of this elsewhere.


Docsis 2 is capable of 40 Mbit/s within the CATV headend. Docsis 3 then 1.2 Gbit/s. But that hasn't been the problem. The problem in a lot of places has been, while the tech is on Docsis 3, they've not had enough capacity on the uplink to the CATV headend.

So in general, they just punish customers who have no other choice or simply don't shop around. And they certainly don't remove the cap, unless you put the thumb-screws on.

They're loosing loads to SIRO in SIRO enabled areas right now because of it.

/M

colm_mcm

I’d have thought that even FTTC would have changed a lot of these customers over. A lot of people would have stuck with UPC/VM because the analogue channels were coming in for free. Now that that’s not a thing and with the likes of SIRO offering big speeds and a move away from VM doing silly cheap introductory offers I can see tough times ahead for VM in terms of subscriber numbers.

Marlow

Agreed. But a lot are still oblivious to that fact.

Athlone is a funny one. Huawei accidently dug over VMs cabling into a couple estates, because it wasn't documented right.

It actually cost VM customers, because they a) didn't bother fixing it in a timely fashion .. and b) it didn't work right for weeks after they fixed it.

If that's the way they do business, it don't see much of a future for them.

/M

OU812

What’s the fastest speed they could do with their current setup?

They used to announce increases every 6 months or so

OU812

What’s the fastest speed they could do with their current setup?

They used to announce increases every 6 months or so

colm_mcm

I might be wrong here, but with eurodocsis 3.0 the max they got was 1.2 gig, they did this back in 2012 in Dublin by using a 24 channel modem, each channel is approx 40mbps which is why the speeds are 120/240/360 as far as I know.
I don’t know enough about this, but I’d imagine that’s not practical in reality.

9726_9726

They just did a trial FTTH deployment of 160 houses in Ballincolling, using new, faster build methods. They have designed a deployment of 8,000 houses in Midleton and Carrigtwohill (where SIRO are just starting also) but have paused it for now over concrete and tarmac disposal costs in Cork County Council areas.

9726_9726

They just did a trial FTTH deployment of 160 houses in Ballincolling, using new, faster build methods. They have designed a deployment of 8,000 houses in Midleton and Carrigtwohill (where SIRO are just starting also) but have paused it for now over concrete and tarmac disposal costs in Cork County Council areas.

kevinbad2010

Is virgin media using hybrid-fiber coaxial cable?

tsue921i8wljb3

kevinbad2010 wrote: »

Is virgin media using hybrid-fiber coaxial cable?

The majority of their network is HFC which is fibre to a node serving a certain number of premises and then coaxial cable from the node to each premises.

The newer builds are fibre all the way to the premises where it is then converted back to coaxial in order to use the same CPE.