Virgin Media FTTH... Any info

lotas

Morning all.

Had a Virgin Media tech in last week to swap one of the (s)Hitron "Business Class" (my A$$) modems... I seem to go through 1 every 6 months... It just starts dropping packets and needs to be replaced... After a lot of complaining to him about it, he said that FTTH was coming soon to the area (Im in Tallaght). He said it was rolling out from City West (where they are based) and Tallaght would be one of the first to get it. He said it goes into a modem though... which has me confused... Does anyone have any details on this? Could what he is calling a modem, be an ONT? or even a "router" that they give out to customers, like other FTTH connections from Eir, and there be an ONT that it hooks up to? Ideally, i would want just an ONT and to be able to hook my own equipment up to it... Anyone got any details yet?

KildareP

The early stage rollouts in Gorey were RFoG but the Tallaght build may be different. Certainly they would appear to be moving towards a streaming method for TV in the UK and they've partnered with Vodafone to allow access to their network so perhaps a move to pure fibre is the way.

Anyway, with the current cable network to date, it's fibre optic to a street cabinet where it's converted to co-ax which is what arrives into your home.

With the early fibre to the home builds, the fibre was brought into each home and the conversion to co-ax was done there instead.

You'd get an ONT, not hugely unlike the ones OpenEir, SIRO, NBI provide, except handoff is to co-ax, not Ethernet.

The same modems and set-top boxes are then used as normal just as in cabled areas.

(This is the most common method for sky to distribute satellite signals through apartment blocks using a single dish mounted out of site on the roof to serve everyone)

To be honest, having managed sites using a number of different providers in a past life, if you can get the speed you need from another provider I'd avoid Virgin Media altogether. Poor quality modem equipment and their default preference to route everything through Amsterdam that frequently congests used to cause no end of headaches and time wasting chasing down packet loss and latency issues. Going fibre to the home, by itself, isn't going to change any of that.

Glaceon

I have Virgin at the moment in Drogheda but it's RFoG as KildareP mentioned above.

Their ONT is in one of the utility boxes on the side of my house and that converts the fibre to coax and feeds it into the house. So you still need their modem bridged if you want to use your own stuff. I can't believe they're still using this Intel Puma-based crap - I know people complained on here about the TC7200 routers but they were pretty solid once bridged. I'm in the process of moving away from them, I only signed up because they were the only option available at the time I moved in.

Ah-Watch

@lotas Rogers in Canada use that (s)Hitron modem as you mentioned and they were constantly swapping out one (s)Hitron for another every few months exactly as you say. Is there a different modem Virgin have they could give you? Having worked for Rogers I can tell you first hand you're going to continue swapping them out every 6 months forever more

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120603210#Comment_120603210

Speaking of Rogers you reminded me of a video I saw many moons ago of one of their Hitron modems catching fire. They're the standard issue for Virgin Media business customers, not sure if I've seen one in a domestic setting before. But they're pretty much the same hardware as the domestic ones, same Intel Puma controller.

lotas

it's gotten to the stage that I now have a fan sitting on my (s)hitron to keep it cool... only been installed for a few days, but we see what happens in the next 6 months... I really hope they do proper FTTH and do not use these things again... I would guess that going to FTTH they would probably upgrade from DOCSIS3.x... Not sure if they are 3.1... Wikipedia reckons DOCSIS 3.0 tops out at 1Gb down, 200Mb/s up... 3.1 is 10Gb down and 1-2Gb/s up... 4 is still 10Gb down but upto 6Gb up... hopefully they can get me more than 50Mb/s up... And nope... no option for other modems... Hopefully, as a business customer who doesn't need TV, they can do something sane and give me a proper FTTH link... one can dream...

dunworth1

I have FTTH installed in Limerick they are using Siro's Infrastructure so have the ONT. Installed by TLi 2gb available it's a Sagecom router Sagemcom F5685LGE

I have also go the new 360 mini wireless tv box but my house is still being renovated so i haven't used it yet

https://www.libertyglobal.com/the-mini-tv-box-our-smallest-greenest-set-top-box/

lotas

Interesting... I would hope that if they are using an ONT with SIRO that they use the same for all infra... Fingers crossed... Checked their site today and there is now mention of 2Gb... my eircode does not get it, yet, but hopefully soon...

Gusser09

What do people plan on doing with the kit in the house? More than likely the bottle neck will now be you nic cards. If the nic and internal cabling is only good 1GB this seems like a bit of a waste.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120661609#Comment_120661609

Just save yourself some money and get the 1gig package. The reality is that 99.9% of people won’t come anywhere close to benefitting from more then 1gig.

If you really need faster, you could potentially use Wi-Fi, but you’d need fast Wi-Fi on both the client and router and it comes with various downsides.

BTW Cat6 Ethernet does up to 10Gbps and affordable 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps switches are starting to hit the market.

Gusser09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120661890#Comment_120661890

Cat6A will carry 10gbps. I don't think Cat6 will.

bk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120661960#Comment_120661960

Cat6 will do 10gbps up to 50 meters or so. Cat6A can do 10gbps up to 100 meters.

You are correct though, if you are putting cables in a wall during a new build/refurb, probably best to future proof and go with 6A.

lotas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120661609#Comment_120661609

Even if one machine is limited to 1Gb, multiple devices connecting at the same time is what it's useful for. Most of my workstations, servers, and even my MacBook now have 10Gb links. So do both of my NAS boxes. They do backups off-prem every night... granted, I am not the average user, but I would probably be the kind of customer that wants a 2Gb link (or 4... I already got a 2Gb FTTH from Blacknight and will be upgrading my 1Gb VM link to 2Gb when its available)

Kevrano

2Gb has started rolling out in Ireland: https://www.virginmedia.ie/about-us/press/2023/virgin-media-launches-2-gigabit-full-fibre-broadband/

The main website has a link to upgrade to 2Gb, but it doesn't quite work properly. Would be helpful if they said where in Dublin it is now available in.

breeno

I'm in Templeogue and we've had Virgin lads working on the cabinets and doing a bit of digging in the last few weeks upgrading it to 2gb capable. They didn't have an exact timeline when it would be available but suggested it would be fairly soon.

feargantae

Trying to figure out if 2G is available to me. Shows up on the Virgin website and Blacknight too but haven't seen any works going on in my area recently either

Kevrano

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120739840#Comment_120739840

The website was saying it was available to me (Dublin 8), but wouldn't show prices. They seemed to have fixed it now and best I can get is 1Gb.

The original press release says that the full fibre upgrade would take 3 years (this was over a year ago), so hopefully it moves along pretty quickly!

feargantae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120741169#Comment_120741169

Hmmm that's weird alright. Vodafone say I can only get 1Gb too, even though they offer 2Gb in some places (just Kilkenny city maybe?)

At any rate I'm contracted with Sky til next year so I don't know why I'm even looking 😂

lotas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120739840#Comment_120739840

Virgin have signed a deal with SIRO (IIRC). So it might be SIRO in the area, not Virgin. that would explain it showing on Blacknight's site too.

Gusser09

The problem with VIrgin is that when they tell you shortly it could mean 6 or 12 months. The lads on the street really had no idea.

It's like the whole sale deal that they announced with Vodafone last year and still no sign of it.

lotas

I had a VM guy here to sort out a cable modem issue for me, and said that in Dublin it was rolling out from City West, since that's where they have their end point (I think its called a Head End, IIRC). Tallaght and the surrounding areas would be the first to get upgraded... Thats from a Dublin point of view. Mind you, as mentioned above, they have a deal with SIRO, so I think they piggy back on their FTTH service. So, if you can get SIRO, you can use VM.

NBAiii

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120748913#Comment_120748913

It is already live across several thousand premises in Dublin, mainly north Dublin that I know of. Dublin 1, 2, 3, 9, 13, 15, 17 all have live premises. For the 2Gb/s product it is €64 for the first twelve months rising to €90 after that.

lotas

interesting! anyone know what the upload speed is?

PixelTrawler

For people getting 2gb... whats your home setup like?

My current setup is VM 360 Meg into the living room and I've Cat 6 (not 6a) run from the living room up to my office in the attic.

For me to get 2gb and actually make use of it, I'd need to get an ethernet card for my pc and I hope my cable run is under 50m because as far as I know, Cat 6 will do more than 1gb up to 50m. Its shielded Cat 6. And was thinking of some Ubiquiti gear to replace my current Linksys mesh(which currently gives decent wifi over the three floors but its not the greatest).

tazzzZ

If its SIRO then the upload is 100Mb. If its openeir its 200Mb. Source: moved to blacknight having discussed SIRO 2Gb with 200Mb upload turned out I was wrongly informed. Thankfully Blacknight were able to put me back on my legacy 1Gb/200Mb connection. Not sure why SIRO dont at least match openeir for upload. unless they have changed their offerings recently.

lotas

If its SIRO then the upload is 100Mb. If its openeir its 200Mb

but what if it's Virgin's own network? they are using SIRO where they don't have their own FTTH equipment, but in my area, where they are working on it, they use their own FTTH. So, does anyone with that know the kind of speeds they are offering?

feargantae

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120800125#Comment_120800125

On VM it should be 10% of download so 200Mb, however they're after removing any mention of upload speeds on their website so it's hard to know!

SIRO used to be 200Mb upload and anyone on an older package keeps that speed

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120653296#Comment_120653296

Would you be able to take a picture of the ONT and upload it here please? Interested to see what they are using.

MikeyJoyce

Ok so i had my 1GB virgin media connection upgraded to 2GB today.

Previously i had a Hybrid Fibre connection to the outside of the house -> ( Image not mine but was the same ) this was then converted into a coax connection and fed to a ARRIS TG3492LG-VM

Inside the house there was a power booster for the coaxial cable.

( not my image )

Now today they completely removed all the coaxial cables and pulled the fibre directly into the house. They mentioned this is the plan going forward and no more coaxial connections in areas that can get full fibre.

They then used the same faceplate as before but now the fibre connection comes out on the wall.

This is then fed into a Sagecom F@ST 5685. This router has 3 2.5GB network ports and 1 10GBS port which is a bit overkill but they probably plan on running 10gb on this new infrastructure.

So far so good!

lotas

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831442#Comment_120831442

Thanks for the info... If I am looking at the pictures correctly, which I would like to think I am, looks like the fiber connection goes directly to that modem, which is different than how Eir do their FTTH... for Eir, from the ONT they have an ethernet handoff, and then they stick a router (or, depending on your provider, you can use your own) in there. With this, looks like you might be somewhat "stuck" with the one Virgin provide...

Glaceon

Yep, you'd be tied into using their router again and hoping you can bridge it if you need more than what it can provide. Same as their cable modems.