Not In A Virgin Media Area, Is There Anything I Can Do To Get It Connected

Dark Light · 07-05-2009, 18:18

I do not live in a Virgin media area, however about 5 or 6 houses up the street cable is connected. So is there anything I can do to get that cable extended to my street, so I can get Virgin Media's 50 Mbit broadband?

**Rob** · 07-05-2009, 19:09

Simple answer, no. Virgin Media just are not extending their cable network. It costs them far too much to service the debt from the network that they did build / inherit.

spiderplant · 07-05-2009, 20:05

Longer answer, maybe. There's a glimmer of hope here.

Quote:

We have identified around half a million homes whose proximity to our existing access network makes it a commercially attractive opportunity to extend our network to reach them over the next few years. We plan to extend our network coverage to over 50,000 of these homes during 2009.

moroboshi · 07-05-2009, 20:06

To be franky you should consider yourself lucky. I've been battling with them for over 6 months to get a stable broadband connection and am no closer to achieving that. I pay for 20mbit, and get 0.1 to 1mbit.

Dark Light · 07-05-2009, 20:09

Thanks, is there anything I can do to make sure that my street is connected, after all 1 customer is better then a random street.

Hom3r · 07-05-2009, 20:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Light

Thanks, is there anything I can do to make sure that my street is connected, after all 1 customer is better then a random street.

In the current climate, no company is going to invest in anything.

m419 · 07-05-2009, 22:05

They might do because hes after 50MB broadband,they tend to look at how many services you want to take and how much you are likely to spend.

6 houses away isnt really far either.

To reduce costs they might want to consider using someone else ducts or even the sewers to run Cables in new streets and developments.

Rather than BT's maybe local electricity company ducts such as EDF Energy and United Utilities. BT already do this in the westminster area and they really take the p! Because they are charging Virgin a fortune yet they wont negotiate on upgrades and maintainance.

So using a non-telecoms company ducts maybe better.

Also,would it save Virgin Media to just lay cable and install cabinets just for TV/Broadband and forget the telephone infrastructure? Its not really essential since BT now allow other providers to use its network, in the 80's and 90's they werent really required to do this which is why Cable companies rolled out there own. Mercury/Cable and Wireless laid down its own for businesses but residential users had to use a BT line and dial an access number 131 or use a dialler which dialled 132 to route calls.

Dark Light · 07-05-2009, 22:26

I'm only after broadband, Sky's 34 HD channels + anytime can't compare with Virgin's 1 + on demand. Is there anything I can do, or someone I can phone, or even pay for it my self to get it connected?

chickendippers · 07-05-2009, 23:46

Seriously? Having used both, AnytimeTV pales in comparison to VoD.

If you call sales, tell them you live close to a cabled area they should put you through to the "spotters" who will come and take a look....a little prompting may be necessary.