Flurry of broadband activity in the town as Netomnia are installing their infrastructure just as Virgin Media are expanding their existing network. A blog on this is HERE.
Please Note – I’m not employed by Virgin Media and this Blog is based on my observations and assumptions, I have no insight into where, when or the extent of their program including properties to be ‘Openreach Duct’ ready.
Virgin Media – Phase 2 Infrastructure
In June 2017 Virgin Media contractors began the infrastructure works in Chatteris, digging over 37 miles of trenching to lay the microduct bundles which bring fibre optic cable to the home.
In late April 2022, I noticed that Kelly Communications on behalf of Virgin Media, were installing a number of BT marked footway boxes in front of existing street cabinets and this was due to the following :-
“In 2019 a Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA) statement was issued by OFCOM enabling other service providers (Alt-Nets), to use Openreach’s ducts and poles at a cost (Openreach Pricing)”
So this is the start of Virgin Media taking advantage of this arrangement in Chatteris enabling consumers to have a greater choice on service provision.
I’m assuming that as the cover had BT embossed in it, further civil works will be needed to duct to a nearby BT footway box.
While out and about in New Road, I noticed the new installation of a Nodal Cabinet, BT marked footway box and signs of interconnect works to a Openreach footway box by a Principle Connection Point which tweaked my interest :-).
I wondered why a Nodal Cabinet (right hand side) had been installed, then I remembered that a development of 52 dwellings in Lancaster Way were not included in the initial Project Lightning rollout and therefore did not have any ‘Toby’ boxes or microduct infrastructure installed.
The conventional way of getting a Virgin Media to your property is by a microduct (Virgin workers refer to these as ‘Straws’), from a Grey street cabinet directly to a ‘Toby’ box’, which will usually be on the pavement near the property boundary, once service is requested a fibre optic cable is blown down the microduct and terminated on the outside wall of your property.
With the duct sharing agreement in place, the lack of a ‘Toby’ does not necessarily now mean you can’t have Virgin Media installed, which is great news.
I’m not sure if Virgin Media are going to use telephone poles or stick to only using ducts at this time.
Due to the nodal cabinet in New Road, I had a look around Lancaster Way on the 4th May 2022 to see if any above ground infrastructure had been installed, and by pure chance Kelly Communications were installing a fibre to a property using Virgin Media assets within an Openreach footway box and they kindly allowed me to take a few pictures.
It looks like a single microduct has been installed from the Virgin Media street cabinet in New Road (AF0409), using the Openreach ducts to cross two roads in getting to the footway box in the picture, a total distance of some 193 metres, (the advantages of Virgin Media sharing the ducts are obvious as the civils cost would have been considerable).
The fibre, via the microduct from Cabinet AF0409 is connected to an Outdoor Fibre Distribution Closure (OFDC) which is a ruggedised splice tray giving a 12 fibre outlet ports.
The OFDC is housed within an original Openreach footway box (Type 4), from when the estate was built, the OFDC uses a hinged, bespoke bracket, and shares the space with an Openreach Connectorised Block Terminal used for Ultra Fast Fibre Broadband by BT and other providers, (further details can be found in my blog on Future Fibre).
In the picture you can see a black with green strip microduct, this was installed by the Engineers and uses the same duct to the property as the telephone cable, the green microduct with a yellow label is ready to be joined together with a ‘push fit’ coupling.
The OFDC has the green microducts ‘tails’ already installed to make the process ‘standard’, mimicking a traditional, non shared duct installation.
Once the microduct was in the footway box and the connection made to the OFDC ‘tail’ , the fibre was blown from the property through the microduct and connected to the first port on the OFDC.
The ‘push fit’ coupling is a ‘Gas Block’ designed to prevent any dangerous gasses (if present), leaving the footway chamber via the microduct and causing a hazard.
The OFDC hinged lid was then clipped closed, the assembly then folded down and the manlid refitted, so their are no visible signs that Virgin Media is available in the area, unless you spot a physical Ominbox on the wall of a connected property.
The pen markings on the OFDC (AF040903) indicate that it feed originated from Cabinet AF04 and sub fed from cabinet number 09, I would presume the 03 represents that their are at least two other units OFDC’s in use here, and would expect a few more to provide estate coverage.
The picture above shows neighbours, one with a BT Customers Splice Point (CSP) for fibre, with this system the fibre connects to a Optical Network Termination (ONT) box inside the property, whereas the Virgin Media fibre terminates in the external Omnibox where an ‘optical to coaxial media converter’ is located, before the coaxial cable enters the property.
Looking around Chatteris there are signs that Virgin Media are looking to try and include those properties which could not be traditionally served with a microduct service to the property, simply due to the distance from the boundary ‘Toby’ to the property.
Utilisation of existing Openreach ducts is the perfect solution, as per the example below:
The 4 ‘Toby’ boxes were installed in 2017 and the footway box was installed on the 6th May 2022 by Kelly Communications. The next stage will be to link the footway box to an Openreach footway box which contains the telephone ducts from the properties that the original ‘Toby’ boxes were provisioned for.
Once the Openreach footway box is located, an OFDC will be installed, ready for a customers connection should they place an order, if an order is forthcoming, the installation will progress as per the one in Lancaster Way.
It is difficult from this picture to show how far away the prospective Virgin Media consumers are, but you can see that if a ‘traditional’ microduct were to be installed directly from the ‘Toby’ to the property, it would involve a lot of Pave Block lifting and replacement (disruption and cost), not too mention gaining Wayleaves if required, so the use of existing Openreach infrastructure is ideal.
This is another example of where 4 ‘Toby’ boxes have been installed ready to supply customers in 2017, but the block paved drive would make service provision costly, and this scenario is replicated multiple times in Chatteris, hence, the sharing of the existing telephone cable ducts will open Virgin Media to many more customers.
I’m not sure how Virgin Media will let you know you can have their service, probably a promotional leaflet through your letterbox or a knock on the door, but you can check availability HERE.
