Lila Connect - VX Fibre 1gig - Stoke on Trent

[rorton]

Sorry its a more 'local' thread, couldn't see anything related to it, and seems Stoke on Trent is the first to get this.

Anyone looked at this Lilaconnect service? There is an expensive connection fee (£650) and then the service is open access with 2 or 3 providers available, and a symetrical 1gig service for £30 per month.

Seems a number of areas into Stoke have been completed, mine is being done as im writing this.

Anyone connected yet, have they gone live in any area?

 

[rorton]

oddly, city fibre have also announced they will be in the area, wonder who that will work, more people pulling their own fibres in the same street

 

[rorton]

Yeh sounds like a plan, madness that 2 companies would pull fibre in though.
Seems pure will charge £30 plus £40 installation charge

https://home.purebroadband.net/lila-connect

there is another provider, air, which is a fiver more I think, the idea is supposed to be that there will be multiple ISPs providing a service in this fibre, so if pure go up in price after 12 months, I guess you swap to another. Open access they call it

 

[rorton]

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to pay £10 per month for 5 years which is what they want you to do if you don’t pay the £650 up front, but £650 does seem high

 

[rorton]

yeah, im reading conflicting stuff at the moment, re reading the Lila Connect site, it seems you pay the £10 per month for the duration of your connection, and I can't see where they tie you in for 5 years (think I read it on comments on their Facebook page)

 

[rorton]

yeah agree with all of the above

this seems to be a service that the main company VX Fibre have setup (successfully they say) in Sweden so I assume it works there, maybe they do other services like that so its acceptable (gas, electric maybe?)

https://www.vx.se

 

[rorton]

not sure tbh, seen nothing concrete about it, I read about paying £9.99 for the connection to the service is tied in for 5 years, but doesn't say that on their site - it doesn't look like anyone is hooked up yet - was hoping someone maybe so we could see how its working.

I sort of get it - you pay for a pipe, and then get the choice of services down that pipe.

Bit like what we have now, we pay for a pipe (although its the actual line, and the internet service on it - SKY in my example) and then you pay Netflix for a service on that pipe, or you pay Vonage or Sipgate for a voice service - not quite the same though

Does feel messy at the moment.

CityFibre are also due in this area soon, im hoping someone sensible says to use the same duct that has been put in, otherwise there will be no room in the pavement for another duct!!! Seems madness that multiple providers have to dig when a duct is there

 

[rorton]

Sounds good. You signing up.
City fibre here
https://www.cityfibre.com/news/cityfibre-reveals-36-towns-cities-benefit-full-fibre-rollout-accelerates/

 

[rorton]

not sure about that, the VX Fibre/Lila connect setup is a network managed by them, and they are allowing a few ISPs service over that fibre.

Im not even sure if they would be allowed to use the same ducts?

 

[rorton]

Well it’s a totally separate entity to Openreach so they wouldnt let them use the telephone lines (but they are copper anyway)

I’m assuming they do what virgin media do and dig from the street to your property?

 

[rorton]

we do have overhead telephone lines, but they are owned by a different provider (BT OPENREACH)

The fibre ducts run in newly dug trenches in the pavement in front of the houses - im 'assuming' they will splice into this for each user that needs to connect, as there is no current duct from the 'main' duct to individual houses that I can see - I guess this is part of the £700 connection fee

 

[rorton]

Hi Dave - strange that - so you're saying they put the actual cables in the ground and then tarmac over them?

Our guys had a massive reel of purple corrugated 'ducting' same as you see up the side of the motorway when they are doing roadworks - which was put in the ground and linked up to some 'inspection covers', then a smoother narrower pipe also went in (not sure if this went in the corrugated stuff then put in) then tarmac'd over

I understood that someone else would come and actually pull the cable through these ducts at a later point in time.

 

[rorton]

I get...

This content isn't available at the moment
When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people or changed who can see it, or it's been deleted.

Sure sounds like cable, I think your area is supposed to be first going live, so perhaps they put everything in then - I was watching our guys and I haven't seen cables yet, just the ducting, then tarmac over the top

 

[rorton]

what are people thinking about phone? Does anyone bother with a landline these days? Something like a sip gate basic account is free so you can receive calls over IP and keep your number if you wanted?

 

[rorton]

anyone know if they would run the fibre to the loft space, my comms cab/router/switch etc are here, so would prefer it to be run here.

 

[rorton]

that's a shame about CityFibre - Lila seem slow to get the service running, they dug our road up 6 months ago, but no sign of activity since....

 

[rorton]

Just had an email from Lila to say I can now order

Whats everyones option on the service thats been with them? I saw some poor reviews of them in Stoke on Facebook, heard of a bad outage, so unsure if I should jump ship or not yet, just on 60mb FTTC from NOW tv at the moment

 

[rorton]

Thanks. How did you get the 1gig for £25.99, seems to be £29.99 from Lila?

 

[rorton]

I paid the full fibre subscription fee in one go (subscription fee is kind of like line rental). You can pay it in one go, £650, or pay £10 per month for the whole time you have a connection through them. The £10 you will see for the fee is included in the £29.99 you are seeing. For me it shows as £19.99. The extra £6 is for static IP.

thanks, yes I remember at the time there was a £10 fee or a one off payment