NexFibre is building their FTTP network in my street

g67575

g67575

g67575

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I've been waiting quite a few years for a FTTP network to be rolled out in my street - I can get just under 50mbps download speeds on FTTC, and so FTTP would be around 20 to 40 times faster (depending on if we go for 1gbps or 2gbps).

Zzoomm began covering most of my town, but seemed to have particular problems rolling out to my street, and I think they gave up.

I've been keeping an eye on the Better Internet Dashboard website and a few weeks ago noticed that NexFibre was planning to cover my street and surrounding areas.

Apparently they've got 1.2 million lines ready for service so far.

They started their rollout here yesterday, with the roadworks sign saying Virgin and O2 on behalf of NexFibre.

Anyone else in a NexFibre area, and if so, how is the rollout going?
 
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NexFibre uses FTTP only (10gbps XGS-PON).

At the moment, the only available ISP on their wholesale network is Virgin Media.
 
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Faded said:
They've been ripping up and installing in my street for the past week, should be finished soon.
Gigaclear got their fibre up and running about 2 months after installing in our street so I'm assuming it will be around the same timeframe for this, although a couple of the workers I've spoken to said it's generally around 5 weeks after the work is carried out.
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Good to know, thanks.

I hope NexFibre can offer Zen as an ISP on their network soon. I don't know yet if we'll be going with Virgin, as they don't have the best reputation and only offer 18 month contracts. Upload speeds on FTTP are limited also.

But I imagine it won't be until 2025 now, as there's been no news on it on recently.
 
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I thought FTTP would generally work with any router that supports PPPoE connections?

Doesn't FTTP tend to use PPPoE?
 
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Broken Hope said:
For OpenReach, City Fibre and probably any other FTTP provider you'd be correct, but Virgin like to be awkward.

This is what you get. Note the fibre link at the bottom instead of coax cable.

VM-PIA-hub5x-connection.jpg
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Right, thanks.

So, no ONT? Just a Virgin router?
 
Does NexFibre have a network status webpage?

Or, would that information be handled by the ISP (e.g. Virgin)?
 
They've nearly finished the work on the pavement in front of our driveway, they just need to do the tarmacking now.

I spoke one of the fibre installers and he said he was new to the job, but he thought it would take about 2 weeks before we could do an order. He said they are using blown fibre, e.g the green cables I saw being laid are hollow.
 
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My dad doesn't want to affect (potentially damage) any of the power cables / any other cables in our drive way which will make it difficult to get the Virgin fibre cable installed directly to our hallway, where our LAN network sockets are installed (4 10gbps connections to various rooms).

So, I think that leaves running the fibre cable through the front lawn as the only option, if we do an order.

He also doesn't want to do this:

youfibre-postinstall.jpg


So, running the fibre cable along the outer walls, in order to install the outer fibre box on the outside wall of our hallway.

It's my understanding that running the fibre cable along the outer wall would normally be the procedure that fibre engineers would adopt, when necessary

Is it possible to get a Virgin engineer to route the fibre cable inside a property - e.g. through a wall or maybe under floorboards?
 
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Duke said:
Nexfibre are like Openreach/Netnomia, so would be the ISP on top of that which is just Virgin Media at the moment.
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Thanks.

I'm not sure we'll be going ahead with getting Virgin FTTP installed now, because my dad keeps going on about damage to the garden or the house / risk of hitting cables etc.

Might have to stick with 48mbps FTTC, after waiting for years :cry:
 
I've been talking more with my dad about it, we're considering chipping into the plaster in our front room, to install some conduit for the ethernet cable, that would run between this room and the hall. And we'd need to install a new ethernet socket as well.

He seems less concerned about the garden now (it's a lawn with some plants, sloped), so I think the fibre could be run through there, and into the front room.

Will be quite a bit of work, but he thinks it's doable.
 
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I drew a quick network diagram in MS Paint, I was just wondering if this network would work well:

QFbBL72.jpeg


I could upgrade the switch later, if speed becomes a bottleneck on the LAN network, but I think we will probably use a 1Gbps switch to start with (the ethernet cables themselves are Cat6A, so can handle upto 10gbps).

EDIT - I was thinking of buying a 2.5gbps 5 port switch, maybe a TP Link TL-SG105-M2 (5-ports), as these aren't that expensive. The Virgin router can handle upto 10gbps on a single port.
 
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Semple said:
It's not really much of a "network" - you're essentially just plugging the switch into the back of the router, but rather than having a cable trailing indoors between the two, you're going outdoors instead.
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That's correct it's fairly simple, but the ethernet cable between socket A and socket B will be buried in the wall, and also need to go under floorboards partially.

There's 3 pre existing ethernet connections leading to various rooms installed at C, which aren't detailed on the diagram.

Any future fibre connections (from other FTTP networks) can be installed in the front room.
 
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If we go ahead and have Virgin setup their fibre service on NexFibre's network, is the cable that's installed limited to use on Virgin?

Or, can other future ISPs on NexFibre's network use the same cable that is installed by Virgin engineers?

NexFibre has mentioned that they want to allow other ISPs to use their network infrastructure in the future, with Zen likely to be the first (possibly next year).
 
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I don't think modem mode works on the FTTP version of the Hub 5x / Virgin router - yet.

Hopefully I'm wrong about that.
 
I've been checking the Cat 6a cable that we've run through 2 walls from our garage. The install isn't complete yet, but we've wired up a keystone module to test it at the current stage.

It seems to working well and the link speed is reported as 1gbps (maxing out the speed of the network card). Before doing this, we connected it to a basic cable tester and all wires reported as functional.

Transferring a file reported transfer speeds of ~980mbps.

I used the command 'netstat -s' on the PC connected to the cable, and the number of reported 'Segments Retransmitted' (in the IPv4 section) does not increase while transferring a large 13GB file over the LAN.

Are these sufficient tests to determine if the cable is working well?
 
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The contractor workers finished their work in my street on the 12th of August. On the same day, they installed a Toby box with a Virgin Logo on it in front of our garden.

Is it likely to be 3-6 months before we can actually make an order with Virgin?

I asked one of the guys in the street when he thought we might be able to order, he reckoned just a couple of weeks, because the fibre has not yet been blown through the ducts.
 
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alex24 said:
It was a couple of weeks after that they blew the fibre through, and a sales rep came round the same day to sign us up. Check the website to see what it says for your address.
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Good to know, thanks. The website so far just says they can't offer their service yet for my address.

There's supposed to be some distribution points (grey cabs) from what I've heard as well, for Virgin FTTP. Although, these could be on another nearby street I suppose?
 
Turns out the newly installed grey cab can be seen from the bottom of our driveway - it’s fairly small.
 
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Is signing up for an O2 sim the best way to get a decent price on a virgin media internet package (with decent speed)?

Or does Virgin Media have better seasonal offers?

Do they offer cash back sometimes?

Edit:
I also found this on Reddit from a Virgin customer, which is interesting:
 
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