Question- Virgin media fibre optic line

Hello,

I have a question that I would be grateful if anyone here can answer (Virgin media don't ever seem to understand my question!)

I am currently a BT customer. I have a BT line running into the house which then splits into three separate lines (via a junction box) for a phone/broadband socket in three separate places in the house.

I am considering getting a Virgin media line installed (TV phone and broadband package).

I understand that they install a new line and a new master phone socket. What I want to understand is will I be able to use the existing network of three copper cables running to three separate phone sockets- i.e. could the Virgin line somehow be connected to this network such that I can still plug a phone or router in to various places in the house and it still work?

Or would Virgin have to install a new phone point in every room and run new wires to each of these phone points?

Lastly, is the Virgin media phone socket still the standard BT style connection- i.e. will I be able to plug in my old phones?

Thanks very much in advance for your input,

Matt

The Virgin socket is seperate so the existing extensions will not automatically work with it you'd need to connect them to the Virgin master. Once they were connected up they'd work. I doubt that would be part of a standard VM install. It's not an especially difficult DIY job but it is one you could screw up if you don't understand what is required.

Any phone that works with BT will work with VM.

The existing phone wiring cannot be used for the broadband side of a VM connection. What you get is coax to their Superhub and all the ethernet connections go to that. You could opt to run the Superhub in modem mode and use your own cable router. If you need anything more than very basic networking then that is certainly the way to go as the Superhub is a long long way from being super. It is reputed to have poor WiFi performance too.

Edited by kwikbreaks (Sat 21-Apr-12 22:33:58)

Hi i believe the socket type that your phone plugs into will be the standard type. However. i strongly urge you to avoid VirginMedia at every cost. i have been with the for a year and they are terrible at everything, customer services for the most part suck. the internet connection i have 100Mbits its unstable and never at its potential speed. if you are still sure you want virginmedia check their forums put before you order. there are 2500+ complaints for by postcode alone, stretching back almost 2 years, and this issues still exist, proving that they don't want to fix problems once you are in contract with them. Even the CEOs office is terrible and does not seem to want to help passing my complaint through 4 people in 4 weeks.

IMHO avoid them

P.S VM superhub is called the superdud on the VM forums i had to battle for 3 months to get a modem and router from them, and still it only performs slightly better(i.e actually usable for browsing)
John

Edited by JonasTone (Sat 21-Apr-12 23:55:08)

Hi My problem is how to connect the old BT phone extension cable to the Virgin Socket, so that I can have a phone away from the Virgin socket.
My Virgin socket has three slots: A, B and one unused. B has the Blue cable, A has the White/Blue cable, and the Orange and White/Orange cables unused.
The BT cable has 4 wires: Blue, Orange, White/Orange and White/ Blue.
Does anyone know which of these 4 wires need to be connected to the Virgin socket, given that Virgin box has only 3 slots.
Help would be greatly appreciated. The Virgin Engineer says it can be done.
Virgin want £99 to do it !

Blue to Blue, blue and white to blue and white "should" work if the rest of your wiring is consistent.

As above, you only actually need two connectors wired in, not 3 or 4. The order you wire the two aren't too important either, as reversing the two still works fine in most cases.

As long as the other end is also reversed.

In my opinion more sense to do it as recommended. Much more intuitive for the next poor sod coming across it.

The other end does not need to be reversed, most phone handsets and modems work just fine with the contacts either way round.

However I'll agree doing it correctly is always best, just that there's no need to worry about getting it wrong.