How to find if virgin have installed ducts outside house

I recently placwed an order for full fibre with Virgin having been told originally that it was available. When the engineer turned up he could not find the opening outside the house to install the cable. I got a call about 2 weeks later saying I could not have it as the install was over budget. The frustrating part is that both neighbours on either side of my house have virgin full fibre as do the vast majority of the street. Has anybody any idea how I can find the external duct ? I have some brick paving outside but I’d be prepared to take them up and dig. We will all need full fibre eventually I reckon so May as well do the work now

Not an expert but sounds like there wasn't a T point outside your property for service? In your area look for T points outside properties usually marked as CATV, NTL, Virgin Media or similar to confirm connections on your road (databases can be wrong), follow these back, there should also be a larger chamber nearby marked similar along with a cabinet nearby which is serving your area. Cabinets can look similar so potentially check it's not Openreach.

For Virgin Media cabinets, use this guide: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/12/identi...

If the Virgin Media website suggests you can get service, there's potentially some infrastructure somewhere, but it can be wrong sometimes or if it's been paved over, that sometimes happens. Do you have anything on your exterior wall that matches any images in the above link?

Edited by jamesmacwhite (Sat 11-Jun-22 19:01:06)

Thanks for the info, I’m sure the infrastructure will be there as the whole street has virgin broadband and I can see the brown virgin boxes outside the doors of thr neighbours on both sides of the house. The house does have an extension that was built in 2006 so our BT socket is in the porch on what would have been the external wall. I don’t think this has helped which is why I’m thinking I’ll need to find out where the ducting channel comes into the house

It does sound like Virgin Media infrastructure is there. First thing then, do you have a tee point like this outside your house anywhere, this would be in the footway, not on your actual property.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/image/serverpag...

They can be different looking, commonly it's labelled CATV, but could be a previous provider name too.

Edited by jamesmacwhite (Sat 11-Jun-22 20:12:19)

Unfortunately not but there’s one in front of next doors virgin box. If I put a duct between my house and that tee point next door would that help or would that tee point solely for the neighbour? I get on with them very well and they would let me do that if it helped

This is the main problem, there is no tee point just off your boundary specifically.

Typically you find a tee point outside each property when there's service there, but I know one tee point could in theory have multiple cables coming from it, my mother in fact has this situation, the tee point is situated outside next door but there are two cables come from it one going to next door the other to her property. I was naughty and lifted the cover off as I was confused as to where the connection from the exterior wall was come from. Whether or not that is technically correct as this going back a bit in terms of ownership pre Virgin Media, that's another question.

You probably shouldn't be touching the tee point as it's on the footway and hence not owned by you. To cross boundaries and such you also need proper wayleave to do it officially. You are better off trying to approach Virgin Media to understand the specific issue with why they won't extend to you. Sometimes they will absorb the cost of any civil/construction work if they deem it cost effective, i.e. the work provides potential service to multiple addresses, in this case they feel it's not cost effective.

When you go through the Virgin Media website, does your specific house number and postcode identify as service available or something else?

Edited by jamesmacwhite (Sat 11-Jun-22 21:00:41)

It did come up as available until they came to install it but not now. I’ve spoken to virgin and raised a complaint but I’m getting nowhere with them

That is unfortunate. Databases are sometimes only as good as the data that's provided to them. Sounds like there might have never been any cable service at the address previously and the database was wrong, it does unfortunately happen. An assumption may have been made about your address at some point given the wider area and only now has the error been found once someone's actually assessed it.

If Virgin Media have deemed any additional civil/construction work not cost effective, there's not a lot you can do I'm afraid.

Unless you strongly believe there is in fact Virgin Media infrastructure at your property, then you probably can't do much. The lack of a tee, any exterior brown box on the wall and no connections inside the property suggests there's not been service ever before.

I'm assuming you don't have any other FTTP provider via Openreach or an alt net in your area?

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband/where-when...

You can put your postcode in both the map and form below to get an idea.

No I’m afraid not. Thanks very much for your help and advice much appreciated

In reply to a post by Coops1971:

I recently placwed an order for full fibre with Virgin having been told originally that it was available. When the engineer turned up he could not find the opening outside the house to install the cable. I got a call about 2 weeks later saying I could not have it as the install was over budget. The frustrating part is that both neighbours on either side of my house have virgin full fibre as do the vast majority of the street. Has anybody any idea how I can find the external duct ? I have some brick paving outside but I’d be prepared to take them up and dig. We will all need full fibre eventually I reckon so May as well do the work now

Afraid you’re completely in the hands of VM with this.

Any ducting and access to that ducting in the footway / footpath, together with any swept tees are their sole property and at their discretion. Ducting etc on your side of the property boundary is yours to do with as you wish (subject to not adversely affecting their network), however outside of your boundary is out of bounds. Don’t think you can just join into a neighbours Toby box either. VM would need to bless this.

If your property lacks either a dedicated Toby box and / or swept tee then the only people that can grant the necessary access to their duct network and arrange works permits etc are… you guessed it VM. Don’t even bother or attempt any sort of DIY job on this. Not only will it be flatly refused, you could land yourself in very warm water with the local authority if you attempt to dig up the footpath without permits, permissions and a streetworks licence.

Requesting a new swept-tee into their duct network and/or Toby box is possible, but in my experience a chargeable matter is going through their Developer team - very similar to Openreach going through their Infrastructure Solutions team (albeit VM were 1/5th of the price of Openreach for the civils works).

Good luck.