In reply to a post by witchunt:

The number of places worth going where there either isnt already FTTP or planned to go live soon are getting fewer all the time.

There are a lot of new-build estates posted about on these forums where the developer has opted for an altnet to have exclusive access. If that network goes bust, an Openreach takeover would presumably be feasible, but not easy.

Having said that, the TalkTalk/Sky Fibre Nation business sold out to CityFibre, but that might have been fairly simple in the short term. Like the various mergers that led to VM Fibre. (Which IIRC is in fact NTL with a licence to use the name).

I did wonder about potential Openreach takeover but presumably this would depend on what technology the fibre was rolled out with. If they don't use the same as Openreach then presumably it would be less likely for them to want to take it on as it would require different workforce skills and processes.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

(Which IIRC is in fact NTL with a licence to use the name).

NTL and Telewest merged first, each of those bought up/merged with other tiny networks to become a duopoly. NTL bought C&W ConsumerCo, which made them larger than Telewest.

NTL:Telewest then renamed itself to Virgin Media after the purchase of Virgin Mobile.

I understand all Virgin branded companies rent the Virgin part of the name from Virgin Enterprises for an annual fee, but VM's fee was low due to them buying mobile (if that deal has not expired).

Edited by jchamier (Tue 17-Nov-20 18:09:24)

When reviewing the money-making opportunities that the owner of the Virgin brand-name accrues, readers may consider this link helpful.

Edited by GonePostal (Tue 17-Nov-20 18:25:34)

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Quite unusual to close roads off. Traffic disruption is minimal.

I suppose they will use the BT ducts, depending on how many are still viable and not caved in.

In reply to a post by dect:

Hopefully by the time your Plusnet contract expires in 2022 you will have some feedback from others about Zzoomm and can make a decision based on service as well as price. Only you know if you need a faster connection and are prepared to pay more for it.

I will keep looking to see if any reviews come from Henley.

To be honest I am fine with the speed I have got, it does what i need, I can watch 4K with no problem. The minor problem is uploading, but at the moment I do not do that very often, nothing large anyway, but saying that the lowest service from Zzoomm will not make a scrap of difference as the upload speed is a measly 10Mb/s, to get uploads as fast as the download speed is another tenner a month, which I think is a bit steep to be honest, for that you may as well go to the next tier and get 400Mb/s download, ok you still only get 40Mb/s upload, but it is better than 10.

What I do depends on plusnet, the problems I can not really be bothered with the hassle, I hate people coming in here unless they are friends and family and digging things up.
i have seen a video and it seems like they don't bury the cable much, just below the surface, i have a bit of a garden, like a small strip going down the side of my steps, they could put the fibre there, but they will still have to dig a small trench across the base of the steps to put the box on the side of the house.

at least I have a few months to think about things.

In reply to a post by Dean83:

the digital region project in south yorkshire in the early 2010's is a prime example of a failed independent fibre network.

this went belly up as it failed to gain subscribers - and was a nightmare for people to move of off due to no migration process for Sub LLU - remember the old days of 'tag on the line?'

many subscribers were left without internet for weeks, with some ordering a second line to get around the problem.

fortunately things have improved somewhat in terms of availability and migration provesses

This is the problem, certainly here in Hereford, people take a while before they change to new things. I think FTTC took a while to get going here as people seemed to be fine with ADSL, certainly those close to the exchange. i know a load of people who stayed with ADSL for a fair while, sometimes a couple of years after FTTC came here. Most of them changed when I told them the advantage of it compared to ADSL.

if this Fibre don't get the amount of people they need to keep going then they will go belly up pretty quickly, certainly if it is true that BT is also doing fibre here at some point. There are still people here, my next door neighbour for one who will not change from BT, always had BT, so always will have BT, because .