In reply to a post by Pheasant:

At some point VM02 will transition from RFOG to XGS-PON - quite possibly running both simultaneously on the local segment.

There's some info about their FTTP trial here:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/05/virgin...
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/12/virgin...

Even then it's unclear whether they used XGS-PON in the trial, and if so, what equipment they used at the customer side (do they have an IPTV solution waiting in the wings?)

All it really says is that they plan to upgrade to a full-fibre network which is 10G XGS-PON "capable". Any strand of single mode fibre is XGS-PON capable, but you still need to deploy new equipment at the customer side and the cabinet side.

Edited by candlerb (Tue 05-Jul-22 09:56:11)

I can’t get your second link to open on my phone, but the following ISPR story from December 2021 makes it pretty clear it’s XGS-PON. Not that it’s any great shakes these days…XGS is pretty much de rigeur for any aspiring altnet…25G or 50 GPON now that would be a more impressive claim to fame 🤣

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2021/12/virgin...

Yeah I agree, is it only shocking to me that CityFibre aren't deploying XGS-PON yet on a large scale?

https://cityfibre.com/about-us/our-network

"Plans to upgrade this to XGS-PON are already underway as part of our continuous Full Fibre Network evolution."

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I can’t get your second link to open on my phone

Copy-paste error: fixed now.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

but the following ISPR story from December 2021 makes it pretty clear it’s XGS-PON

I don't think so. "VMO2 have a plan to upgrade those HFC areas to symmetric speed FTTP broadband by the end of 2028" is not the same as "VMO2 are actively deploying XGS-PON right now"

So far, the only thing I *know* they're deploying is RFoG (if anyone has seen a VM XGS-PON deployment, please correct me).

The question then is: when they upgrade existing HFC deployments to fibre, will they go RFoG there too, or will they go straight to XGS-PON? And in the latter case, why aren't they using XGS-PON for the green-field fibre areas? Otherwise they're going to have to do a separate RFoG to XGS-PON upgrade there too.

Same article:

“ Last month we reported that Virgin Media (VMO2) had begun trials in three cities to test their UK plan for upgrading existing Hybrid Fibre Coax (HFC) based network areas with Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband – using XGS-PON technology (here). The good news is that we now know the names of those three locations.”

So the trial is XGS-PON in Wakefield, Stoke and Salisbury across some 50K premises.

Further down;

“ VMO2’s former Director of Infrastructure Engineering & Delivery, Mathew Tully, has just been named Director of Mustang FTTH at the same operator, which he confirms is the official project name for the operator’s FTTP upgrade programme: “Mustang is Virgin Media O2s full fibre rollout of its existing 14 million homes by the end of 2028 … It’s a significant challenge, and I will be building a team to deliver throughout 2022, ahead of completing the programme in 2028.””

So Project Mustang is the strategic change programme, to move off HFC/DOCSIS in its entirety, and based on XGS-PON tech.

Project Lightning (running since 2017) is a parallel programme delivering existing DOCSIS service using RFoG. It’s an evolution rather than revolution. Tactical is perhaps a better way of describing it.

There will be transition and crossover between Lightning and Mustang, but where and how, that isn’t covered in any of those articles.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

So the trial is XGS-PON in Wakefield, Stoke and Salisbury across some 50K premises.

I did wonder why we got all new Virgin streetcabs around this area of Stoke, most are mini cabs (~50cm wide, green or grey) similar to the green LilaConnect/VXFIBER cabs for their active optical network, with special streets getting larger grey and yellow cabs. I imagine having a rapidly growing active optical network on their turf taking their customers spurred them into action!

Yep. The cabinets are mostly POP-A inverted nodes. VMO2 did the maths and noted that the cost difference between building the next cable standard, DoCSIS 4, and going to XGSPON wasn't very big.

The parent company are doing some of this in other countries too but to a lesser extent, not all the country, due to the network construction there.

In reply to a post by phoenixw:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

So the trial is XGS-PON in Wakefield, Stoke and Salisbury across some 50K premises.

I did wonder why we got all new Virgin streetcabs around this area of Stoke, most are mini cabs (~50cm wide, green or grey)

So I'm not in any of those cities but I think (didn't look closely) I've seen a couple of new small Virgin cabinets. The area they are in has existing Virgin cables. But other streets they are in are virgin Virgin areas. (I'll get me coat.)

How could I tell if they're installing PON or DOCSIS?

FWIW (or did I already say?) Virgin are using Openreach ducts (PIA) and also putting their splitters (or whatever they are) in the OR pavement holes. So they're not putting Virgin cabinets in all streets.

I'm on the VM 1Gbps FTTP. It was installed in an area where the previous cable company were unable to get their infrastructure build started in time and was delaying the build of a housing estate. This was 1996~1998.

Roll on to 2022, out of the blue or the fright of BT & City FTTP being installed, VM managed to build a FTTP network on the estate where i live. I had contacted them in 2010, 2015, 2020 ish as part of the "cable my Street" project and they did come out but each time said it was not cost effective to build.

2022 they used Openreach PIA to install the fibres.

Well, i signed up and 3~4 months ago it went live. I moved from a sky fttc connection, which i must admit was very stable.

I have had more brief outages in the past few months than i did with several years of fttc and also 3 years of Relish 4g.

Speed wise, i put the VM Superhub 4 into modem mode as the speedtests were saying i was getting about 300Mbps over wifi and also on the LAN.

I bought a TP Link Archer AX6000 which i now get about 600Mbps on wifi and Lan.

Speeds using the built in samknows tester on the superhub says i am getting 1.1Gbps speeds.
Using the build in tester on the Archer AX6000 says i am getting 600Mbps.

Who knows? The good points Its currently cheap. An 18 month contract which is £36 for the 1Gb connection as long as i took out a SIM with o2 for £10 & 10GB data. I upgraded to 100GB data, so the whole lot for £50.

Will be gong to Cityfibre when their network is installed and my contact expires.

my iphone 13 gets a max of 600Mbps speedtests. I get over 900Mbps using 5G in some areas.

Would be good to see a decent speedtest result on my phone or Lan. Maybe one day.
Also a bit [censored] that they say ou will get a 1.1Gbps connection but supply a 1GB Ethernet port.

In reply to a post by Woolwich:

In reply to a post by phoenixw:

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

So the trial is XGS-PON in Wakefield, Stoke and Salisbury across some 50K premises.

I did wonder why we got all new Virgin streetcabs around this area of Stoke, most are mini cabs (~50cm wide, green or grey)

So I'm not in any of those cities but I think (didn't look closely) I've seen a couple of new small Virgin cabinets. The area they are in has existing Virgin cables. But other streets they are in are virgin Virgin areas. (I'll get me coat.)

How could I tell if they're installing PON or DOCSIS?

FWIW (or did I already say?) Virgin are using Openreach ducts (PIA) and also putting their splitters (or whatever they are) in the OR pavement holes. So they're not putting Virgin cabinets in all streets.

wish they would hurry up and start dishing out hub 5s with the 2.5GbE port but in the mean time i just Balance RR the hub 4 in modem mode with OPNSense, sometimes have to wonder if the extra electric cost is worth the extra speed mind lol

https://www.speedtest.net/result/c/e0f37a45-0a69-416...