Adding Cable Myself on Private Driveway

Hi Everyone

I am new here, so please go easy! I will try to explain my problem in the hope some of you nice chaps and chapettes will be able to offer advice.

I live on a very small patch of privately owned land (basically 4 houses up a small driveway) and we only have telephone line broadband coming in. It's becoming more and more of a pain as we connect more and more devices to the network, and the kids are taking more and more bandwidth from only our current maximum of about meg per second.

We are located about 15 meters from a green box, and we know fibre exists as for years we were getting bombarded by Virgin to sign up. We knew we couldn't have it so one day, so annoyed by the umpteenth call and us saying we couldn't have it, we said Yes to see what would happen. Cut along story short, we got a refund and were never bothered again after the engineer came out.

So, we know that our closest neighbour has fibre - it's fibre to the green box on our street and then copper to homes - and as we see it the termination point stops next to one of the four houses' gardens so very, very close.

So we as neighbors agree between us we are more than capable people, we could dig up our drive ourselves and lay the appropriate copper cable to receive faster broadband. The furthest distance from where we believe the termination point to be is about 15 meters. We would need to lay four cables in some form of trunking.

However, we just need someone to come and say "this is what you need to buy and here is the termination point" and then that we can be connected to the green box.

So I guess the question is, what advice can anyone give me please before I try and do this. Who to contact, what cable I need to connect 4 houses, other considerations etc)

Any advice is really, really appreciated. If it helps, I can add an image showing you location of everything including where our houses are.

Thanks

Jon

Yes, go ahead. I'm sure that BT/OpenReach (or whoever) won't mind one little bit if you mess with their equipment.

What you would normally do is install ducting to the specificstion given by virgin and foing to pre agreed points with appropriate draw ropes so they can easily install the actual coax

Back to chasing virgin for details

When you say a neighbour has fibre, is that Virgin Media or a BT Wholesale based one?

Please can you use all three options on this checker and tell us what each says? If any gives you a table of speed estimates all we need is the table and the line above it, with any phone number/address/postcode edited out.

Thanks for the response, appreciated. They have Virgin Media. I do remember though that it was McNicolas who dug up the road. I will get the information requested and post here as soon as I can

Hi MickSharpe -

Thanks for your reply - I assure you we won;t be doing anything like that - we merely want to be shown where the end point is and then see if we can get a provider to join them. All we need is the advice. We have no problem digging up our own drive and laying coax in suitable trunking or conduit. We can even get the tarmac we need.

Cheers

not sure if this is of help but found it via google.....

http://eplanning.birmingham.gov.uk/Northgate/Documen...

It seems to be the something about pre ducting new builds for virgin.

You don't need to run any cables to your properties just ducting.

You need to use green ducting and install a "swept tee" that comes up at each of the 4 house. You need to make sure the sweep goes towards the cabinet.

You will need products like this http://www.radiustelecoms.com/products/telecoms-duct...

You will need to liase with VM because they will either need to install a foot way or a branch to make the ducting part of their network.

The ducting HAS to be green.

Why does it HAVE to be Green ?

Why does it HAVE to be Green ?

See Colour codes for underground utilities

Hi Everyone

Here is what I got from the broadband checker.Hope this helps.

Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

WBC ADSL 2+ Up to 12 -- 7 to 17 Available
ADSL Max Up to 6.5 -- 5.5 to 8 Available
WBC Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Fixed Rate 2 -- -- Available
Other Offerings
Copper Multicast -- -- -- Available

I'm confused! How far are you from the nearest FTTC cabinet? How far is the cabinet to which you are connected from the nearest FTTC cabinet?

In reply to a post by mikejp:

I'm confused! How far are you from the nearest FTTC cabinet? How far is the cabinet to which you are connected from the nearest FTTC cabinet?

The OP doesn't have FTTC available to him, instead he is hoping to get VM to provide a service to a small group of houses, of which one is his, if he and his neighbours provide the necessary ducting.

Thanks, but we could also do with the line before the estimates table

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

... all we need is the table and the line above it, with any phone number/address/postcode edited out.

AAH! It was "So, we know that our closest neighbour has fibre - it's fibre to the green box on our street and then copper to homes - and as we see it the termination point stops next to one of the four houses' gardens so very, very close." that confused me as I thought Virgin was coax?

In this post the OP says he is talking about his neighbours having Virgin Media.

What I'm trying to establish is if there is any mileage in trying to get FTTC or even FTTP from Openreach via one of the funding schemes, in case VM still say no.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

What I'm trying to establish is if there is any mileage in trying to get FTTC or even FTTP from Openreach via one of the funding schemes, in case VM still say no.

Are any of the funding schemes yet working at the granularity of a white spot of 4 premises in an otherwise grey area (VM cable available)? I would have thought there were far larger white spots to be addressed and that funding for such a spot wouldn't be available until towards the end of the programme if at all.

This from someone in a white spot of 75 premises for whom no funding is available and where BT want £30K to do anything.

Virgin may even issue you with the ducting and tees for free, I know Virgin Media Business do this on fibre installs if a construction company is already working on the land.

The only thing I can add is a thought:

Even if you do all the physical work, and provide the duct, install it with draw ropes etc, it might still not be enough.

It would be enough for VM to install their cables, sure. But it isn't enough to allow them to perform future maintenance. You might find that you need to provide a wayleave too, giving them right of access.

Wouldn't (does) that apply to all VM Cable installation if there is a garden or drive between the pavement and house?

If the garden/drive belonged to the person who wanted the VM service, then it wouldn't apply: if they want the service, then they have to give access to VM for maintenance. No access = no service, but it is the subscriber's choice as land-owner.

However, in the OP's case, access is needed over land that isn't exclusively owned by the person wanting the service. The subscriber can demand the service be fixed, but a different householder can deny access.

People move. And neighbours from hell can arrive at any time.