In reply to a post by ian72:

I am not sure but I am assuming that only Virgin cabling would be run into the house. If the contract then ends they would have to request BT to run cable into the property in order to select a BT based supplier. That may require BT digging up the drive again to lay their cable and would result in delay and disruption in changing providers.

OP already has a BT connection. Virgin aren't going to do anything to that BT cabling, it will remain.

You're all good. VM would be unlikely to go through tarmac to reach a home anyway.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I am not sure but I am assuming that only Virgin cabling would be run into the house. If the contract then ends they would have to request BT to run cable into the property in order to select a BT based supplier. That may require BT digging up the drive again to lay their cable and would result in delay and disruption in changing providers.

They mention the estate is 40 years old. It really boils down to the fact, they do not want a cable installing which can only be used by 1 ISP. They are effectively saying it is unfair that the drive needs to be dug up for 1 ISP to install its services, where they are then tied into a contact with virgin, and if they go elsewhere the cable wont be used anyway. So arguing it is pointless and unfair of virgin to work in this way.

Realistically, cable is very different to BTs services, hence this is necessary.
The comments stating having virgin stops you going to another ISP are unfounded, they simply mean no other provider can use the same cable.

Thanks to you and IgnitionNet - I was struggling to work out the exact position and clearly my comprehension was lacking

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

The trenching is only 300mm deep. The ducting is dispensed from a trailer carrying a dozen or more drums on a framework so one pass along the street can service each house as the trailer passes, terminating at the kerbside. A green warning tape is laid over the ducting at the bottom of its trench, then backfilled. When a householder orders the service, the individual fibre is blown through the duct from cabinet to house.

It's incidental to your original question, but if fibre is going to the house that would be their recently introduced FTTH product, if that's what they will be supplying there.

All VM cable up until then is fibre to a master cabinet, then some form of copper cabling to the smaller ones, and coax from those to the individual premises via the pavement access point that is added at the same time as the main pavement trenching.

I don't quite see even in FTTH how they are going to blow fibre from the cabinet to each individual premises, given no pre-existing ducting.

Probably I picked it up wrongly re connection to each house, but 12mm fibre ducts are being laid from the street cabinet to the kerbside entrance of each house. Installer said each house will be connected only when Virgin has been ordered, he has contract only for the highway operation. Another team will make the individual connections, if anyone wants one.

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

Not complaining, merely asking if the Virgin ducting/fibre would exclude other suppliers. Now I know it does, so I'm not interested. As our (expensive) tarmac runs up to our boundaries we don't want a trench through it.

Had I known about all this 20 years ago I would have installed a 100mm service duct from the gateway ... isn't hindsight a wonderful thing?

I�m a bit lost. Virgin Media would put in their own duct to the boundary of your house and then find a way of getting a cable from the boundary to where you want it. The Openreach ducting or overhead cabling remains.

You just sign up for a contract with Virgin Media as you would anyone else. Then if you�re fed up of them at the end of your contract then you go back to whoever you fancy.

That is correct, they only do the final tube with a bit of fibre in when you actually order the service, standard practice around the world.

NOTE: Virgin Media will not touch the Openreach cable or duct and thus you have freedom to keep existing services and run both at once or not.

Not at all sure where all the confusion is coming from.

I'm not sure where the confusion comes from either. I don't think the OP has been confused about anything, since my original answer, except for the bit about the need for the final duct from the pavement to the house only being installed once the service is ordered.

There is perhaps one thing that hasn't been mentioned, that may or may not still happen. (Though not in the OP's case as they are staying with OR-based supply). That is it isn't unknown for VM installers to gut the NTE5 and use it for their own phone connection. I believe that's not supposed to happen, but has done sometimes in the past.

I'm not sure it is VM FTTH on the OP's estate, but that doesn't affect the last leg digging in either case.

Indeed, Bob answered my question with his first post. I had asked:

If we sign up, would we be tied to Virgin Media and its infrastructure while we are connected to their system, or would we have to return to Openreach FTTC to connect via another provider?

He and others replied that only Virgin could use its own ducts/cabling. That's all I wanted to know and I'll stick with our existing overhead Openreach connnection. Thanks!