Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

I have heard of the Wirral & know it fairly well - have family living in the Wirral & I live in Widnes, which is reasonably close to the Wirral. Also aware of the high volume of houses in the Wirral which are likely targets for Project Lightning & understand the reasons why (fair amount of unused or part built infrastructure from the original cable franchise builds)

RE 'I would'nt get too excited' - sorry for being positive ;) I am realistic & don't expect VM to start digging up my street tomorrow, next week, next month or even next year...but I am now reasonably confident that at some point before or around 2020, VM are likely to be able to provide me with a service.

I could be wrong, but my interpretation of the feedback from Pierre was that the communities listed on that 'November' leaked document were under consideration & would become part of the rollout if enough interest was registered before the end of the month.

Yesterday, 'Cable My Street' told me:

'Sorry, we can’t reach you at the moment. Thanks for your interest in Virgin Media services. We’re really sorry that we can’t connect you to Virgin Media in the near future. If you register your details, we can let you know if the situation changes.'

...whilst today, 'Cable My Street' tells me:

'We're on our way...Your community has been chosen for future development. We’re working as fast as we can to get to you but right now we can’t confirm when we’ll be able to connect this address to Virgin Media services.'

So without wanting to sound too much of an optimist, my take on this is that my community has now expressed enough interest & is part of the rollout plan. Why else would VM be saying 'We're are on our way' :)

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

I know, I'm not saying you're wrong but it's a massive, massive job to cover those bits of the Wirral that are on the list. They were the tricky towns that weren't done originally. Places like Heswall with big populations (3rd biggest town), but mostly spread out, large houses. I'm just a bit more sceptical, we shall see. When the network was originally built by NYNEX they built out from Bromborough to mostly high density areas.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

Even my area that said for years that It was not on the List now it says my area is part of Future Development and alot of other places in Northern Ireland too. It seems to be major population centres.

That being said BT were told recently to open up their Ducting to other suppliers meaning VM could in theory deploy their network with very little digging piggybacking of BT Infrastructure This is especially the case with the RF over Glass where they could install the last mile themselves.

A local gas company has expanded its reach around Northern Ireland and it connects houses for free where it would normally cost £2k so I'm guessing VM see this as a long term strategy

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

Could in theory but I'm sure I read somewhere that VM always use their own ducting to avoid issues.

In Milton Keynes (for example), most areas can't get Virgin Media due to an ongoing dispute with BT over who owns what.

That might have calmed down by now, but I can't imagine that would help Virgin Media to decide in favour of using others' ducting.

They could, in theory make use of dark fibre but everything I've ever seen has indicated that they always and only lay their own kit, whether duct or fibre.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

I'm pretty sure I've read a quote from someone high up at VM to say they have no interest in using someone else's ducting and will only build their own.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

We'revnot using BT infrastructure at this moment in time.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

Has the cablemystreet database been reset in the last month?

I was able to re-register there yesterday and I got a new e-mail in a different style as if I hadn't registered before... whereas in the past it told me I was already registered.


It seems like there are various phases in which VM look to see who's interested in which area, then the process begins anew. Something has changed. I could be totally off-base however, and one registration is enough...

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

VM do not use and will not use other network providers duct to bring our access cabling in.

MrIca, your comment that "20-30k houses being cabled is highly unlikely" is not quiote accurate... current areas announced and in build cover 4 times that figure already. Dunfermline and its surrounding villages are being cabled as we speak which totals some 75k homes.

If VM is going to hit its 4M new cabled homes then they have to aim big, the Wirral is a big part of that plan (amongst many many other areas!)

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

Well that's really good to hear. I'm glad to be proved wrong in this case.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

I'm seeing some progress on the nearby Chester/Wrexham rollout. I saw a closed road with some people who looked like Virgin Media network planners with clipboards. Given the location it looks like it would be for the trunk route as there's no houses nearby.

There's also a website about the expansion from the contractors doing the surveys, and some job adverts for door to door sales positions for Virgin Media in Chester.

Looks like the initial phase will be Blacon, Saughall and Mollington which will take 4 months. The whole thing will take 3 years.

http://www.citysurveysltd.co.uk/proj...ester-wrexham/

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

I've noticed today that when you use certain postcodes, the messages that come back are different. Rather than saying "we're on our way" it comes back with a message saying how they haven't decided where they are going yet and to register your interest?

It also tells you in the corner how much interest they have had from the area in question, and for some reason depending on area it's colour coded. Orange shows up in certain places, and I've seen a dark blue as well.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

Interesting... I wonder what purple means.

Lightning has gone quiet for a while but I suspect there will be more info in August since Q2 was mentioned in Liberty's Q1 results as being a date for more info being provided.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

It could be a way of gauging where they are going next based on interest. Just odd that from "we're on our way", some areas look like they are no longer part of the expansion plans even though it said they were.

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

Exactly correct, unless there is a public statement from VM that they are expanding to an area then I wouldn't take it as gospel. The changes to the CMS website are down to the change to a new server which is providing better analytics of sign ups as well as returning more accurate information to people who register an interest.

HTH

Re: Project Lightning Silence...
 

There's more info in the web page source, by the way. If you know where to look, you can also find out the name of the community project that the build is a part of and its build reference number.

I might be completely wrong but you might even be able to see that community's current ranking.....


...I didn't find out what the colours meant, though.