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[Reformed]

Thought a thread indicating where VM are doing work to overbuild their hybrid network with full fibre would be worthwhile. I'll start. Areas in bold are those that appear prioritised - loads of work.

Batley, West Yorkshire
Leeds, West Yorkshire
Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Sheffield, South Yorkshire
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire
Bristol
Glasgow

[Alex Atkin UK]

Already seen it showing up on one.network in Sheffield.  I'm also seeing some VM jobs locally in an area that is NOT already covered by cable.  So it seems they are taking this opportunity to expand too.

[untruenorth]

I've just (well a couple of weeks ago) seen contractors running fibre into existing ducts around here in South Cambs, CB24.  Local VM friendly confirms it's a part of their fibre rollout, and said "go and Google XGS-PON".  Sadly, he also said that it'd be a while translating into actual service availability...

[Chrysalis]

Leeds seems to be getting lots of FTTP, do all those already have live FTTP competition?

[Reformed]

Leeds is getting the big 3 - Openreach and CityFibre are building now and VMO2 are responding, though as we know VMO2 are replacing network-wide and the Leeds work isn't a massive wave.

There are actually bits of work going on pretty much nationwide, they're doing work where they have capacity then going in gang handed where necessary or the resource is there. They have subcontractors on long-term contracts for Project Lightning so where there's a lull in that they can be used for Mustang. I only wrote about a few areas where it's clear what they are doing and I'm aware of it.

Unhappy news as it may be for the more socialist among us the vast majority of the commercial build right now is going to be overbuild. VMO2 cover nearly half the country with network they're going to upgrade, Openreach will be altnet chasing as they should be. There is going to be basically nowhere where an altnet is the only operator, and those that are there are going to have seriously precarious business cases and very, very long payback periods.

EDIT: Based on announced and likely deployments Leeds is actually going to have fewer options than smaller cities like Leicester as no Grain, and Wakefield as no Netomnia.

[Chrysalis]

I mentioned on TBB, it wouldnt surprise me if VM buy out some small altnet providers as they going to be arriving late in cities where some smaller altnets like grain have done a rollout in cable areas.

Openreach altnet chasing i guess means they will at some point cover Leicester given cityfibre is doing most of the city, so now I fully understand the concerns people had when we have areas with no FTTP and others with at least 2-3.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Unhappy news as it may be for the more socialist among us the vast majority of the commercial build right now is going to be overbuild. VMO2 cover nearly half the country with network they're going to upgrade, Openreach will be altnet chasing as they should be. There is going to be basically nowhere where an altnet is the only operator, and those that are there are going to have seriously precarious business cases and very, very long payback periods.

Depends what kind of socialist you are.  While I would have preferred the underlying telco had remained nationalised, I'm not against the direction were going as long as the areas that do get stuck with a single provider do not end up like the US where they stop investing and crank up the prices.

The fact I may end up able to get OR, CityFibre and Virgin is definitely appealing.  Its important to understand the benefit and drawbacks of a given system.  Capitalism is fine, so long as its regulated, the problem occurs with the fact businesses are expected to constantly increase their profit when resources and customers are a finite resource.

Now the energy sector on the other hand is a complete an utter mess.  I was even taught in business studies how it makes no sense to have multiple companies for it, right before the government did exactly that.  Though granted, they were meaning more distribution as you'd need multiple cable networks and sub-stations which is a lot more unmanageable than say telco where the sub-stations (cabinets) are many orders of magnitude smaller.

[Chrysalis]

Agree Alex, trying to get my IHD fixed, makes Openreach fault fixing seem like platinum in comparison.

[Alex Atkin UK]

Back on topic, finally decided to inspect what VM are doing round here.  Talked to the people digging the road and they confirmed its a VM expansion via OR ducting.  They were adding a short piece of ducting to a new cabinet location.

This also explains the Northern Power Grid work at the end of my street where VM were working a few weeks ago, power for a new cabinet I presume.