Thank you for you continuing interest and your comments.
I am beginning to be of the opinion that this is an "adjustment" of some sort at and by Virgin alone.........I have been asking around other BB users in the village, and none of them have had such a notification from their respective ISPs........
......and yet, as you say, an implied training period would indicate otherwise
Will speak to the OR guy again...his problem is that despite living here, this is not his "patch"....he does his thing in the town 6 miles away and anything to be done here......another OR guy comes out from that town.
Still, he must of heard something if there are to be changes in the exchange.
Have sent a PM with my phone/postcodes numbers...thank you.