Business Fibre connectivity roll-out

[#1]

Hi,
Interruptions to service and service (fibre) availability issues are frustrating.  Whilst you might be able to kick PlusNET into touch, unless you can get Virgin Media to supply fibre, you cannot get broadband delivered by anyone other than BT no matter who you pay your bills to.
So if it is BT plant which is the problem and Virgin do not supply in your area, then there is only the BT Openreach game in your "town".

[#2]

I was a Virgin media customer until I worked there for a bit and saw things from the inside.
Gaining an understanding of their infrastructure and the way faults are monitored, caused or even ignored with the general dismissive approach of "What do you expect for just £50/month?", is why I became a Plusnet customer, service levels and employee attitude count for more than price and "Up To...." speed headlines.
I could have Virgin fibre, I choose not to.
Virgin serve 13 Million homes but only 5 Million want to be customers so I'm with the majority in saying no to Mr Branson despite him being a nice chap and all that.
Gigaclear have landed £6.5M of new funding that could well turn into something useful out here in the sticks.

[#3]

CBW,
Interesting read, both your "insider's view" of VM and the Gigaclear press release.
Certainly FTT - Premises - Home - Pole - Kerbside has to be a better bet than FTTC which will always be crippled by poor and long legacy d-side infrastructure in rural areas.  This is something I have been trying to highlight to my rural parish council who have been bamboozled into believing FTTC will fix all of the appalling ADSL speeds across a predominantly farming parish.  They might see something better than the sub 2Mbps, but nothing like "superfast" broadband.
One wonders what the contention ratios will be on a 1Gbps service?  IIRC it is not so long ago that central pipes were measured at 64Gbps - unless there is a high contention ratio, a single 64Gbps central pipe is not going to support many subscribers.  Though the scale will be different, I can already hear the complaints - I've got 1Gbps synch speed, but data speed testers tell me I can only get 100Mbps max.
Hope your local problem is resolved soon by BTOR.

[#4]

A bit more digging and it would appear the light at the end of the tunnel has been relocated from Dec 2014 to Dec 2015 or never.
Although I can see the dreaming spires of Oxford and its within staggering distance, proven in my formative years when it was a choice between a Taxi home or another round of Lager-n-Blackcurrant and some walking, CBW towers is apparently sited in a rural parish.
To clarify its a tiny splot of "Intervention area" on the rollout map surrounded by an area that has already been upgraded, my bit is beyond economic viability and will not be fixed until money is provided by somebody somewhere.
To quote Pendulum

Quote

Staring upward at the gleaming stars in the obsidian sky We're marooned on a small island, in an endless sea. Confined to a tiny spit of sand, unable to escape

Its wrong that I have to consider an employment change because BTOR are dragging their heels but Netflix and Webex are uneasy bedfellows when sharing ADSL.
Virgin charge £50 to connect a residential customer, under the £100 where you can get broadband fees paid by Government assistance.
If you are sending business bytes down the same bit of string to the same leaky green comms cabinet the fee is £385 but a business only pays the VAT element so its cheaper.... Right ?
None of this can be fixed by PlusNet but its the end of a frustrating week after a cold, rainy half term where the TV has been off limits when "Daddy is on his boring computer"