InspireICT Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 One of the schools we support is having difficulty getting a Virgin Media Fibre connection to site. The difficulty is due to the school being land-locked by a resident's association who are asking for considerable remuneration for running cables over their land. As a result, the school has been presented with two options going forward; Option 1 is a fixed wireless link to another local school to 'piggyback' their connection (using a wireless non-line of site link over about 0.5 mile). Option 2 is to reconnect the old BT Fibre and continue as before. Personally I prefer option 2 but they've been informed that if they wish to proceed (at the moment it appears to be with either option), their annual charge for LGfL 2.0 will increase by 35% to just shy of £10,000 for a 20Mbps connection on a 100Mbps bearer. (Also bear in mind that they are entering year 3 of the 5 year deal and have been moved 'temporarily' onto an ADSL line which at best is capable of 1.8Mbps) Has anyone else had any similar experiences? Also, any opinions about this would be welcomed. Another point to bear in mind that they are entering year 3 of the 5 year deal and have been moved 'temporarily' onto an ADSL line which, at best, is capable of 1.8Mbps which, during the school day effectively means that they have no usable internet and it's been like this for approx 6 weeks.
Michael Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 (edited) I've not come across anything like this before I must say. I'd be tempted to run a short distance wireless link from the building to the edge of the road, then a wired solution to the other school building. When you say 'over their land', does this include in the ground itself as well as a cable high in the air, say building to building? So how was the original BT line put in place if they're demanding such a high price to install a Virgin media line? Edited April 25, 2013 by Michael
InspireICT Posted April 25, 2013 Author Posted April 25, 2013 That would refer to 'in the ground cable' - I'm not sure about catenary cabling but Virgin have said they wouldn't do this anyway. The BT fibre runs to the school via a catenary cable from one of their telegraph poles and Virgin can't use it as it is BT's.
Michael Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 I suppose it really depends if Virgin's offering is going to be any cheaper... I think option 2 is going to be your best bet.
InspireICT Posted April 25, 2013 Author Posted April 25, 2013 I suppose it really depends if Virgin's offering is going to be any cheaper... I think option 2 is going to be your best bet. I agree, I'm just a little surprised that, as we enter year 3 of the contract and the service isn't fully operational yet, that the price is going to rise by 35%
Michael Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 I agree, I think 35% is somewhat OTT. Have you asked for a breakdown of where this additional 35% is going? Are other schools in the area being charged the same amount more?
InspireICT Posted April 25, 2013 Author Posted April 25, 2013 They are looking into sending us a breakdown of costs but as far as I'm aware, this is the only school in the borough with the extra charges.
Michael Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 Hmm I really would question why this is myself. 35% is a considerable amount in broadband terms.
psydii Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 I thought telcos could get compulsory wayleaves to sort this kind of problem?
MatthewL Posted April 25, 2013 Posted April 25, 2013 Speak to Virgin and explain the situation, state you have a BT fibre coming to site, they maybe able to provide you with a connection via the BT one, we had it done some time ago.
SchoolsBroadband Posted April 26, 2013 Posted April 26, 2013 Yes Virgin can use BT fibres if need be. They won't want to though as they have to pay more to do so but it'd work in your situation the best. You can also get BT to do expedite installs and not take the normal 65 working days to get it re-activated. It costs a little to do (circa £500) but is possible. Dave
InspireICT Posted May 3, 2013 Author Posted May 3, 2013 Speak to Virgin and explain the situation, state you have a BT fibre coming to site, they maybe able to provide you with a connection via the BT one, we had it done some time ago. It's Virgin that are dealing with it currently. The cost increase is through LGfL and Virgin.
psydii Posted May 3, 2013 Posted May 3, 2013 FYI: We have 21cn kit delivering to our LGFL2 router. They blew new fibre through the route that delivered lgfl1.
InspireICT Posted May 7, 2013 Author Posted May 7, 2013 FYI: We have 21cn kit delivering to our LGFL2 router. They blew new fibre through the route that delivered lgfl1. Is that procured through LGfL/Virgin? If so, did you incur additional costs for this? If it isn't through LGfL/Virgin are you still retaining the e-mail and/or filtering services etc?
InspireICT Posted May 7, 2013 Author Posted May 7, 2013 Good news, VM have agreed to absorb the additional costs. Thanks all for your comments regarding this.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now