Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Virgin recently ran fibre round the village and left little plastic
access points in the pavement, adjacent to every home. Where people
have taken up the Virgin service, they have had to run from the access
point, into the house with cable. How come Plusnet/BT don't need to do
this?

BT (specifically Openreach) do need to do this - but they've already
done it. Once there's a cable into the house, they can connect it at the
cabinet to FTTC (VDSL), back at the exchange for plain broadband (ADSL),
or just connect it to the exchange for a phone line with no broadband.
If you change from one to the other, they will change the relevant
connections at the exchange and/or cabinet with no need to visit the
house. Now if you order FTTP, that's a different matter as you'll need a
different type of cable (fibre rather than copper) and Openreach will
need to visit the house. Or if you need a line where there isn't one
already (a new house, or a second line), they'll need to visit to
install it. Since Virgin are setting up a new service and don't have
lines into anyone's house, they'll always need to visit - the first
time. But if you then get a different service from Virgin they probably
won't need to visit to make the change.

Mike