Kelly Group is proud to have worked with Virgin Media and its constituent companies since 1985.
The Group was awarded the new Build Evolution contract in 2020 to support Virgin Media as one of their national partners, who provides planning, expansion, and maintenance services for their next-generation gigabit fibre network. Since then, our teams have been working on ground-breaking solutions, pioneering the way within our industry with a new 8mm micro duct infrastructure, building a more reliable and faster network for Virgin Media customers to enjoy. Kelly Group is proud to be the firstever contracting company to adopt and execute the installation of the new 8mm micro duct infrastructure serving local communities.
Works recently commenced in Chelmsford involving civils works, fibre splicing and network build. With over 30 engineers, civils gangs, project managers, and supervisors building a new hybrid network infrastructure customers can start accessing their gigabit broadband this summer.
The project started with an intrusive survey of the area completed by the Group’s in-house surveyors and planners, whose responsibility was to identify blockages and directly buried areas. Due to gaining access to the Openreach network infrastructure across the country, Virgin Media is adopting a new hybrid network model utilising the overhead and underground infrastructures combined. Our in-house team concluded a list of suggestions for Virgin Media, who then identified areas to feed with the 8mm micro duct straws and those locations which can be connected using telecoms poles and cabinets.
Breaking Ground
The works start with Kelly Group’s civils gangs, whose responsibility is building the infrastructure, running down the duct from the distribution point to the toby boxes located at individual homes on the assigned streets. Rolls of the new 8mm duct are prepared and positioned at the end of each road, as our cabling gang precisely measure and cuts the required length of duct for each home. They are then buried underground with a single straw connecting to each home’s toby box at the end of their garden. Working in unison, one team is responsible for measuring and cutting the cables, while another team works on cutting hard surfaces and digging micro trenches with a compact excavator, ensuring the infrastructure is at a safe depth and easily accessible on their assigned route. Once all cables are in position, our reinstatement team starts filling the trenches and bringing the surfaces back to their original state. The main benefit of utilising these new ducts from a civils point of view is that a narrower dig can accommodate the tied-up ducts resulting in a faster installation and minimal disturbance for the local community. The Group’s civils team is also responsible for building the bases of POP A cabinets.
Fibre Engineers
Kelly Groups fibre engineers also play a vital role in the network build and installation process. The team ran an 8km long cable from a VHUB (exchange) through mid-points (joints) to set up a live connection to the POP A cabinet, which is responsible for serving up to 753 homes around the local area. The POP A cabinet receives its power from a small electric cabinet, which is adjoined. This electric cabinet is tested and maintained by a Kelly Group electrician to ensure the smooth operation of the POP A box.
This ‘mother’ cabinet connects to either telecoms poles, underground chambers or a smaller cabinet, which serves the local 8mm duct infrastructure and finally ends at the customer’s home. The Group’s skilled fibre engineers splice fibre inside the POP A box to create live connections from that point. At the final stage of the project, a team of two fibre engineers will return to the underground 8mm duct infrastructure and test each straw using air pressure ensuring all tubes are providing clean access to the network for each home.
