In reply to mark20:
> Now that Virgin broadband prices are going up I am beginning to think I have shot myself in the foot by cutting the BT line. So a couple of stupid questions - I'm pretty sure that the Virgin line is only for Virgin and no other company can squirt their internet down it? All other providers on comparisons sites are going to be using the BT line?
Virgin built their own network, so they get exclusive use of it. Its mostly fibre to the street cabinet, then fibre or coax to customer.
The telephone lines on poles are almost entirely* owned and run by OpenReach, which is owned by BT. OpenReach was created to supposedly allow equal-ish access to the domestic market by other telecomms providers by transferring to OpenReach the ownership of what was part of BT's network.
> So is this new CityFibre that they've been putting in around my way, a direct competitor with Virgin, so if I sign up with them, they can run a cable from the closest point of their network into my house - or does it simply speed up the main network to the final BT line run into houses?
CityFibre does "fibre to the premises" so it's more like Virgin in that they have built their own network and don't use the existing phone lines at all. In some places they run their lines underground in their own ducts, or in other locations they run them down Openreach's existing ducts or string them from OpenReach's poles.
* Except in Hull
Post edited at 14:57