As I may possibly have mentioned here before, I don’t like Virgin Media. And that’s OK, because I can subsist on DSL provided by whoever is selling a half-decent deal over BT Openreach’s cabling. Sky, since you ask.

Everything has been 100% reliable for the 18 months I’ve had it so far (and TP-Link’s Deco mesh WiFi is pretty decent, by the way). However, wouldn’t it be nice to have a “modern” connection on proper glass fibre? I was expecting to have to wait years more for such a thing, since the Virgin Media and FTTC coverage, plus a few accidents of geography and history, mean we’re not even coloured in on BT’s roll-out map up to 2025.

However, last year, Netomnia (no, me neither) announced that they’re coming to 130k homes in Oxford. And sure enough, manholes with their name on have appeared just over the road. No sign of being able to buy a service just yet, but it sounds like it will be this year. I shall report back.