Regions
Birmingham, three vans
A city of overlapping logos and very different install days. The van that can book you is the network.
12 min read · Regions
Birmingham is where you can watch three liveries in one morning: an Openreach fibre drop, a Virgin van on a cabinet that is really a tap, a CityFibre crew on a spine that was not there at Christmas. It looks like abundance. Then you try to book an install in the same week as everyone else who saw the same three vans, and abundance becomes a calendar. The comparison has to include the date, not just the logo on the street.
Cable-city memory
A generation bought Virgin because it was the only fast thing. That memory is sticky and sometimes still correct. It is also how people skip a cheaper Openreach 500 with twice the upload.
Re-run the address as if you had just moved in. Loyalty to a 2012 cable win is not a 2026 methodology.
The date is a specification
If the gaining provider cannot install for six weeks, your losing contract, your work, and your cooling-off all shift. Ask for the slot before you consent to the switch.
A ‘from’ price that starts the day they hoped to install is not the day they will.
Plot, not city
New-build in the Black Country, a terrace in Stirchley, a tower in the core: three markets. Midlands branding will try to make them one.
Take the live plant on your plot. Leave the city-level think-piece for the train.
| Van | Often means | Ask |
|---|---|---|
| Openreach retailer | FTTP or leftover FTTC | Technology name + slot |
| Virgin / Nexfibre | Cable or new fibre | Which, and the upload |
| CityFibre retailer | Wholesale FTTP | Which retailers + slot |
Overbuild without capacity is a parade. Overbuild with a Tuesday slot is a market.
Birmingham has the vans. Make them compete on a date and a year, not on who beeped in your road this morning.
Questions searchers actually ask
Sources
- Thinkbroadband West Midlands FTTP tracking
- Virgin / Nexfibre Midlands updates
- Openreach stop-sell exchange lists
Figures move. Prices, coverage and eligibility must be confirmed with the provider. OneTouchSwitch is not Ofcom, TOTSCo or a broadband network. Last fact-checked 10 September 2026.
Continue in this issue
Networks
14 min read · Networks
Networks
Cable, and the fibre that is replacing it
Virgin still runs a huge cable plant. Nexfibre is the full-fibre overlay. They can exist on the same street. They are not the same socket.
Networks
14 min read · Networks
Networks
CityFibre is not a retailer
Several logos, one trench. If the street is CityFibre, you are choosing a retailer on someone else’s fibre — and that is a different job from choosing Openreach.
Switching
13 min read · Switching
Switching
Engineer day
Somebody is coming to your house with a van. The job is smaller than a kitchen fit-out and larger than a parcel. Preparation is mostly being in.
Networks
12 min read · Networks
Networks
Nexfibre dates versus orders
A date on a map is not a checkout. Cable is still cable until the button exists.
Practical guides