The challenge
Virgin Media was rolling out a new network across several urban areas. One of the most persistent issues with these fibre installations comes not from the cables themselves, but from the environment surrounding the infrastructure.
Street-level telecoms cabinets are frequently exposed to rainwater runoff and standing groundwater. With duct entries often left poorly sealed, water can travel through conduits directly into the cabinet bases. This then leads to pooling inside cabinets and, over time, the corrosion of sensitive electronics.
The problem is only compounded by the presence of rodents. In some areas, fibre cables are chewed through entirely – causing costly service outages. Engineers must conduct reactive visits to replace damaged equipment. For the provider, this means inefficient and expensive maintenance cycles that risk reputational damage.
The solution
FILOform supplied its telecoms cabinet base sealant – tested and evaluated by Virgin Media approved specification (Filoform 205884), and suitable for use in their network.
Our cabinet base sealant is a go-to for all major operators for application in street cabinets and feeder pillars.
Key benefits of our solution include:
- Ease of installation – An easy to use, quick-to-apply, and accurate filling and sealing process – with good flow properties, self-levelling characteristics, and good adhesion
- Multi-purpose protection – Effective sealing against water and gas pressures, pests, and the intrusion of weeds, roots and plants
- Extended asset life – Effective sealing improves the climate inside the street cabinets and transformer stations
- Futureproofing – Re-enterable seals allowed engineers to add new cables in future without damaging the system
The results
For Virgin Media, the installation of our cabinet base sealant delivered long-standing and measurable results:
- Environmental challenges solved at the root – Flooding in sealed cabinets was eliminated, removing the root cause of costly electronic failures
- Sealing out pests – Rodent ingress incidents dropped to zero in the treated cabinets, improving network reliability
- Reduction in unplanned reactive works – Maintenance call-outs reduced significantly, freeing up resource for planned works
- Reduction in outages – Customers experienced fewer outages, strengthening the provider’s reputation for reliability
“By adopting FILOform’s duct sealing as a standard practice across the network build, the fibre provider secured a long-term solution to a hidden but damaging problem.”