Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

:bump: Award for m419, I think. :D

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

This is a mistake Harlow (where I live) is an NTL area (Cambridge cable original did harlow then was taken over by Angila cable)

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

Does it matter?

Telewest and NTL are now the same company anyway.

BT operated Cable TV services in the borough of Westminster and Milton keynes areas. These two franchises were sold to Cable and Wireless Communications. As far as I know, CWC built a new telephone network in these areas acompanying the TV service. There was no need for an additional telephone network before as BT already had their own.

However, these two franchises were offloaded to NTL in 2000. Customer numbers have always been very low in the westminster area and digital TV and Broadband is still not available in this area. Less than a mile away is the Cable London franchise were analogue hardly exists!

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

I thought there was something familiar about this thread, so I looked and found I'd started it......almost 2 years ago. :disturbd: :D
Nice post m419! :tu:

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

Actually, they're not ... they still need shareholder approval and the transaction won't be complete until probably well into next year.

And even after they are the same company, it does matter, and will do so for years to come. Just have a look around this forum at all the times we need to understand whether a customer is fed from Bromley (ex-CWC) or Langley ('original' NTL). There are significant differences in the two systems that have an impact on how problem-solving advice is given. When everything eventually comes together under one brand (say, for the sake of argument, UK Cable), it will be important to know which areas were CWC, which were NTL and which were Telewest.

:)

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

I have today (while on a walkabout), seen evidence of a telecential cable build in Bletchley (now a borough of Milton Keynes). The chambers and jointing are all labelled Telecential on the pavement.

This is interesting as this network was never expanded to Milton Keynes itself (which was a BT Cable franchise at the time before being leased to NTL, and then ultimately Virgin Media, before VM scrapped payments to BT just a few years ago).

Also, I can't see any evidence that the Telecential CATV network actually went live to customers in Bletchley, despite the visible build. Does Virgin Media have ownership rights to this particular Telecential infrastructure? If so, they might want to know CityFibre are trenching right along their route on the pavements here in Bletchley.

Ya .... I remember when cable first was strung in my area.. In the 70s but we didnt get it until the early 80s if I remember right.....

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

Thing is Dude, here in the U.K. the cableco franchises were rarely if ever allowed to string up their cables from poles - it always had to be buried in ducts. It kept our strreetscapes neat but made deployment very expensive and is why so many places here still don’t have it.

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

Something must have changed recently, because OpenReach were putting fibre boxes up the telegraph poles in Moortown (Leeds) six months ago (they had flooded the area with contractors, there was about 10 vans in 5 or 6 streets).

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/show...h#post35951362

https://news.openreach.co.uk/pressre...uption-2806651

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

Openreach is regulated slightly differently, being the former state monopoly, and still having a universal service obligation. However, the rules have been relaxed somewhat recently, and other providers are allowed to pole mount under certain circumstances (principally when sharing an existing Openreach pole IIRC).

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

Openreach and its predecessors are regulated differently from the cable companies so have always been able to use telegraph poles. Historically, a telephone was seen as an essential service and cable TV wasn't. Now, broadband is what matters and the regulator has even opened up access to BT's telegraph poles for cable TV companies.

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

I didn't know Openreach was a Cableco franchise.

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

I was responding to Chris's reply to Dude11's post
And I thought that CF'ers would be interested in the fact that OpenReach were now putting fibre up the poles.

Re: The History of cable TV in the uk
 

They've been putting fibre up the poles for over 2 years.

Yes Mate I think the whole thing is interesting.... They didnt used to put any wires above ground?? Yes that would keep things looking nicer for sure.....