How long have you had cable BB
 

A comment in the retentions topic got me wondering how long people have had cable.

For me, its just under 22 years, I had a cable modem, and two phone lines installed in mid June 1999, when it was still Diamond Cable around here (my phone sockets are still the originals, with the diamond logo on them). NTL took over DC not long after.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

had it since 1995 when Yorkshire cable first laid in Barnsley at my mums , although we did leave for a while when VM lost the sky channels as my mum was a big watcher of sky one back then, So switched to sky for TV/BB as it didn't work out good cost wise to keep the VM broadband at the time with sky tv and the speeds weren't really that much different anyway at the time, soon as the sky channels come back we moved back and ive always had it since moving away so bar that odd year or so about 26 years

EDIT missed the BB bit We had TV/Phone from 1995 then BB soon as it was rolled out after TW took over

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Mid 90's 1994 or 1995. Think it was either Bell cablemedia or Jones cable, can't remember which one came first. I can't remember how much it was but we had a salesman visit to seal the deal, little did he know we would have snatched his hand off at the time whatever it cost.

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Can't remember the date but I signed on with NTLWORLD the second day they switched on in Swansea. Telephone days and Sun News. lol. Quite a few years ago now and could of been late 1990s not sure.

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Joined telewest in 1999 until middle of 2020 now on BT FTTP

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Had unlimited dial up on NTLWORLD and then won a competition on the original NTHellworld to get 6 months free BB - must have been back in 2002/2003! I was in school then and finally got broadband lol

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

CableTel Glasgow (ex Clyde CableVision) 1995 with ISDN dial up, then broadband 512k in 1999 with the £150 purchase of a 3Com CMX cable modem. Still have it in a drawer.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

nearly 20 years. 512kbps was the bomb back then

Had TV first with Comtel bought soon after by NTL .Had dial up with ukonline then AOL until the cable modems were available . I remember the weekly calls "is it here yet"

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

I joined NTL in around 2001 and was a customer for ... 3 years. :disturbd: Gave it up when we moved house and went off-net, although we did have Virgin dial up and then ADSL at our new address, until they closed the service.

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It was so SloooooooooW back then and paid via the Phone.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Originally a Videotron user at my parent's home near Southampton around 1995 when I persuade them to get cable TV with the 'free phoneline' and we joined an ISP that offered zero rated calls for a monthly subscription fee for cable phone customers. That was like winning the lottery when you managed to dial in to a spare modem line!

Didn't get cable broadband for myself till several city moves later in 2010 when my current address in Manchester got a connected through a small fill in dig.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Before Diamond cabled our area (we were one of the last they did) I was actually on virgin.net dialup for about 3 years - so ended up going full circle.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Sometime in the 1990's, using C&W analogue messaging via the STB.
Customer service supplied from Leeds (Seacroft) even pay to contact them.
512Kb service over the phone line using inbuilt computer modem for the kids.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

I've never lived anywhere that had cable :(

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I got a Cambridge Cable 600Kb connection around 2000 which then got bought by NTL which got rebranded into Virginmedia.

I have no other high-speed options in my village.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

It was Jones Cable first, then Bell Cablemedia (then C&W Comms) - I worked for them at Seacroft 94-96 (& Watford, and fixed the Bytel Billing system at EnCom in Docklands 96-97) - I got Cable TV, Phone, & BB mid to late 94, when the build reached this part of NW Leeds.

So, had cable BB around 26 or 27 years.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Been with Virgin for 14 years, before that i was stuck on ADSL as cable wasnt in the area.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

I was a C&W customer, then NTL took over. I was using dial up until around 97 or so when i took up NTL's BB. Now with Virgin Media BB since they took over.

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10th April 1997. I still have the NYNEX letter saying they were delighted that we had chosen to be a customer.:)

It seemed so fast compared to dial-up but I can still remember our son's shouts of dismay when my husband or I needed to use the phone.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

We had the analogue TV (Jerrold impulse box) and phone when Nynex cabled up this area in the late '90's with a dial up on Virgin.net in '98 (My email addy from then still works!) Usually managed a solid >50kbs

When they switched the TV to digital in the early 2000's we then had "broadband" (256kbs) through a Pace 4000 STB the speeds steadily increased until the STB got bricked by a sw upgrade. Then switched to a Samsung STB and a separate Ambit 255 modem. IIRC the speed then was about 4mbs

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We became cable customers in 2000 and originally l think we were with Eurobell to start off with which very quickly became Telewest.

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Started as Comtel customers back in the early 90s.

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Same here then NTL then Virgin

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Does anybody remember the 1980's and Rediffusion?.

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Only to the extent that when we went house hunting for our first home, lots of the places we saw still had the cable terminals and one or two still had the wall-mounted channel selection dial :D

(Edit) I believe the New Towns were actually served by British Relay Television but they were around at the same time as Rediffusion and did basically the same thing as the Rediffusion Cable service.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

If l rightly remember the wall-mounted selection dial was something like this.:D

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Ah right, thank you for clarifying the sequence of providers. I remember the first few weeks of suddenly having 10 times more TV channels than we were used to, didn't know what to watch next. :D

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

According to VM it's been 25 years for me - Nynex to start and then Cable & Wireless, as the phone service was massively cheaper than BT at the time.
Shame that C&W died, as they had a very rich history.

Broadband came later with NTL. That was mindblowing, pictures no-longer loading line by line over dial-up. I'd never been so excited!

Still got the different phone sockets and coax faceplates dotted around the house - Nice bit of history!

Tom

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

My Niece was PA to 5 directors at C&W, loved her job, got made redundant when they folded.

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Around 2002 when VM took over NTL cable network. I remember getting excited that our connection was more than 1Mb.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Since 2002 with ntl, then Virgin although probably not much longer. Last year they matched a £52 quote I got from Sky but not this year so my price I’d due to increase to £75, think I might give Sky a try

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Been with Diamond Cable for 24 years this year for phone and signed up for BB 20 years ago this year. The only tier at the time was 512k with a Terayon TJ210 for £25/month.

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Join with Comtel in 1997. Got somebody I know at Comtel to get me an install as soon as my address appeared on their system.

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Back when this forum began, it was always part of offering advice to find out whether the poster was in an ‘original NTL’ or ‘ex-C&W’ area before proceeding. It’s all a hazy memory now but I think the diagnostic tool was to ask what colour the EPG graphics were. :D

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I think it was early 1990 as I have an NTL email,

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Some time in the 90's when i started working for them and still work for them now and yes still have BB Tv and Phone from them

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Yeah, that's correct. NTL was purple, C&W was blue.

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We got Ntl the day it launched in our area in 1998, I remember the guy coming round to sell it, we had just got Sky Digital so he said pit the cable TV box in the bedroom.
I remember the preview channels and that The Box music channel was different to the Sky version, different phone number and video played on TV.
I remember our first modem 500mb with flashing green lights, we felt so modern. Ditched Sky, and then Virgin TV but now back with Virgin TV.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Not at home but in early 90's was working for a hospital in central London and we go on with the university IT bods so had 100Mb SuperJANET to our desks. Boy was Compuserver and other proper networked services quick.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

was a customer of NTL / VM from 2004 till 2019 now customer of Liberty Global so still in some ways VM :) might not be for much longer as here the prices are a bit higher for a worse service.

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Think the first (TV) box I had back with NTL was a Pace - Worked a treat, but I know for a fact that the cards were easy to acquirefor those...
That was quite prevalent at the time, I think!

I think the old Nynex/C&W parts of the network had a bit of a bad reputation didn't they? - Bad infrastructure etc...

Tom

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Many moons ago , When ever ntl came to Cardiff. that was around the time of acorn computers so remember the noise!

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Same although, it was Nynex>Cable & Wireless>ntl>Virgin Media. Initially had the 512Kbps package for £25 per month. At the time this was a bargain with unmetered access dialup companies going out of business fast.

Who remembers the EzeSurf and VisualDepth and RedHotAnt days of 0800 access and busy phonelines, crap and non-existent customer services? :erm:

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

I dont recall any of them, prior to cable I had virgin.net dialup.
Indeed, my virgin net email worked for quite a long while after I left them.

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Nobody had cable broadband pre-2000. .....(apart from trialists)

I think ntl "trialed" it in Surrey in 1999 but didn't roll it out properly until 2000/2001 and Telewest was around March 2000.

Both companies launched with a blisteringly fast 512Kb product.

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Haha yes I remember this when I was asking for help as a teenager at my mums. Also got lots of other advice for building pcs etc.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Simply not true, as I already posted, I had mine installed in June 1999.

Diamond were already supplying it in Nottingham long before me, our area was one of the last to be done.

We were not all "trialists". The speed was 512k but quickly changed to 600k.

Diamond Cable actually ceased to exist (became NTL) about the same time.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

I signed up for cable as soon as Omne Communications laid the network in 2001.
They were then taken over by WightCable North, then Smallworld Media/Cable/Fibre before being bought by Virgin Media in 2014.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

I would say 1991/2, Cambridge cable put cable TV in our area, and we had 3 scientific Atlanta boxes and bought out modem a Trayon terajet (IIRC) to save on a monthly fee

I reckon about 20 years or so Paul.....

We kept getting dropped on dialup,it would just hang up,, I dunno if they did that ON PURPOSE to try and get ppl off dialup but it was a pain.......

Cable BB is def much faster and usually reliable!!

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Did all my searches and decided to go with TalkTalk and order duly placed. Today I get a phone call from VM retentions team prompted by TalkTalk asking to take over the phone number.

Offered me Broadband speed increase to 200Mbps & top TV package for £6 a month less than I’m paying now so naturally I’m staying. Why do we have to go through this rigmarole?

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Please stick to the topic. :)

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I remember at my parents house in early 2000s having a scientific Atlanta modem with about 5 green flashing lights. Can’t remember the speed. Maybe 512Kb to start. Might have still been under cable & wireless. Pretty sure wasn’t while still bell cablemedia. Had VM broadband on and off for about half of the 14 years I’ve had my own house. Started at 20Mb now on 600Mb.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Don't remember if it was cable Tel or NTL but it was definitely 128. After years of 28.8 on dial up. It's right up their with getting my first 64mb USB pen drive.

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

been cable tv since 1990 with blueyonder bb (2 telephone lines) since 1990 then got the 1mb service when it came out cant remember the year

We have had cable TV since the late 70s I think.......

Channels 2-36 of beautiful analogue programming!!! (GOOD Cartoons every day,etc)

Now we have channels 1-1999+ with mostly nothing but trash,its really sad!!

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

NTSC: Never The Same Colour. :D

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Now, back in the mists of forum history we had an American member called Jerrek who had a really hard time believing that anything in America might not be the best thing in the world. There was once a protracted thread on here in which he still refused to believe NTSC was an inferior colour system, even after a shed-load of technical data was posted, comparing its specs with PAL and SECAM. The revelation that most of the world’s broadcast engineers had a disrespectful backronym for NTSC drove him absolutely potty. :D

He also used to like posting photos of his gun collection :erm:

Re: How long have you had cable BB
 

Can't remember exactly, but I think I've had Cable sable about 1995 or 6. Had ADSL for a couple of years (Be broadband, who were excellent, IMO). Switched to Virgin BB in about 2001, Have been on whatever the highest speed I can get ever since. I've had the odd problem, and sworn at Virgin more than once, but it's generally been reliable.

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Signed up with NTL world mid 90's. 512kbs! Been with them ever since. Only ever had one major problem when there was a 24hr period where the speed was barely dial up speed.

Ah man!!

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I signed up with Telewest as it was then in 1997. I have been very happy with the service.

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Was on dial up back in the late 90's and then a rep told us it would be the future to upgrade to Broadband. Went ahead with this and it was slightly better as we had an always on connection but 128k wasnt exactly broadband speeds!


Once Virgin took over finally started to see speed increases.