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Originally Posted by Pierre
Technically speaking there are no original ntl areas as ntl was not a cable tv provider.
As mentioned earlier the closest to original ntl is cabletel.
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I have been slated and accused of misleading people when putting that point straight in the past!
Cabletel were a tin-pot operation that stemmed from Ocom communications, they bought a couple of existing franchise areas that had been owned by Rediffusion/Maxwell/Metro Cable TV in Guildford and Cardiff, they had a very bad reputation in the early days and many of the employees left a lot to be desired as they were ones that Rediffusion/Maxwell and Metro had already got rid of. I worked for a company that was taken over by them and shortly after they bought NTL and used the name because it was better known in the business community.
The original ntl Broadcast and Radio employees were generally not very impressed with the bunch of amateur cowboys that had taken them over. Cabletel management changed contracts of employments and tried lots of tricks to get them to loose their benefits that stemmed from their government owned days.
I wonder if any of the original ntl employees have changed their minds and think the treatment of employees has improved?
I suppose we could really say that Rediffusion/British Cable Services/ British CableTV/Maxwell CableTV/Metro Cable TV were the original operators, only they never actually built anything on a large scale.