[m419]

Right well if its that part of London, you should expect to see some improvement soon. With regards to Videotron telephone service, I think they must of run out of money and then later, when they wanted to continue expanding, the local council must have refused permission, otherwise they probably just ran out of money. A few years later, Videotron,Nynex,Mercury Communications,Bell cable and Cable and Wireless created a new cable company called Cable and Wireless Communications and all these franchises where put into this new company, whilst all these changes were being made, CWC must have forgotten about it completely. That new company and lasted 2 and a half years when it was sold off again to NTL. Usually, when companies are aquired and then sold off and aquired by another company again, services to customers usually decline. So I would suggest contacting NTL's planning team to discuss the telephone situation.


This is what I found on the NTL media site:

New York, New York (July 18 1999)--NTL Incorporated (NASDAQ: NTLI; EASDAQ: NTLI.ED) ntl announces that it has acquired certain broadband cable franchises from British Telecommunications plc (“BTâ⠂¬Â). The franchises are located in Westminster and Milton Keynes and cover a total of approximately 210,000 homes, approximately 189,000 of which are passed by broadband networks. The acquisitions increase ntl’s total franchise homes in the UK and Ireland to more than 5.8 million homes.

ntl expects to invest approximately £15 million pounds to upgrade the networks for digital cable, interactive services and high speed internet access. In addition, ntl will pay BT £5 million on closing and up to £14 million on completion of the upgrade of the Westminster network. Thereafter, ntl will lease the networks from BT on a long term basis for an annual lease payment of approximately £3.9 million.

Westminster is one of the UK’s most prestigious cable franchises, and gives ntl a strategically important presence in the heart of London. The franchise covers approximately 137,000 homes and enables ntl to reach the offices and homes of key people within the UK government and leading businesses. This network will be connected to ntl’s fibre facilities in London. Milton Keynes fills an important geographic area within ntl’s existing cluster of franchises, connecting in the north to our Northampton franchise, in the east to our Bedfordshire franchise and in the south to our Oxford franchise. This franchise covers approximately 74,000 homes, and has achieved 81% customer penetration. In addition to these franchises, ntl will acquire an additional 24,000 homes which are served by narrowband cable systems.

It seems a very expensive process and could see the two franchises closing!