Cable Forum - View Single Post - Why Does Everyone Think Virgin Are Rubbish ?

m419 · 19-06-2008, 19:59

Yeah Telewest was really good during between 2005 and 2006, I mean they introduced:

First company to abolish National call rates between 01 an 02 numbers(1999)

Talk weekends: Unlimited weekend calls-2005

Talk Anywhere: Call anywhere at anytime for one simple rate.-2006

Teleport(On demand): Catch up tv ect.....-2005

And they were much faster at upgrading to digital, some whole franchises of NTL are still analogue and thats worrying!

And where you say it was delayed because of the intergrating of other cable companies is rubbish because Telewest went through the same thing but still managed to upgrade its areas.

Telewest franchises consist of:

Cable London 50% Telewest owned till 1999
Yorkshire Cable
Birmingham Cable 50% Telewest owned till 1999
United Artists Telewest orginal franchise
Cable Corp
Eurobell South West
Eurobell South East
General Cable

NTL franchises consist of:

Nynex and Videotron (Same systems)
Bell Cable/Videotron (Same systems depending on area)
Diamond Cable
Cable Tel (NTL original area)
Comtel
CableCom
BT (Still owned by BT and is up to BT to upgrade)
Encom
Telecential
East Coast Cable

Virgin Media have missed a bit!

SMALLWORLD MEDIA!

It covers Southern Glasgow,Carisle,Morecombe,Lancaster and other parts of far northern England and Southern Scotland.

It passes around 50,000 properties excl large businesses. It used to be called OMNE and Wight Cable North but has had a big rebrand. Its network is 100% digital and this should be worth snapping up now. It will also make Glasgow wholly covered by Virgin Media too.

They might as well become part of Virgin Media, because Virgin Media's marketing budget is much higher and also aim and have the ability to serve businesses.

Back to the subject now:

NTL wasn't really the one that under invested in the cable franchises, it was the previous owners.

Cable and Wireless communications was incorporated in 1997 and was owned by Videotron,BellAtlantic,Nynex and Cable and Wireless(Mercury). They all owned 25% of it and thought by using one name would give it a stronger national presence. They waited till 1999 to begin work on upgrading, they spent very little money on the Cable franchises as they didn't know which way to turn, in 1999, they also talked about acquiring Telewest if NTL didn't buy CWC. In fact probably the worst franchise was Videotron, Videotron covered London and some of it I think is still analogue only, when we used to live in a Videotron area, the service kept going down and thought it was a complete shambols to be honest!

Then we have the BT franchises, these date back to the 1970's and where introduced by publicly owned BT and publicly owned Cable and Wireless, they were to combat the problems with bad TV reception after BT and Cable and Wireless was privatised, Cable and Wireless no longer had direct responsibilities with residential users and focused on Mercury and international telecoms. The franchises became commercialised espcecially after when Rediffusion collapsed and started showing more than just basic BBC and ITV channels. So in the 1980's there was only a few cable companies which were BT,Rediffusion and United Artists.

BT spent little money on these franchises and was forced to stop selling pay tv services by certain authorities in the UK and EU. NTL have leased them since 1999.

19-06-2008, 19:59	#41
m419 Inactive Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: London Services: BT Broadband,BT Anytime calls,Sky entertainment extra HD,Vodafone pay monthly Posts: 1,512	Re: Why Does Every One Think Virgin Are Rubbish ? Yeah Telewest was really good during between 2005 and 2006, I mean they introduced: First company to abolish National call rates between 01 an 02 numbers(1999) Talk weekends: Unlimited weekend calls-2005 Talk Anywhere: Call anywhere at anytime for one simple rate.-2006 Teleport(On demand): Catch up tv ect.....-2005 And they were much faster at upgrading to digital, some whole franchises of NTL are still analogue and thats worrying! And where you say it was delayed because of the intergrating of other cable companies is rubbish because Telewest went through the same thing but still managed to upgrade its areas. Telewest franchises consist of: Cable London 50% Telewest owned till 1999 Yorkshire Cable Birmingham Cable 50% Telewest owned till 1999 United Artists Telewest orginal franchise Cable Corp Eurobell South West Eurobell South East General Cable NTL franchises consist of: Nynex and Videotron (Same systems) Bell Cable/Videotron (Same systems depending on area) Diamond Cable Cable Tel (NTL original area) Comtel CableCom BT (Still owned by BT and is up to BT to upgrade) Encom Telecential East Coast Cable Virgin Media have missed a bit! SMALLWORLD MEDIA! It covers Southern Glasgow,Carisle,Morecombe,Lancaster and other parts of far northern England and Southern Scotland. It passes around 50,000 properties excl large businesses. It used to be called OMNE and Wight Cable North but has had a big rebrand. Its network is 100% digital and this should be worth snapping up now. It will also make Glasgow wholly covered by Virgin Media too. They might as well become part of Virgin Media, because Virgin Media's marketing budget is much higher and also aim and have the ability to serve businesses. Back to the subject now: NTL wasn't really the one that under invested in the cable franchises, it was the previous owners. Cable and Wireless communications was incorporated in 1997 and was owned by Videotron,BellAtlantic,Nynex and Cable and Wireless(Mercury). They all owned 25% of it and thought by using one name would give it a stronger national presence. They waited till 1999 to begin work on upgrading, they spent very little money on the Cable franchises as they didn't know which way to turn, in 1999, they also talked about acquiring Telewest if NTL didn't buy CWC. In fact probably the worst franchise was Videotron, Videotron covered London and some of it I think is still analogue only, when we used to live in a Videotron area, the service kept going down and thought it was a complete shambols to be honest! Then we have the BT franchises, these date back to the 1970's and where introduced by publicly owned BT and publicly owned Cable and Wireless, they were to combat the problems with bad TV reception after BT and Cable and Wireless was privatised, Cable and Wireless no longer had direct responsibilities with residential users and focused on Mercury and international telecoms. The franchises became commercialised espcecially after when Rediffusion collapsed and started showing more than just basic BBC and ITV channels. So in the 1980's there was only a few cable companies which were BT,Rediffusion and United Artists. BT spent little money on these franchises and was forced to stop selling pay tv services by certain authorities in the UK and EU. NTL have leased them since 1999.