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Old 05-10-2009, 16:18   #4
m419
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: London
Services: BT Broadband,BT Anytime calls,Sky entertainment extra HD,Vodafone pay monthly
Posts: 1,512
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Re: Virgin and BT square up to Sky on prices

What Ofcom should do is enforce TV broadcasters to broadcast channels to all platforms.

I heard that when channels make agreements with Sky, they make that channel exclusive to sky for the contract period, that is unfair to the broadcaster and unfair to non-Sky customers.

Some people cannot get Sky and some people hate sky, so get used to that fact News international!

What Virgin need to do is:

Add more HD channels
Get rid of there Westminster franchise its a dead end game!
Upgrade all other Analogue only areas
Introduce new channels direct from Virgin Media Television
Keep there 50% stake in UKTV
Begin the rollout for 100MB broadband
Add more Foreign language channels to compete with satellite providers and stop those stupid dishes going up!
Launch the long awaited IPTV service

Westminster franchise is a dead loss, the whole system needs upgrading and nor BT or Virgin Media have the time or money to do this, its Analogue and most broadcasters no longer want to broadcast in this way, it hardly has any customers and I don't think it has many broadband customers,NTL rolled out Cable broadband in some parts and it hasn't really caught on.

The solution to this is to acquire Tiscali TV from Carphone warehouse as I don't think Carphone intend doing anything with Tiscali TV, Tiscali TV covers Greater London such as areas like Westminster, that will give them head on start.

It is unlikely that Westminster council will give Virgin Media permission to dig up the streets therefore it is doomed!

However, in 1994, Videotron rolled out its cable telephone service to Westminster residents and businesses, Videotron was blocked from building its C.A.T.V network because Westminster already had an allocated Cable company which at the time was Westminster Cable owned by BT. Videotron's orginal intention was to provide IPTV and ADSL services down there own telephone network.

In 1997, Videotron was merged with Nynex,Mercury and Bellcable creating Cable and Wireless Communications, However Cable and Wireless already had its Mercury infrastructure around the borough, and therefore it is likely Cable and Wireless quit adding new business customers onto the Videotron network.

NTL acquired the Videotron side, however when NTL acquired the customer base of BT's C.A.T.V network, BT forbid NTL to offer its telephone service in this area.

I'm interested to know if NTL had to boot off its residential users in 2000. I know that some businesses and public street payphones owned by a non-BT company was using the ex Videotron lines and that was in 2003, so I wonder what has become of it now.

If its still active, I would suggest Virgin Media quit its agreements with BT and stop using the BT Cable network and instead lay cable down the virtually disused telephone networks ducts, this would avoid mass roadworks.

Westminster seriously needs to sort out its digital TV options as Aerials and Dishes must not be seen from street view and there are many tall buildings blocking reception and signals. I would suggest that Westminster City Council work together with BT and Virgin Media at providing Digital TV options.

Another option is to use the BT cable network in Westminster just for Freeview use, as it has to be maintained and managed, I suppose it could be paid for out of tax payers money, say something like 20p per month per household could fund this to BT to keep it maintained and up to date, From then on Users should be able to connect there TV and Freeview box to the Cable TV socket and that way Westminster residents can enjoy Freeview Digital without any hassle and Westminster Council would not need to worry about any extra digging up of its streets.

BT Vision and Tiscali TV could also be used for the freeview and UHF access.
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