Originally Posted by m419
There are a number of steps of reducing costs.
Sharing ducts with BT,Electricity companies or even sewers and underground waterways.
Cabling areas without Telephone infrustructures
Overhead Cabling
Another way is to get assistance from local authorities, as the digital switchover is coming,local authorities want people to have access to a decent range of resources, therefore it could work out like a part privatised scheme.
Other ways is to charge approximately £100 per customer per new installation, but this is not very attractive, otherways is making people sign up for contracts lasting a lot longer than 12,18 or 24 months, why not 36 or 72 months, that way churning is low and even when customers are halfway through there contracts, there is always new customers joining,so there is always money coming in.
There is an independent Cable company called Smallworld Media which operates in the North West of England and parts of Scotland and it covers approximately 48,000 potential homes, it does not currently offer On Demand but does offer cheaper Cable Broadband than Virgin Media, maybe its worth Virgin Media acquiring that to cover that big black spot.
Other areas to look at are:
City of London
Barbican (Sandwiched in between Islington and City of London)
City of Westminster (Particularly the North of the Borough and around Mayfair and Pimlico.
Aberdeen
Inverness????
Clacton-On-Sea/Harwich
Margate???
South West of England
Kingston-upon-Hull???
Then there are Digital blackspots in cities such as:
Southampton
Slough
Leicester
Bolton
Some parts of Hammersmith&Fulham
I have not included Westminster and Milton Keynes because they are completely Analogue.
It is possible for Westminster and Milton Keynes to be upgraded as back in 1993, BT sold all of its cable operations except Westminster and Milton Keynes. Barbican I think became Telewest/Cable London. BT intended on keeping those to areas to trial out new products and services such as Video on Demand,HD and other Digital TV services. Because a small part of Westminster wasn't cabled and because they then bought shares in BskyB, they had to get rid of it and as usual NTL took over it in 2000, then from 2002,everything came to a standstill and channels started disappearing bit by bit, There is a need for these two franchises but is proving very expensive for Virgin Media to upgrade, BT is the main cause and Westminster City Council is another. BT charges heavily for the use of the cable network. NTL rolled out broadband to some parts of Westminster in 2003, whatever has become of this, I'm not sure.
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