The future of analogue only sites?

lsproc · 03-05-2009, 20:52

I have a friend who conveniently lives on a cabled area which has been switched off as it was analogue only (Leicester headend IIRC).

Anyone know what the future of such areas are? At a guess there is capacity issues at the moment, but when the 50mb rollout is done in the area and people move onto new platforms there would probs be the capacity to take more people on - I don't see why Virgin wouldn't want more customers if the cable is already there?

Anyone know?

Toto · 03-05-2009, 20:56

I don't know the answer, but having cable in an area is one this - getting it networked to various properties, and realizing profit from that is another.

KingDaveRa · 03-05-2009, 23:37

AFAIK, the reason those places didn't get converted was because they simply couldn't, due to incompatible infrastructure - i.e. the bits of coax under the road. I recall something about it being the wrong impedance, taps and splitters not being right, etc. To make it right would necessitate pulling up all that infrastructure, and pulling all new cabling. Yes the ducting is all there, but it'll cost more money than VM would want to spend, hence it doesn't happen. Milton Keynes is stuck on bits of old wet string still, and probably always will be unless BT or VM decide to cough up the money to replace it.

That's the gist I'd always got anyway. So don't go quoting me on it!

Ignitionnet · 04-05-2009, 10:05

Contemplating how to answer this without having to do a total explanation of HFC as it's not a capacity issue in the manner that a broadband rollout would resolve it.

1) The network won't be able to carry high enough frequencies for digital.
2) The network won't have a reliable upstream path from customers back to Virgin for interactive services.
3) The cost and inconvenience of switching over all STBs for digital makes a switch over without network work not viable.

To upgrade the network will require extensive amounts of equipment both in street cabinets and in head end / hub site. The network may have no optics and be all coax and regardless it will need new fibre pulling and will need new nodes building for performance reasons. The amplifiers and diplex filters in the street cabinets will need replacing. Bits of cable in the network, especially closer to customers, may not be of good enough quality to carry the full range of frequencies and need repull.

It's a heck of a lot of work and the money men just may have decided it wasn't viable.

The future of at least some of these areas is the off switch.

lsproc · 04-05-2009, 10:14

So basically something that would probs be not worth the time and money at the moment (maybe one day when they are debt free

)

Ill pass that on, thanks!

Ignitionnet · 04-05-2009, 10:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsproc

So basically something that would probs be not worth the time and money at the moment (maybe one day when they are debt free

)

Ill pass that on, thanks!

No, not a matter of 'when they are debt free' I'm afraid. All TV must be digital by 2012 so if it's not done by then it won't be. Maybe in the massively distant future when VM have cash and are doing RFoG it may get some love

lsproc · 04-05-2009, 10:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

No, not a matter of 'when they are debt free' I'm afraid. All TV must be digital by 2012 so if it's not done by then it won't be. Maybe in the massively distant future when VM have cash and are doing RFoG it may get some love

Hehe, thanks broadbandings!

chuzzlemonkey · 04-05-2009, 10:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by lsproc

(maybe one day when they are debt free

)

lol that's just never going to happen!

BenMcr · 04-05-2009, 11:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

All TV must be digital by 2012

Not strictly true

All Terrestrial TV will be Digital by 2012 - but Virgin don't have to follow suit (although they probably will)

They can take DTT or Digital Satellite feeds and convert them into Analogue for the cable network.

I think they already do this for some areas in the South West where some of the analogue terrestrial signals have gone

Ignitionnet · 04-05-2009, 12:27

I stand duly corrected!

VM are trying to be rid of all the analogue headends as soon as possible, they are very expensive to run, use very hard to replace equipment, and overall are just not nice. A number have already been shut down.