Former BTcable franchises (NTL owned)

[chrisdtvuk]

when will former btcable franchises be upgraded by NTL - in particular Milton Keynes. The only tv service i can get here is either ntl master antenna service or ntl analogue cable. (not even a phoneline!) The ofcom site seems to label these as broadband franchises! Also for reference below is a press release stating that NTL would upgrade Milton Keynes and Westminister to digital in 2001 !!!

Release date: 04 May 2000
ref: 20
NTL announces roll-out of its digital cable services and reaffirms imminent CWC Consumer Co closing

May 4, 2000 - NTL has today announced the rollout of its digital cable services. NTL Digital Plus will be marketed from today in NTL’s franchises in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

NTL Digital Plus will combine digital TV and NTL’s unique telephony and Internet services into a single package priced at £13.00 per month - less than the entry level price for Sky Digital or OnDigital when combined with telephony alone.

The digital TV service will continue NTL’s customer-friendly “Choices” channel packaging. NTL’s telephony service is unparalleled, offering local pricing of 3p days, 2p evenings, and 1p weekends nation-wide. ntlworld is the company’s completely free Internet access and interactive service, bringing full web access, e-mail, and tailored services such as home shopping, banking, and education to the PC – all with no access charge and no usage fee for dial-up service. ntlworld is available via the television set for customers without PC’s by renting NTL’s TV-Internet box for an additional £10 per month.

NTL will also launch its exciting new interactive services with full Internet access via digital cable to the television set starting from July. Assuming completion of the CWC acquisition on the expected schedule, CWC digital cable customers will be the first to benefit, followed shortly thereafter in September by all other NTL digital cable customers.

NTL’s interactive and Internet services bring an unmatched breadth and depth of information, education, and entertainment – coupled uniquely with full access to the Web – and available via PCs or the TV. NTL believes its interactive services via digital cable will set it apart from its digital competitors, and is aiming for 300,000 digital customers by the end of 2000.

The service will roll out to the South East, Midlands, Teesside, Cambridge and Oxfordshire during Q2; in Q3 to Andover, Swindon, Stafford/Coventry, Warwick, West Herts, Thames Valley and Northants and to Westminster and Milton Keynes in 2001.

[Neil]

Hi Chris, & to the site.

Take a look at the following threads, but be warned-it's not looking good.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ndon+broadband

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ghlight=london

[chrisdtvuk]

thanks for the welcome and the links! But fortunately I don't live in London. Did you mistype the link?

[legend]

NTL will probably never upgrade Milton Keynes, due to restrictions from MK council and the horrendous costs in the re-cabling. However, it may get wireless broadband, but thats a very big MAY.

Alas there are a quite a few CATV only areas such as milton keynes, ie Martlesham Heath, Barbican etc.

If you want digi TV/tel, I think you will be resigned to BT/Sky

HTH

legend

[chrisdtvuk]

Hi legend. Can't go for sky here - this is Milton Keynes where dishes are banned by deed... you can't even put up a roof aerial! this is why all homes have a analogue catv feed that plugs straight into your telly for terrestrial + a sky one and qvc.... or you can ask ntl for a decoder to be fitted for premium channels.

tv = ntl in Milton keynes!

(if you want just the terrestrial feed it actually costs you!! (2 pounds 77p)

I believe pressure needs to be put on them to upgrade in the same way it happened to ntl in their MMDS franchises in Ireland by the Irish regulator.

Any views?

[legend]

Alright mate

I know it's frustrating, where abouts in MK are you, as I know loads of people with Sky digital! The relay service is £2.77 per month, the top tier CATV pack is £38 for all sports and movies + £50 installation.

Unfortunately the cable is physically incable of anything more than this (ie digital), as it was laid back in about 1970, new bits of the network are still done by BT (ie the TV plates etc) but it's all run by NTL.

I'd double check about the status of having Sky dishes mate, as I have a few mates that live in MK all on Sky Dig, tattenhoe for example.

Let me know
I work in the Luton office btw

legend

[chrisdtvuk]

i'm in woughton park. Just moved and i've been made aware of the law by my solicitor on exchange of contracts...

I'm not aware of any restrictions from MK Council on NTL concerning upgrading to digital... in fact I believe Steven Jewel Head of IT at MK Council is on record for saying the only impediment to ntl upgrading the infrastructure is percieved cost.

Am I right in thinking BT still maintain/repair the network and ntl run the service? If that were true then BT may have a say on whether to green light any upgrade...or not!

[SMHarman]

Why does an upgrade such as this cost so much?

I'm probably being a litlle naive here, but surely all that needs doing if it is the cables is someone buying a few more big rolls of the stuff and pulling it through to each of the houses. Repulls seem to be done in other places on the network, a poster on here got his RG6 replaced with RG11 so his house (and 3 STBs and 1 SACM) could properly be connected to NTL.

What am I missing?

[chrisdtvuk]

yes repulls are routine with existing customers if it would provide a benefit.. why not in the Milton Keynes franchise? I think we should complain to ofcom about this - the franchise licence says broadband catv services - we get nothing of the sort!! I think i read somewhere that the government taxes catv networks according to the type of network - broadband or narrowband. MK is definitley listed as broadband - so the question is this: is NTL benefitting in some way as having the franchise listed for tax purposes as broadband, but in reality keeping it sub-standard?

[kibblerok]

Why would ntl upgrade a network BT own?

Why would BT let ntl upgrade the network with 21CN round the corner?

[James Henry]

Wow way to resurrect an old thread.

Analogue is 'broadband' even if it doesn't fit the idea of 'broadband' as we see it. It is using a wide frequency range to transport the analogue channels.

Second there'd be a lot more to upgrading than just swapping around some cable. You'd also probably need to pull new fibre, replace amplifiers, replace filters, install new headend equipment for digital transmission.

Not sure about who owns the network, however I wouldn't go with what the head of IT has to say about any of it

[chrisdtvuk]

Originally Posted by kibblerok

Why would ntl upgrade a network BT own?

Well, according to an install tech, ntl were ready to go in MK but BT said no at the last minute. I'm told it got to the point where the install team in MK (when it existed) even had all the dig boxes ready to go.

Originally Posted by kibblerok

Why would BT let ntl upgrade the network with 21CN round the corner?

Because 21CN has nothing to do with the catv portion of the network - it is carried on normal coax - not copper telephone lines.

[kibblerok]

Originally Posted by chrisdtvuk

Because 21CN has nothing to do with the catv portion of the network - it is carried on normal coax - not copper telephone lines.

I agree with that, but with BT now dabbling in VOD etc, im not suprised they said no to ntl upgrading

[chrisdtvuk]

Originally Posted by kibblerok

I agree with that, but with BT now dabbling in VOD etc, im not suprised they said no to ntl upgrading

That's interesting because if it's true they said 'no' for their own competitive advantage - then woudn't they be going against the monopolies and mergers commission which specifically told BT to sell their cable tv assets as they had too much market power? Also they'd be breaking their existing agreement with ntl? If this is right, the question is: has/are ntl doing anything about it? See below..
http://www.ntl.com/mediacentre/press/display.asp?id=176