VM to begin expanding its cable network

[Andrewcrawford23]

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.

ofcom would support hull to get competition maybe help finscne it from 50p tax

aberdeen needs completely relasud but ducts are there but virgin need to be debt free before expanding like tast or someonbe help fiujnance it

[Turkey Machine]

Add Lowestoft to that list. We've not got it despite Gorleston 6 miles up the road having it. Disgraceful that nothing's been done. VM could get loads of customers with the ducting in the right places as the town sprawls over several miles and many places are too far from the exchange to get half-decent speeds.

[Airwaves]

It's a shame selected spots were missed in towns that are otherwise covered rather heavily. I have been informed I have fibre running down the main road right near me but it's a link to two cable networks, one serving the main town and the other 5 minutes up the road leaving us out in the middle. Whether we will ever see cable remains to be seen, probably not.

But in any event, it would make more sense to finish off streets that were missed in those areas rather than starting a fresh somewhere else.

[Steve Bruce]

Incidently, I would pay £100 for installation if I had the chance to get rid of ADSL.

I know a few that would pay this fee. Although some people who are non the wiser probably wouldn't find this attractive.

[Sephiroth]

Surely as BT roll out FTTC the question of VM not being present goes away.

[shadabuth]

anybody know if east london specifically e1 is being upgraded to digital please let me know if anybody knows anything

[tiswas79]

Hi
Does anybody have any idea if Virgin are expanding around the Burton on Trent or Uttoxeter area? I saw what I thought was a Virgin Media works sign at the side of the road (B5017) at the weekend but when I looked into it the location appeared to be in the middle of a black spot so either I'd had too much to drink or Virgin are filling in a huge black spot between Leicester, Derby, Stafford and Lichfield. This is where I saw the sign http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=52.829943,-1.755795&spn=0.018902,0.037208&z=15

[jungleguy]

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.

I've not read the whole of this thread, but I should point out that cabling a whole town will be determined by how close the town is to the fiber main frame, for example there is fibre running from Ipswich to Cambridge, running past Bury St Edmunds, this means that Bury St E, could be easily cabled, Unfortunately Clacton is about 20 miles from the fiber network (Colchester being the closest) so would probably not be deemed profitable.

These are factors that determine what towns get cabled. They have also used the canal network as a cheap way of expanding the fiber network.

[Pierre]

Fibre isn't the issue, there's fibre to most large'ish towns. If VM don't have it themselves they can lease it from other operators.

The real cost is the dig to the door.

There are various trials by various companies/ consortiums to provide fast broadband across areas that don't currently have it.

Virgin and Vtesse are undertaking a project in Cornwall

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/corn...l/article.html

Kingston and Thales are undertaing a project in South Yorkshire

http://www.thalesgroup.com/Press_Rel...l_Launch_SYDR/

And GEO are undertaking a project in North Wales under the guise of FibreSpeed

http://www.fibrespeed.co.uk/en/

Although I think fibre speed is business proposition only at the moment.

In regards to Hull as per the post above, they are served by Kingston and have their own DTV and broadband offerring, as is other parts of Lincolnshire.

Also I don't see any compelling reason for VM to buy Smallworld.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by jungleguy

These are factors that determine what towns get cabled. They have also used the canal network as a cheap way of expanding the fiber network.

British Waterways may have some input as to the 'cheap' way of expanding the fibre network using their canal network.

Would make more sense to lease the fibre that's already there, originally owned by Ipsaris who made the deal with British Waterways, then Easynet, now BSkyB.

[barbaricworm]

well just had vm install my 10 meg what times do the speeds norm slow down at as @ 5pm i was downloading at over 1 meg and now its downloading at 300k

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Broadbandings

originally owned by Ipsaris who made the deal with British Waterways, then Easynet, now BSkyB.

And before Ipsaris it called "Fibreway" - back in the good old days when there were about dozen or so other national carriers.

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by barbaricworm

well just had vm install my 10 meg what times do the speeds norm slow down at as @ 5pm i was downloading at over 1 meg and now its downloading at 300k

You might have hit the throttle threshold (try saying that!).

In any case, 17:00 is the watershed hour when performance usually dives anyway.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Pierre

And before Ipsaris it called "Fibreway" - back in the good old days when there were about dozen or so other national carriers.

Ah yes forgot about them. I obviously wasn't paying attention for the 'history of the network' bit of my initiation those years ago

[Airwaves]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth

Surely as BT roll out FTTC the question of VM not being present goes away.

The question is though, will the fibre/cabinet setup being laid by BT be similar in setup to VM's. Can they just use it or will the way the services are delivered have to be altered in some way?