Rediffusion infrastructure

[alestescarrow]

I live in Cardiff, which is an old CableTel heartland.

Where I live particulary there seems to be a fair bit of what I think is former Rediffusion cabling (thick cables slung house-to-house, ocassional cables cross-street chimney-to-chimney, odd cable accross somebody's garden wall etc). Granted a lot of this infrastructure has now been removed, but it surprises me how much of it is left lying around. I noted in a lot of circumstances that the underground cabling undertaken by CableTel in the 90s seems to have used holes/cable clips on houses themselves that would have been used originally by the narrowband network.

I know that the narrowband network passed from Rediffusion/British Cable to Maxwell Communications and Metro Cable TV Ltd in the 80's, and then Metro Cable was aquired by CableTel in the 1995. i.e. both the Rediffusion and 'new' networks were owned by CableTel. It surprises me that despite VM and predecessors owning this network, that so much of it is still up there.

Also, does anybody know what became of Metro Cable? Ironically the above link describes Metro Cable's win of the North Wales/South Cheshire franchise back in 1998, which is where I am from. There are a number of unbuilt franchises I know, just seems odd that is the only documentation I can find about it.

[mersey70]

Originally Posted by alestescarrow

I live in Cardiff, which is an old CableTel heartland.

Where I live particulary there seems to be a fair bit of what I think is former Rediffusion cabling (thick cables slung house-to-house, ocassional cables cross-street chimney-to-chimney, odd cable accross somebody's garden wall etc). Granted a lot of this infrastructure has now been removed, but it surprises me how much of it is left lying around. I noted in a lot of circumstances that the underground cabling undertaken by CableTel in the 90s seems to have used holes/cable clips on houses themselves that would have been used originally by the narrowband network.

I know that the narrowband network passed from Rediffusion/British Cable to Maxwell Communications and Metro Cable TV Ltd in the 80's, and then Metro Cable was aquired by CableTel in the 1995. i.e. both the Rediffusion and 'new' networks were owned by CableTel. It surprises me that despite VM and predecessors owning this network, that so much of it is still up there.

Also, does anybody know what became of Metro Cable? Ironically the above link describes Metro Cable's win of the North Wales/South Cheshire franchise back in 1998, which is where I am from. There are a number of unbuilt franchises I know, just seems odd that is the only documentation I can find about it.

All I know (because I live in an area that was served) that what was known as Rediffusion Cablevision was eventually known as Metro. This would have been (I think) in the very early 90's. It plodded along providing a mix of BSB's channels and then BSkyB's (it only had four streams available). The Rediffusion Cablevision service provided a mix of channel's until BSB's launch but was required by the IBA to carry their channels under a 'must carry' law.

Nynex entered our area (again I think) around 1994 and if I am honest I have no idea when Metro closed it's operations here, it could have been before Nynex started. The cabling and manholes are still widely in place though, all branded as 'Rediffusion' which had piped radio and BBC/ITV around here for decades until it started providing channels like Music Box, ScreenSport and the likes.

[alestescarrow]

Originally Posted by mersey70

All I know (because I live in an area that was served) that what was known as Rediffusion Cablevision was eventually known as Metro. This would have been (I think) in the very early 90's. It plodded along providing a mix of BSB's channels and then BSkyB's (it only had four streams available). The Rediffusion Cablevision service provided a mix of channel's until BSB's launch but was required by the IBA to carry their channels under a 'must carry' law.

Nynex entered our area (again I think) around 1994 and if I am honest I have no idea when Metro closed it's operations here, it could have been before Nynex started. The cabling and manholes are still widely in place though, all branded as 'Rediffusion' which had piped radio and BBC/ITV around here for decades until it started providing channels like Music Box, ScreenSport and the likes.

Thanks, mersey70.
And again in that circumstance... assuming Metro Cable was purchased by Cabletel/NTL/VM, it means VM also owns that old infrastructure in addition to Nynex's. It would have been odd to think of the two services competing... although I guess the narrowband operators saw their death knell when the cable franchises were awarded and knew they couldn't compete. If they'd have bought the narrowband infrastructure from the outset, they could have saved some money on ducts etc.

Still, its a shame in areas where cable TV is no longer available.

As many will know the world's first fibre optic network was installed in Hastings, East Sussex by Rediffusion.

I am trying to find out who owns it, as it is defunct, but the cables and all the underground infrastructure are still intact. Interestingly Hastings does not have Virgin Media, nor any other Fibre network, and is not on BT FTTC plans! They could actually install FTTC through many of the old fibres at very little cost, and at the very least without any overhead installations! It seems that after Granada bought Rediffusion they abandoned the system (incredibly expensive) and then it was sold to Maxwell Communications !!!!
When they went bust everyone seems to have forgotten about the millions invested in Hastings.

Does it now belong to Virgin?