North Wales cable franchise

Originally Posted by m419

In 1994, Videotron wanted to cable Westminster,they couldn't because Westminster Cable TV owned by BT already had a licence, therefore they could only build a telephone network and was planned to provide IPTV and broadband.

I once heard that in North Wales somewhere, someone took over the local Rediffusion network there and started to provide there own Analogue tv service, this went on through the 90's and I think it closed not long ago

nynex is good..
cable & wireless is rubbish..
ntl..lost intrest..
united artists was excellent..
telewest total rubbish..
eurobell lost intrest straight away..

[MrIca]

Originally Posted by Escapee

In my town (Pontypool) there are manhole covers with CATV on them but we have no CATV network, I believe these are manholes containing the CCTV system.

Interesting, but in my example it is in the middle of a housing estate and I've not seen any cameras so that seems unlikely. Also the cabinets are the exact same ones used in the ex-Nynex areas such as Wirral and Wigan for example. In those areas they are of course now used to deliver Virgin Media.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by paulsouth

nynex is good..
cable & wireless is rubbish..
ntl..lost intrest..
united artists was excellent..
telewest total rubbish..
eurobell lost intrest straight away..

What about Virgin Media?

[m419]

Originally Posted by paulsouth

nynex is good..
cable & wireless is rubbish..
ntl..lost intrest..
united artists was excellent..
telewest total rubbish..
eurobell lost intrest straight away..

Really?

Telewest, did upgrade every franchise to Digital except for a few blackspot towns within those franchises and also had excellent customer services. And also made good use of Flextech and it TV content.

When we lived up north and had Nynex as I rightly remember, the service was dire, could have been because it was new, teething problems? Also you will find many streets with Nynex Cable Cabinets and manhole covers but the streets are not cabled.

Down here in London a big chunk of the former Bell Cable Media network covering Isle of Dogs orginally Encom, then taken over by Bell Cable Media and then of course Cable and Wireless, was neglected by both Bell Cable Media and Cable and Wireless for several years to the point where it was no longer possible to provide a fault free service.

Eurobell, a division of Deutsche Telekom, the owners or should I say the part owners of T-Mobile in the UK, probably lost interest because they were a newly part privatised company in Germany and were exploring different markets and probably lost more through Eurobell than it actually gained,also Deutsche Telekom were probably trying to focus on One2one rather than a failing cable company which needed a lot of investment in Broadband and Digital TV,neither Eurobell South East or South West franchises were broadband or Digital TV enabled when Telewest took them over, Telewest acquired Eurobell for £282 Million in November 2000, the Eurobell phone boxes were removed in 2001, some sites I believe were sold to Infolines(Interphone).

Cable and Wireless, didn't stay in the business long enough to have made an impact, the began providing Digital TV, they offered great value for money Telephone services, they didn't get there own way with buying out Telewest in 1999/2000 so they gave up and decided to sell up. Although, they wanted rid of quite a few businesses, all that off-loading of businesses like the cable franchises,One2One,Optus and I think it owned Hong Telecom, has done the company no good, it can't compete very well against competitors anymore, how can it when it has nothing to compete with? Around 2005 it gave away far too many customers to focus on a small bunch very large businesses like Tesco, this has now left the company in very bad way especially now that the company has been split, that was the reason why they acquired Thus, to patch up there mistakes of disposing of customers and selling there products at low prices to win customers back.

Cable and Wireless has Verizon to compete which is able to offer Fibre to the premises Internet,low cost voice products including IP telephone services. Verizon are also able to offer businesses Fios which is there IPTV television service, something that Cable and Wireless once planned but never actually got round to doing. Verizon is also able to offer mobile phone services through there part owner Vodafone. Cable and Wireless and Thus have to spend a lot of money leasing a UK mobile network as well as invest a lot of money installing cells inside the organisations it operates in, that means a lot is going out but little coming in.

BT is also a challenge for Cable and Wireless, as they have a wider coverage of the UK as well as coverage of other countries, BT is able to gain custom through its popularity alone, the Cable and Wireless name and brand has become damaged, BT also offer a full range of mobile phone services and wirefree communication including Wifi for businesses across the UK, something that Cable and Wireless is lacking in.

Virgin Media also has a wider coverage across the UK, covering residential areas as well as business districts and town centres, they are also able to offer speeds of up to 100mb and as much bandwith the business requires according to Virgin Media Business's advertising campaign when NTL Telewest Business was rebranded. Another reason is popularity of the brand, when you think of Virgin now,you don't think about Cola,Music and Retail stores anymore, you think of superfast and high speed broadband and Telephone services, that is another reason why the group decided to extend the brand to its business division.

There are some brands which do not have to depend on advertising,brands which have been around for a very long time and which have gained popularity because of its past and long history of providing good service, brands such as these:

BT
Virgin
British Gas
Persil
Coca-Cola
Marmite
Fairy
Hovis
118118
Sky

Those are an example, that if they stopped advertising, they probably won't see sales drop as much, because people know they are there but its just a matter of ringing directory enquiries or googling them to obtain services from them.

When you move in a house, the first thing, you think about when setting up the gas, is British Gas. When you think about pay-tv or a bundle, you think about BT,Virgin or Sky.

Cable and Wireless lacks that 'good image' something that Mercury and former Cable and Wireless did have.

---------- Post added at 16:56 ---------- Previous post was at 16:47 ----------

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

What about Virgin Media?

NTL with the Virgin name?

The bit where it got shut of Virgin Media Television(the content division) and UKTV,more offshore call centres as well as over enthusiasm like saying they will do this,that and the other when they know they can't is something NTL would do. Also trying to take on ITV and get a share in it was also something that NTL started and came to an abrupt end.

There have been past partnerships before like the ITN news channel which was owned between NTL and ITV. Which also failed.

And that annoying moment when Virgin Media withdraws channels over carriage disagreements like the Sky basic channels,Zing,Channel 7 and MTV+1,MTV Classics,MTV Shows,Flaunt,Flava,Vault ect.... Actually that is more of a Telewest thing as it happened a few times.

[Alan Fry]

C&W sold these following businesses:

Hong Kong Telecom (sold to PCCW)

Optus (sold to Singapore Telecom)

One2One (sold to Deusche Telekom)

PCCW is owned by CK Holdings (owner of 3)

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

C&W sold these following businesses:

Hong Kong Telecom (sold to PCCW)

Optus (sold to Singapore Telecom)

One2One (sold to Deusche Telekom)

PCCW is owned by CK Holdings (owner of 3)

We know that!

However Cable and Wireless was clever enough at the time to ensure that it was still supplier of Emergency services,operator assistance and I think the physical network transmission for One2one, same with Optus but it's probably all changed now, especially with T-Mobile now that it is Everything Everywhere, as of 2010, Cable and Wireless Worldwide was still providing Emergency services and International operator assistance for T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers as well Virgin Media cable lines

3 is owned by Hutchison Whampoa, that is why it is called Hutchison 3G.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by AMErIca

In Saltney, North Wales there's definitely some cable TV infrastructure. Here's a cabinet:

http://www.google.co.uk/maps?q=chest...49.13,,0,20.06

Along the main road from Chester there are CATV manholes. In fact they begin at the big roundabout near Handbridge in Chester itself.

Chester city council put to many restrictions on Nynex when they wanted to build there network in chester.

Demanding archaeologists on site in case of any finds during the dig and they were to be with every civils team. Ornamental Victorian looking cable boxes were demanded for certain areas. Because of this they backed out of it. They had even built the exchange for Chester at this point and then removed it again.

Given Chester's important history as a Roman city, the requirement for an archaeologist to be involved whenever the ground is dug up is pretty standard.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

We know that!

However Cable and Wireless was clever enough at the time to ensure that it was still supplier of Emergency services,operator assistance and I think the physical network transmission for One2one, same with Optus but it's probably all changed now, especially with T-Mobile now that it is Everything Everywhere, as of 2010, Cable and Wireless Worldwide was still providing Emergency services and International operator assistance for T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile customers as well Virgin Media cable lines

3 is owned by Hutchison Whampoa, that is why it is called Hutchison 3G.

And Hutchison Whampoa (like PCCW) is owned by CK Holdings (which is owned by Li Ka-shing, the 11th richest person in the world)

The trouble with C&W (now C&W Worldwide) is that they sold the best bits of their business, now with the sale ofm their overseas assets, they do not have much left!

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

And Hutchison Whampoa (like PCCW) is owned by CK Holdings (which is owned by Li Ka-shing, the 11th richest person in the world)

The trouble with C&W (now C&W Worldwide) is that they sold the best bits of their business, now with the sale ofm their overseas assets, they do not have much left!

But if they didn't sell them off, they would have gone under. One2one, it only owned 50% of, they would have had to buy the remaining 50% from US West and then splash more money into the company as it needed a lot more investment especially on network coverage, then it would have had to bid for a 3G licence which was a lot of money at the time.

This could have been done, by selling off its Cable franchises and selling 1 of its international companies and then using the money on One2one.

Mercury Paging was sold off a few years before that and became PageOne communications and is still going today, so if you have a minicall pager somewhere, it may still work.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

And Hutchison Whampoa (like PCCW) is owned by CK Holdings (which is owned by Li Ka-shing, the 11th richest person in the world)

The trouble with C&W (now C&W Worldwide) is that they sold the best bits of their business, now with the sale ofm their overseas assets, they do not have much left!

So why the hell would VM want anything to do with them.

---------- Post added at 19:44 ---------- Previous post was at 19:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Chris

Given Chester's important history as a Roman city, the requirement for an archaeologist to be involved whenever the ground is dug up is pretty standard.

the problem was they expected Nynex to pay for the archaeologists time.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Sirius

So why the hell would VM want anything to do with them.

Because C&W Worldwide have is a Large Telecom provider to business and they own a LLU Network!

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Because C&W Worldwide have is a Large Telecom provider to business and they own a LLU Network!

Like I explained to you before, if Virgin Media and Cable and Wireless Worldwide merged, they would still remain as seperate entities but use each others networks to provide a full range of services, you just cannot get rid of Cable and Wireless and its brand, its probably older than BT and is an iconic brand.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Because C&W Worldwide have is a Large Telecom provider to business and they own a LLU Network!

Because you are just fantasying you know nothing of what happened the last time C&W had any dealings with a cable company, Those dealing ensured that no one who worked for cable at that time would now want anything to do with C&W.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

Like I explained to you before, if Virgin Media and Cable and Wireless Worldwide merged, they would still remain as seperate entities but use each others networks to provide a full range of services, you just cannot get rid of Cable and Wireless and its brand, its probably older than BT and is an iconic brand.

Yes, but this brand is being used by a seperate company!

A Brand used by other seperate company devalues it!

C&W Communications should have changed it name when it was demerged!