Leicester area - turn off or to digital

[lsproc]

firstly, this might be in the wrong place, sorry if it is.

A friend of mine from Wymeswold is thinking of switching to Virgin Media, but his area is serviced by the Leicester area, which is analogue only currently.

According to Google, these areas will either be turned off, or upgraded to digital. From my understanding, if they are 'turned off', then only ADSL broadband is available.

So as to help him decide whether to switch or not, does anyone know when Leicester will be changed, and will it be upgraded to digital or not?

Cheers.

[AbyssUnderground]

The switch to digital and switching off of analogue affects TV only, not the broadband.

[lsproc]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitalt...witch-off.html

In areas where analogue transmission will be turned off but no digital replacement introduced customers will be offered Virgin's off-network services. They include telephony, DSL broadband and a Virgin-branded digital terrestrial television set-top box.

[Paul K]

Yep DSL BB is part of the offnet package but do you think VM are just going to stop using the Fibre they paid so much to lay? If the digital service is already there I doubt very much it be switched off as it would make no sense. The people living in areas where the analogue tv service is being turned off will simply be offered the VM branded Freeview service as a replacement to the TV service they will lose IMHO.

[AV8TOR]

I live in Leicester, and only get the analogue t.v package.

Recently I have found that just about every time I switch the television on more channels have disappeared from the line up. However trying to find out whats the best thing to do and what exactly Virgin Media intend to do is a different thing entirely.
A phone call to Virgin [Thankfully a UK voice answered] informed me that I could downgrade from my "L" package to their "Basic" package to save £8.50 a month. However when asked what channels were on the "Basic" package compared to my "Large" package the voice listed many that had long since disappeared.

Personally I would avoid the T.V packages in analogue only areas until Virgin Media make some sort of decision 1 way or the other. A recent question on a Virgin usernet support group elicited the following reply:~

"As I understand it we are not currently upgrading any analogue areas to digital. Keep checking on here http://allyours.virginmedia.com/webs...ct.do?id=15157 and if you put your postcode in it will tell you when digital services are available. I would also suggest speaking to Sales regarding this who may have more information with relation to your query. They can be contacted on 08458407777. Hope this helps."

[Stu038]

First off, there is only a relatively small area of Leicester that is ATV only, the first areas that were built by Leicester cable back in 91, primarily Braunston, Glenfield, Western Park etc about 2/3rds of the LE3 post code area. The rest with the exception of areas built in the last few years are digital enabled, around about 190K homes from the approx 250K in the franchises.

The downside for your mate is that Wymeswold has not been cabled and is unlikely to be in the foreseeable future, which throws him firmly back at the off net packages.

[Stuart]

According to an article I read ages ago (and I based http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/...alogue-turnoff upon), virgin *are* planning to upgrade some areas to digital. At the time of writing that article (and now, actually), I have no idea of which areas they will upgrade.

I suspect they are currently in the process of surveying the various networks to see what hardware needs upgrades, and whether it is viable to do so.

[AlexS]

Originally Posted by Stu038

First off, there is only a relatively small area of Leicester that is ATV only, the first areas that were built by Leicester cable back in 91, primarily Braunston, Glenfield, Western Park etc about 2/3rds of the LE3 post code area. The rest with the exception of areas built in the last few years are digital enabled, around about 190K homes from the approx 250K in the franchises.

The downside for your mate is that Wymeswold has not been cabled and is unlikely to be in the foreseeable future, which throws him firmly back at the off net packages.

Until recently, Wymeswold was listed as out-of-area on VM's postcode checker. It's now listed as an analogue area. I've contacted VM and they verified that there was cable in the area. However, the part of my road that I live on is a private road, and they told me the cable stops just before my bit of road. I asked them if they would consider putting a cable down there, seeing as it's around 30m to my house from the cable (of course it would be at a charge). They said they'd get back to me, but never did...

I'm lsproc's friend btw

[Stu038]

Originally Posted by AlexS

Until recently, Wymeswold was listed as out-of-area on VM's postcode checker. It's now listed as an analogue area. I've contacted VM and they verified that there was cable in the area. However, the part of my road that I live on is a private road, and they told me the cable stops just before my bit of road. I asked them if they would consider putting a cable down there, seeing as it's around 30m to my house from the cable (of course it would be at a charge). They said they'd get back to me, but never did...

I'm lsproc's friend btw

Learn somthing new every day.............