Digital/B.Band not aval!

[philce]

Hi,

I line in Leicester on one of the first roads to be cabled up about 20 years ago.

With out fail we get at least one flyer/mailshot from NTL and now VM offering us all their services.

However when we call to take this up we are told that all we can have is a phone as they need to upgrade the cable!

Does anyone know who to speak to apart from the call center staff who might actually know if and when this magic upgrade will happen?

Or just take us off the mailing lists and leave us alone!

Cheers

Phil

[Paul K]

If the cable that was run needs upgrading you can't do much to be honest, have you asked to speak to a supervisor or asked for an installation supervisor to do a site visit to assess the situation?

[philce]

If the cable that was run needs upgrading you can't do much to be honest, have you asked to speak to a supervisor or asked for an installation supervisor to do a site visit to assess the situation?

To be honest no, the operators on the sales lines arent interested once they know we arent in a servicable area.

I might try that and call them, is there a different number to get through to someone who might listen?

Cheers

[PhilMitch34]

My area is the same!!! The whole of Southampton east is cabled up but can not get dogital/broadband. My street was cabled up back in the early 90's, when NTL installed cable TV at my home in 2000 they installed a brown NTL:Home box and a up to date cable outside in preperation of digital services next year (2001) as the NTL engineer said but it never happened. I dont know why virgin cannot give any answers as to when they are going to up grade southampton east.

[Nedkelly]

They keep saying we are going to upgrade these areas then dont .They have been promising to the parts of Leicester for some time now but nothing has happend .What will happen when we turn the analogue off in these areas.Sorry i thing these areas should be done first before we do anything :mad:

[PhilMitch34]

Southampton west can get all virgin services (as far as I know) but for some reason southampton east cant get any. Yet my parents who live outside of southampton boundry can get all virgin services yet they were cabled up way after my road. I don't know why it such a big secret when virgin are going to up grade the old analogue networks (videotron/cable&wirless). I cant help thinking analogue will get switched off and virgin will chuck you one of their free digiboxs.

[prawncocktail]

there is no big secret when it will happen, nobody knows if it will happen at all, nothing has been firmly decided that is why an answer cannot be given

an estimate can be given but thats what it is, an estimate

the top dog mr burch said last week in a web chat that they want to do it but the funds and time are not there at the moment so who knows... even if you cannot get cable stuff you can get the non-cable broadband, freeview (with expansions on that next year) and from the summer telephone line so imo this appears to be the way things are going

[Nikesh]

They keep saying we are going to upgrade these areas then dont .They have been promising to the parts of Leicester for some time now but nothing has happend .What will happen when we turn the analogue off in these areas.Sorry i thing these areas should be done first before we do anything :mad:

I agree, my relative recently switched to Sky because they lived in an analogue part of Leicester. Virgin Media should really upgrade these areas first as they will lose customers especially when digital switchover happens (I think 2011 for Leicester). At least Virgin Media know they have customers in these areas rather than just cabling new streets where they don't have any customers.

[philce]

I agree, my relative recently switched to Sky because they lived in an analogue part of Leicester. Virgin Media should really upgrade these areas first as they will lose customers especially when digital switchover happens (I think 2011 for Leicester). At least Virgin Media know they have customers in these areas rather than just cabling new streets where they don't have any customers.

On past NTL peformance im not holding my breath. I can see 2011 coming and all they do is to put a freeview box in at the head end and leave the analogue signal on! Who knows what BT will offer over their network by then? Or even wireless?

They clearly dont know where we are, other wise they would not send us all their marketing blurb every few weeks. Some does just come through the door with the post, but some is addressed to the occupier with the address printed.

Do you remember Ionica? They promised a cheap telephone service over wireless, they targeted all the areas that cable had just dug up. So nearly noone signed up, where are they now?

Nice to know Im not the only one not wanting to give anymore money to Murdoch!

[PhilMitch34]

there is no big secret when it will happen, nobody knows if it will happen at all, nothing has been firmly decided that is why an answer cannot be given

an estimate can be given but thats what it is, an estimate

the top dog mr burch said last week in a web chat that they want to do it but the funds and time are not there at the moment so who knows... even if you cannot get cable stuff you can get the non-cable broadband, freeview (with expansions on that next year) and from the summer telephone line so imo this appears to be the way things are going
Yes I thought this might be the case but I thought this new virgin media team wanted to challenge SKY but all they are doing is pushing the likes of people in Southampton east to Sky/BT when they have been customers for a long time!

---------- Post added at 21:46 ---------- Previous post was at 21:43 ----------

On past NTL peformance im not holding my breath. I can see 2011 coming and all they do is to put a freeview box in at the head end and leave the analogue signal on! Who knows what BT will offer over their network by then? Or even wireless?

They clearly dont know where we are, other wise they would not send us all their marketing blurb every few weeks. Some does just come through the door with the post, but some is addressed to the occupier with the address printed.

Do you remember Ionica? They promised a cheap telephone service over wireless, they targeted all the areas that cable had just dug up. So nearly noone signed up, where are they now?

Nice to know Im not the only one not wanting to give anymore money to Murdoch!
All over Southampton east is advertisments for all of virgin media's products but guess what no one can get these services!!!

[chrisdtvuk]

All over Southampton east is advertisments for all of virgin media's products but guess what no one can get these services!!!

Funny that - ad's and huge billboards all over Milton Keynes too (including outside and inside the Virgin Megastore).

Milton Keynes entirely analogue area!

[on in an hour!]

I agree, my relative recently switched to Sky because they lived in an analogue part of Leicester. Virgin Media should really upgrade these areas first as they will lose customers especially when digital switchover happens (I think 2011 for Leicester). At least Virgin Media know they have customers in these areas rather than just cabling new streets where they don't have any customers.
be mindful nikesh,the switch over you mention is the analogue carriers off the t.v. masts.as far as i am aware VM can choose their own timeframe as their network is their own,having said that i think a bit of governmental dept pressure might help the cause as youve really only the 2 choices when VM do leave you high and dry.