Anyone in Old Windsor SL4 area with actual cable?

[jtcoops]

Hi

I moved to Old Windsor a few months back, and tried to get cable broadband, to be told that SL4 2 post code is not a cable area. However, all the pavements have the tell tale signs of being dug up in the past for cables to be laid, there are green boxes at the side of the road, CATV manhole covers, CATV boxes outside houses, and the brown wall mounted box on houses, like my neighbour's which indicates cable TV exists. My neighbour had cable TV until 4 years ago and switched to Sky plus, but this was in the days that The Cable Corporation ran the local franchise. Cable Corp merged with Telewest, who merged with NTL, who became Virgin.

Therefore, evidence seems to me that cable IS in the area, but apart from knocking on doors of houses that look like they are using cable, I have no proof, and speaking to Virgin Customer services they say its not on their database as being a cable area. They won't do a search of their customer base though to back this up.

I have really rubbish ADSL - we're 4.7km from the local exchange and on aluminium cables, so the quality is rock bottom. I miss my cable modem I used to have at my old house.

Therefore, does anyone live in Old Windsor and have a working cable tv or broadband connection? If so, would you mind giving me some details so I can try again with Virgin to get hooked up?

May sound desperate, but I am (currently get just under 1mb download - and thats when it actually works!)

Cheers
Jeff

[pip08456]

Have you tried checking your postcode here

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/availability/get-address.do

[jtcoops]

yes. It says I am not in a cable area. I disagree for the reasons posted originally.

The Cable Corp became Telewest and NTL followed by Virgin within about 18 months of each other - just makes me wonder if their database wasn't properly updated.

[pip08456]

Some areas of SL4 can get cable eg SL4 2PS returns this

"Cable Services

Good news! It looks like you could be able to get all or some of our fantastic fibre optic services."

Hence me asking if you'd checked your postcode.

You coud try going down this route, don't know if it will help.

http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/availability/spotters-form.do

[jungleguy]

try filling out this form
http://allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/register/spotters-form.do

[jtcoops]

It seems as though SL4 was cut off when the switch to digital happened. Which really amazes me, that a company can go through the bother of digging up miles of pavements, citing hundreds of Green cabinets, and then just abandoning all the kit rather than upgrade it.

Especially in an area with such poor broadband via ADSL - VM could easily sign up the whole of my area as everyone I've spoken to locally seems to have rubbish speeds, constant line drops etc.

I might drop Richard a line and suggest they pull some new fibres through the existing pipes.

[dunc]

i've lived in old windsor all my life and remember very well the excitment of the pavements being dug up for cable!
Unfortunately it seems the infrastructure they put in wasn't up to the job of digital cable so over the years the service has been left to die, although they do maintain it as i've seen them working in boxes even in recent years so somebody must still be on it.
The good news is (and I have it from the horses mouth) that the area is currently finally undergoing the upgrade and Old Windsor should have digital cable within a few months.
There's lots of signs of activity in the surrounding area at the moment.

[weesteev]

SL4 is included in the larger scale West London upgrade where old Analogue network is being upgraded to allow access to all services. Understandably this is an immense project and will take some time but the field sales teams are being very proactive and will be targetting addresses once they are released for sale with all products on the database. You will receive some form of marketing once the work is complete and more than likely you will be notified if any works are being undertaken in your street as well.

All the best and hopefully we can provide you with service soon!

[PeterHooper]

I live in Osborne Road, Windsor opposite the Princess Margaret Hospital, and saw contractors in the Balmoral Gardens cabinet / pavement ducts this morning; they are apparently just laying out new cable ready to start the upgrade in this area.

I gave up on Virgin about 4 years ago when they could not provide me with a Broadband / Phone package (I had Virgin analogue TV / Phone / Dial-up Internet at the time).

What I found most bizzare was to get Broadband they advised me to change my phone from Virgin - to BT; the reason being that they were not prepared to upgrade their phone system to provide an asdl service. However they would provide a broadband service down a BT line as the regulator had opened up the BT exchanges to competition!

Also they said they had a TV package for people in Windsor that included Virgin supplying a Freeview box, as Virgin and their predecessors had never provided Digital TV; the Analogue system dated back to the original "Windsor CableVision" days and has never been updated.

Anyway I changed to the a Post Office HomePhone & Broadband package; the phone line is supplied by Openreach - but is cheaper than BT, and bought myself a very cheap freeview box in Dixons (Windsor) as it closed down.

[Digital Fanatic]

I live in Osborne Road, Windsor opposite the Princess Margaret Hospital, and saw contractors in the Balmoral Gardens cabinet / pavement ducts this morning; they are apparently just laying out new cable ready to start the upgrade in this area.

I gave up on Virgin about 4 years ago when they could not provide me with a Broadband / Phone package (I had Virgin analogue TV / Phone / Dial-up Internet at the time).

What I found most bizzare was to get Broadband they advised me to change my phone from Virgin - to BT; the reason being that they were not prepared to upgrade their phone system to provide an asdl service. However they would provide a broadband service down a BT line as the regulator had opened up the BT exchanges to competition!
Also they said they had a TV package for people in Windsor that included Virgin supplying a Freeview box, as Virgin and their predecessors had never provided Digital TV; the Analogue system dated back to the original "Windsor CableVision" days and has never been updated.

Anyway I changed to the a Post Office HomePhone & Broadband package; the phone line is supplied by Openreach - but is cheaper than BT, and bought myself a very cheap freeview box in Dixons (Windsor) as it closed down.

There would be no point in VM wasting money on ADSL when they have cable broadband, much better to upgrade areas to full digital, so you can get cable broadband.

[weesteev]

Spot on DF

Virgins current architecture makes ADSL almost impossible without massive upgrade and then backhaul new cabling from every major MUX cabinet back to each headened... and then from every MUX cabinet to every DP cabinet. It would be more cost effective to upgrade to a digital network which is currently underway.

[PeterHooper]

If I could just add that my comments were not intended to be critical of Virgin for the present work being done in Windsor / Slough to update their infrastructure to digital; I look forward to the very latest Virgin digital technology with considerable anticipation.
I only left (some years ago) because of the download time on the Dial-up package; one Microsoft ServicePack up-date took 4 - 5 hours to download !!!
Well done Steve & DF, keep up the good work.

[gallego1]

A colleague lives in langley and is about to have digital services installed

[jtcoops]

New little green boxes have appeared next to the old big green boxes, and all the manhole covers have recently been lifted and replaced in Old Windsor. Looks like decent broadband and cable is nearly here. Yey!

[weesteev]

Those little green cabinets will be distribution cabinets, the last leg of the conenction before it reaches your home! This is definitely a good sign, Its great to hear the guys are bashing on with the upgrade work down there.

:)

[Welshie]

I moved to Windsor about 3 years ago, leaving a cable area and all the benefits (and occasional hiccups) that went with it.

As I'm right down the other end of town (Dedworth) and miles from the exchange I struggle to get more than about 2.5Mbit, which was quite a downgrade from the 20 I was on before.

I couldn't believe it when I saw guys digging up the road by the green boxes, and sure enough, when I put my postcode in on the VM site it said I was in a digital cable area - happy days!

I think I'll be putting my order in tomorrow! Will let you know how it goes - hopefully the postcode checker was not lying!

[Blokie]

I live in Cippenham (SL1 5), and we received all the marketing blurb several weeks ago. Rang up a couple of days later to arrange an install, and was given a date 6 weeks later for install !!

I'm assuming this was because the marketing people were a bit ahead of the game and the infrastructure hadn't been installed yet, and install date is currently scheduled for next Friday (23rd), so fingers crossed!

As with others in this area, I'm around 6km from the exchange, so my current ADSL speed is awful (around 1.5 mb at best), so really looking forward to 50Mb :-)

[Mortey]

I am in Langley, a few miles up the road but SL3 and I am having it installed next Tuesday.

My parents have digital in Englefield Green! You could have thought they could run a bit a fibre down the hill!!!

[Welshie]

To follow up on my post above, I rang and ordered today, been given an install date of the 27th - can't wait!

I think for us the engineers have got ahead of the marketeers, as all the bus shelter adverts say "coming soon" and I haven't had anything through the door yet.

[Blokie]

Mine was installed today :-)

Afternoon slot was booked, but the guy turned up at about 11:45 and then a 2nd guy to do the 50Mb splice at about 12:30, so all done with Samsung V+ box, 50Mb BB and phone. Download test peaked at 57Mb.

Very happy so far :-)