Quote:
Originally Posted by arefem
The MK cable is already owned by BT. Legislation prevents them from being both a service carrier and content provider. The history is that when MK was built, way back in the late 60's, no TV aerials were allowed and all homes were to be ready cabled. Quite innovative for the era.
|
That was the 60s all over in this country. Plenty of hippie ideas but no money to implement them properly. Milton Keynes was cabled on the cheap and now you're all suffering the consequences.
Quote:
BT don't want to upgrade to fibre, no profit in it for them; VM don't want to pay for the upgrade, too expensive. The upshot is more and more people are putting up Freview ariels (which are now allowed) or Sat dishes, and dropping the cable, which costs £36 per year for the basic package.
The MK cable is not growing either, there is no longer any requirement for new home to be pre-cabled, so no growth potential for VM.
Personally, I don't see there being many people on the cable by this areas Digital Switch Day in 2011.
|
Answer = stuff the lot of them. If you want subscription TV, get Sky; if you don't, get Freesat (which you already have). Don't be put off by the apparently restricted channel list on Freesat at present; this is due to a combination of rights issues keeping some channels off the EPG, and time required to launch others on Freesat without ballsing up Sky's own platform, seeing as the two services share the same satellite transmissions. Most if not all of these issues should be resolved by the end of this year.
Freesat may never have quite the same line up as Freeview. But while channels like Virgin 1, Dave and UKTV History may never appear on Freesat, Freeview will never and can never offer the kind of HD service that Freesat will ultimately deliver.
So it really is a choice between Sky and Freesat I reckon, depending on whether you want access to subscription channels or not.
As for your internet over those dratted aluminium wires, well, if you're feeling like an innovator you could always install a two-way satellite broadband hook-up and then create a wireless mesh in your corner of the town to re-sell some of the bandwidth to your neighbours and split your costs. Mesh networks are very popular in rural areas (our local village has one, but we're too far out to use it!) but I see no reason why it can't work in MK.
Alternatively you could move to live in a town where the cows aren't made of concrete and the streets aren't aligned like some hippie's notion of stonehenge.
