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Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?
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Old 26-10-2011, 23:03   #1
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Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/bu...e-1429046.html

According to that which dates back to 1994, Videotron which then became Cable and Wireless covered Westminster as a telephone only franchise due to BT's Westminster Cable company already holding a licence to provide Cable Television in the borough.

It was planned to launch high speed internet and IPTV services over it.

All this came to a halt when NTL took over the management of the BT Cable franchise because of the terms and conditions which BT set out and restricted NTL from taking on any new customers.

Therefore with the closure of the Analogue FM and TV network currently leased by Virgin Media, could this mean it will return?

Obviously it is still there so it could be possible for Virgin Media to use it and provide:

Telephone Service
ADSL Broadband,Dial Up Internet ect...
TV on demand/IPTV services similar to BT Vision

This could be an answer to residents problems in getting a new TV service provider and an answer to better choice in telecoms services.

The reason probably why NTL didn't use it in the first place was because they already acquired the runnings of Westminster Cable and NTL hadn't taken over Cable and Wireless at the time.
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Old 27-10-2011, 01:17   #2
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

Virgin already can offer telephone and ADSL via their deal with Cable and Wireless to use their LLU network.

If VM so choose they can release IPTV services via this LLU network also.

Absolutely no point in resurrecting the old phone only network and doing this themselves when the necessary is already sitting in WRWMIN and definitely no point in doing it for this one small area.
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Old 27-10-2011, 21:14   #3
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

It is still in use but not to residential customers,Videotron/NTL City and Westminster limited is the franchise trading name. Furthermore, it might be a long time before BT can upgrade its own network in that area, the conservation rules also block that too which is one of the reasons why it will be impossible to upgrade the Cable TV network.

Westminster is in fact a very large area especially when you add up all the residential properties and business properties.

The main problem there is the fact that after January, people are going to have a lot of problems viewing basic TV channels, as there isn't a lot of choice for residents.

In Holborn a town just over the Westminster border which is in the borough of Camden heavily depend on the ex-telewest Virgin Media service, the TV reception round there is horrific! Too many tall buildings in the way is the biggest cause.
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Old 27-10-2011, 23:39   #4
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

They had no hesitation in switching off Isle of Dogs and have done nothing to replace it. Zero reason to think Westminster or any other area they've decommissioned will be different.

There's no money in delivering MATV, they're probably quite happy to be shot of it.
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Old 28-10-2011, 21:10   #5
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

That was another odd thing, isle of dogs was covered by Encom then acquired by BellCable Media then Cable and Wireless and of course NTL. Wonder why they just pulled out of the area? Perhaps they'll return following new developments.
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Old 28-10-2011, 21:31   #6
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

Man, I remember in the early days of this site and its predecessor there was endless moaning about lack of broadband in London...
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Old 29-10-2011, 23:43   #7
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

In my area of London, the best is Virgin Media, BT Broadband round here gives you up to 6mb, BT infinity goes up to about 20mb and from what i've heard from the neighbours, BT broadband keeps going down and often you only get around 3mb at peak times. BT infinity can't even cover the whole borough because of certain conservation rules brought in recently.

Some people who have Sky Broadband, they tell me there connection keeps going off. Not many people have it round here for that reason, so near Westminster but not in Westminster, people are so lucky to have all 3 full services available from Virgin Media.

In Westminster there is a big problem with:

Getting TV Channels 1 to 5 because of tall buildings,local conservation rules and the digital switchover is round the corner so means even with an aerial you won't be able to get it anymore.

Freeview, the reception just aint good enough with a small indoor aerial.

Sky, no dishes allowed on many buildings and again tall buildings in the way can block the signal.

Broadband over 8MB, You will be lucky to get broadband up to 8mb on BT or any provider using a BT line, Colt and Cable and Wireless are popular for businesses round Westminster but are not interested in serving local residents. The best was Virgin Media over the Westminster cable network, but the cable network doesn't actually cover the whole borough! and it is closing.

It is very suprising that an area like this has so many problems with TV!

And conservation rules are a joke!

BT
Cable and Wireless (Mercury)
Cable and Wireless (Thus)
Cable and Wireless (Thus-Your Communications formerly Norweb)
Cable and Wireless (Energis)
NTL/Videotron City and Westminster
Verizon Business (MCI Worldcom)
infocus/Infolines Public Networks (IPM)
Colt Telecom
Spectrum Interactive(NWP Street)
UK power networks (Formerly EDF/London Electricity Board)
Thames Water Utilities
National Grid Gas

And many more

Are all licensed to dig up the streets as and when they like in the area, yet none of them can come up with solutions.
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Old 31-10-2011, 10:45   #8
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

Quote:
Originally Posted by m419 View Post
That was another odd thing, isle of dogs was covered by Encom then acquired by BellCable Media then Cable and Wireless and of course NTL. Wonder why they just pulled out of the area? Perhaps they'll return following new developments.
It wasn't financially viable to overbuild the area, network sucked too hard and they didn't consider the level of rebuild required an option.

---------- Post added at 09:45 ---------- Previous post was at 09:40 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by m419 View Post
In my area of London, the best is Virgin Media, BT Broadband round here gives you up to 6mb, BT infinity goes up to about 20mb and from what i've heard from the neighbours, BT broadband keeps going down and often you only get around 3mb at peak times. BT infinity can't even cover the whole borough because of certain conservation rules brought in recently.
There are no 'conservation rules' brought in recently - BT and every other provider have always required planning permission to erect cabinets in conservation areas - their planning permission requests have been a regular feature of the planning lists in this borough.
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Old 01-11-2011, 01:06   #9
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

I wonder if it is viable to just upgrade the whole cable system from Marylebone northwards to Queens park,South Kilburn,Maida Vale and then to paddington, because to me, that is no conservation area to look at and its mostly housing estates where people live who need a working tv service and reliable internet, round Mayfair,Park Lane,Soho ect... then it is expected to be turned down.
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Old 03-11-2011, 12:56   #10
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

To be honest if it were viable they'd probably already have done it as part of an infill. Doing any significant civils in London is ridiculously expensive.

That's probably one for the New Build Co-ordinator of the forum.
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Old 03-11-2011, 13:11   #11
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

what is the point in living in wesminster
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Old 07-11-2011, 23:08   #12
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

I don't know the exact situation with the bt owned Westminster franchise, but I do know that Ntl, now Virgin media did not completely pull out of the Isle of Dogs, Ex bell cablemedia franchise, as they still offer a cable landline service to pre 2000 residents and local businesses over this network. I know this as I still to this day subscribe to a cable landline service from virgin media over this network. I originally had the cable landline service installed by Bell cablemedia back in 1994, and have been using this service ever since. Whether or not, virgin decides to keep the landline service going in the westminster franchise area remains to be seen, as they don't own the network there. But if they could resolve their disputes with bt (Highly unlikely) who knows what could happen.
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Old 14-12-2011, 21:08   #13
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

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Originally Posted by madmacfan10 View Post
I don't know the exact situation with the bt owned Westminster franchise, but I do know that Ntl, now Virgin media did not completely pull out of the Isle of Dogs, Ex bell cablemedia franchise, as they still offer a cable landline service to pre 2000 residents and local businesses over this network. I know this as I still to this day subscribe to a cable landline service from virgin media over this network. I originally had the cable landline service installed by Bell cablemedia back in 1994, and have been using this service ever since. Whether or not, virgin decides to keep the landline service going in the westminster franchise area remains to be seen, as they don't own the network there. But if they could resolve their disputes with bt (Highly unlikely) who knows what could happen.
Well because BT held the Cable Television licence for the City of Westminster and City of London boroughs(Not that Westminster Cable TV actually covered 100% of properties and streets across the 2 boroughs) It was not possible for Videotron or any other Cable company to obtain a licence for Cable Television, however it was still able to apply for a Telecommunications licence including the licence covering Electronic Communications Apparatus something that covers street cabinets and telephone boxes ect... Therefore, it constructed its telephone network across the boroughs Videotron City and Westminster limited later to be called NTL City and Westminster. The plan was to offer a competitive telephone service to BT and provide IPTV services something similar to what TalkTalk TV(Tiscali/Homechoice) offer today as well as Internet.

However, when NTL took over the BT Cable TV franchise, the deal was set by BT that NTL must not offer telephone services, at this time Cable and Wireless still owned the Videotron cable franchise and finally when NTL acquired Cable and Wireless cable franchises, it stopped taking on new customers.

So i've come to the conclusion that Virgin Media could use the ducts ect.... they own them so why not use them! to build a fibre optic network across the borough that could serve many businesses who are suffering with 6mb broadband from BT and provide Digital TV to the social housing (Citywest homes) and any properties that struggle to get a decent TV signal by either Freeview,Freesat or Sky. Many homes are not able to construct dishes and additional attenae that the council views as an eyesore from street level, properties around Mayfair and Marylebone would benefit from that.

You say that you are still using Virgin Media's home phone service, the reason why some old customers can use it is because local authorities and a small number of businesses still use the service too making it commercially viable to do, however as they need for broadband expands and increasing costs of maintaining the network, they will soon force you off by offering you a deal to use Virgin Media National.

Other reasons why they have kept it on maybe that Virgin Media once it has enough funds may look into reinstating the network in that area.

NTL explained that they pulled out of the Isle of Dogs because the network was in a bad state of disrepair and was costly to repair and were no longer able to provide a fault free service, why was it so bad! It was only built in 1993/4!

A reason for NTL's choice was at the time, they were in a financial mess. Originally, Cable and Wireless was aiming to take over Telewest around 1999/2000 but that fell through and Cable and Wireless decided to sell up to a borrowing NTL that didn't have enough funds. Therefore, if Cable and Wireless still owned the network, you probably wouldn't have that problem in that area.

Maybe the government needs to block virtually bankrupt companies from borrowing so much money and acquiring rivals when they clearly have no funds, as the first thing to go when this happens is peoples jobs and a dip in the quality of service to the public and slow development of technology, surely the government doesn't want that!
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Old 01-03-2012, 11:40   #14
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

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Originally Posted by m419 View Post
I wonder if it is viable to just upgrade the whole cable system from Marylebone northwards to Queens park,South Kilburn,Maida Vale and then to paddington.
Across the road from my place (Shirland Road, Maida Vale) this morning, there are Virgin Media contractors (Virgin Media logo on the fenced off area) digging up the pavement and laying tracts of bright green ducting.

I asked one of the chaps if they were laying fibre optic cable, he said, yes, they were installing it for Virgin Media.

I'm not sure if this means that Virgin have decided to bite the bullet and install their own network in Westminster for consumers or if it is for some other reason.
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Old 01-03-2012, 11:53   #15
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Re: Westminster Cable TV closing but what about the hidden telephone service?

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Originally Posted by thenarth View Post
Across the road from my place (Shirland Road, Maida Vale) this morning, there are Virgin Media contractors (Virgin Media logo on the fenced off area) digging up the pavement and laying tracts of bright green ducting.

I asked one of the chaps if they were laying fibre optic cable, he said, yes, they were installing it for Virgin Media.

I'm not sure if this means that Virgin have decided to bite the bullet and install their own network in Westminster for consumers or if it is for some other reason.
Maybe VM has had enough of BT and is building their own system in a market that could be profitable for them!

Now can they do Milton Keynes, Barbican, Isle of Dogs and other gaps in the VM Cable Network!
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