TiVo : Should Virgin Media and Cable & Wireless Worldwide merge?

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

Actually NTL did acquire the franchises, the customer bases and it was agreed that BT would continue ownership of the ducts and cabling and NTL would lease that network.

Waste of money and a complete waste of time.

Telewest,Cable and Wireless and even Microsoft were among NTL to bid for these franchises.

Virgin Media could afford £700 to £800 Million to takeover Cable and Wireless Worldwide, but that will set them back on investments on its existing business and competition may start to slide if it doesn't carry on investing well.

Vodafone also did home phone and broadband re-selling BT's service, it was called Vodafone at Home

I would agree with you over the NTL/BT deal, I mean what were NTL thinking when they did this deal, purchase everything but the “actual” network

Could VM still buy the “actual” network from BT (especially since they have a BT Vision service and they have no interest to upgrade the service or take over running it and add content), since it would consider it “Non-Core” assets within BT Group plc

What were Microsoft doing buying Cable Franchises in the UK, do they still own shares in VM (as they also held shares in NTL)?

I would prefer a merger (rather than a takeover) between C&W Worldwide and Virgin Media.

When did Vodafone at Home operate?

[m419]

It's time to stop talking about name changes.

1. Even if they do merge for historical reasons, they will trade as seperate entities as Cable and Wireless is also an iconic brand of the British Empire. Richard Branson will not be happy to lose Virgin Brand over NTL

So no more threads and posts about name changes and rebrands because that will never happen. Even if or when Vodafone do takeover, it will still be called Cable and Wireless Worldwide.

---------- Post added at 16:47 ---------- Previous post was at 16:44 ----------

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

I would agree with you over the NTL/BT deal, I mean what were NTL thinking when they did this deal, purchase everything but the “actual” network

Could VM still buy the “actual” network from BT (especially since they have a BT Vision service and they have no interest to upgrade the service or take over running it and add content), since it would consider it “Non-Core” assets within BT Group plc

What were Microsoft doing buying Cable Franchises in the UK, do they still own shares in VM (as they also held shares in NTL)?

I would prefer a merger (rather than a takeover) between C&W Worldwide and Virgin Media.

When did Vodafone at Home operate?

No they couldn't for operational reasons, the BT cable network shares cabinets and ducts with BT's telephone cables and would be complicated.

I never said Microsoft owned anything, they tried to bid for BT's cable franchises but got outbid by NTL

Vodafone at home was around 2006/7

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

It's time to stop talking about name changes.

1. Even if they do merge for historical reasons, they will trade as seperate entities as Cable and Wireless is also an iconic brand of the British Empire. Richard Branson will not be happy to lose Virgin Brand over NTL

So no more threads and posts about name changes and rebrands because that will never happen. Even if or when Vodafone do takeover, it will still be called Cable and Wireless Worldwide.

The "Cable and Wireless" name is aready used by C&W Communications and more well known overseas than here, mainly becuase they did not operate in the UK until the 1980s and they no longer operate directly with home customers (but they still do business customers and maintain a LLU network)!

---------- Post added at 16:50 ---------- Previous post was at 16:49 ----------

Originally Posted by m419

It's time to stop talking about name changes.

1. Even if they do merge for historical reasons, they will trade as seperate entities as Cable and Wireless is also an iconic brand of the British Empire. Richard Branson will not be happy to lose Virgin Brand over NTL

So no more threads and posts about name changes and rebrands because that will never happen. Even if or when Vodafone do takeover, it will still be called Cable and Wireless Worldwide.

---------- Post added at 16:47 ---------- Previous post was at 16:44 ----------



No they couldn't for operational reasons, the BT cable network shares cabinets and ducts with BT's telephone cables and would be complicated.

I never said Microsoft owned anything, they tried to bid for BT's cable franchises but got outbid by NTL

Vodafone at home was around 2006/7

Any idea why Microsoft bid for UK Cable Francises and had a stake in NTL?

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

The "Cable and Wireless" name is aready used by C&W Communications and more well known overseas than here, mainly becuase they did not operate in the UK until the 1980s and they no longer operate directly with home customers (but they still do business customers and maintain a LLU network)!

They started here in the 1860's, it became nationalised and ran alongside British Telecom, Cable and Wireless was privatised in 1982 and a few years later, Barclays,Cable and Wireless and some other company formed Mercury Communications. In 1992, Cable and Wireless gained full ownership over Mercury.

1986 Mercury payphones introduced, the blue hooded kiosks which all got sold off to IPM in 1995 and replaced them with orange coloured kiosks called Interphone. Also launches Mercury home phone services via short codes 131 and 132

1992 Mercury and US West launched the first digital mobile network in the world, Mercury One2one sold off to Deutsche Telekom in 1999.

1997 Mercury,Nynex,Videotron and Bell Cable Media merge to become Cable and Wireless Communications

1997 Cable and Wireless sells off Mercury paging now trades as PageOne communications. Mercury One2one rebrands

1999 C&W launch Digital TV

2000 NTL acquire all residential assets of C&W

2002 C&W acquire Guernsey Telecoms

2004 C&W acquire Bulldog Communications and build a LLU network across the UK

2005 C&W acquires Energis

2006 C&W sells off Bulldog following its collapse

2009 C&W acquires Thus

2011 C&W demerges and forms two seperate companies Cable and Wireless Worldwide and Cable and Wireless Communications

---------- Post added at 17:04 ---------- Previous post was at 17:00 ----------

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

The "Cable and Wireless" name is aready used by C&W Communications and more well known overseas than here, mainly becuase they did not operate in the UK until the 1980s and they no longer operate directly with home customers (but they still do business customers and maintain a LLU network)!

---------- Post added at 16:50 ---------- Previous post was at 16:49 ----------



Any idea why Microsoft bid for UK Cable Francises and had a stake in NTL?

To make money?

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Do you suggest that VM should rename itself?

The rebranding was all to do with brand awareness. Virgin was a well known and well respected brand. So benefits from rebranding to the Virgin name probably more than compensated for any financial cost. In fact if anything it harmed the Virgin brand name.

---------- Post added at 17:10 ---------- Previous post was at 17:09 ----------

Originally Posted by m419

They started here in the 1860's, it became nationalised and ran alongside British Telecom, Cable and Wireless was privatised in 1982 and a few years later, Barclays,Cable and Wireless and some other company formed Mercury Communications. In 1992, Cable and Wireless gained full ownership over Mercury.

1986 Mercury payphones introduced, the blue hooded kiosks which all got sold off to IPM in 1995 and replaced them with orange coloured kiosks called Interphone. Also launches Mercury home phone services via short codes 131 and 132

1992 Mercury and US West launched the first digital mobile network in the world, Mercury One2one sold off to Deutsche Telekom in 1999.

1997 Mercury,Nynex,Videotron and Bell Cable Media merge to become Cable and Wireless Communications

1997 Cable and Wireless sells off Mercury paging now trades as PageOne communications. Mercury One2one rebrands

1999 C&W launch Digital TV

2000 NTL acquire all residential assets of C&W

2002 C&W acquire Guernsey Telecoms

2004 C&W acquire Bulldog Communications and build a LLU network across the UK

2005 C&W acquires Energis

2006 C&W sells off Bulldog following its collapse

2009 C&W acquires Thus

2011 C&W demerges and forms two seperate companies Cable and Wireless Worldwide and Cable and Wireless Communications[COLOR="Silver"]

Were Cabletel part of C&W?

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

The rebranding was all to do with brand awareness. Virgin was a well known and well respected brand. So benefits from rebranding to the Virgin name probably more than compensated for any financial cost. In fact if anything it harmed the Virgin brand name.

---------- Post added at 17:10 ---------- Previous post was at 17:09 ----------



Were Cabletel part of C&W?

Cabletel was never part of C&W, they become NTL and bought CWC!

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Cabletel was never part of C&W, they become NTL and bought CWC!

Cable Tel acquired NTL which then rebranded and called itself NTL, the orginal part of the business (NTL Broadcast which NTL actually was from the 60's) was sold off by the company to Arquiva.

But bare in mind, most of the cable phone services such as call routing,switching,emergency services,operator assistance and some companies directory enquiries was all provided by Mercury. To this day operator assistance and emergency services are provided by Cable and Wireless.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by m419

Cable Tel acquired NTL which then rebranded and called itself NTL, the orginal part of the business (NTL Broadcast which NTL actually was from the 60's) was sold off by the company to Arquiva.

But bare in mind, most of the cable phone services such as call routing,switching,emergency services,operator assistance and some companies directory enquiries was all provided by Mercury. To this day operator assistance and emergency services are provided by Cable and Wireless.

Mercury became part of CWC (which was bought by NTL), the "old" NTL was the transmission network of ITV/C4/C5/IBA/ITC!

[m419]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Mercury became part of CWC (which was bought by NTL), the "old" NTL was the transmission network of ITV/C4/C5/IBA/ITC!

Yes I know and it was bought out by Cable Tel and they decided to call the whole business NTL. So in theory the original name for Virgin Media is Cable Tel.

Mercury was always part of Cable and Wireless, Like I said Mercury started off under ownership of a few companies with Cable and Wireless being the largest shareholder.

[Alan Fry]

Are all the VM cable networks (bar Milton Keynes) become digital/fiber optic?

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by m419

Yes I know and it was bought out by Cable Tel and they decided to call the whole business NTL. So in theory the original name for Virgin Media is Cable Tel.

Mercury was always part of Cable and Wireless, Like I said Mercury started off under ownership of a few companies with Cable and Wireless being the largest shareholder.

I thought Mercury was part of Marconi?

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

I thought Mercury was part of Marconi?

Do you mean Marconi Corporation (The Former General Electric Company) which is now called Telent?

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

Do you mean Marconi Corporation (The Former General Electric Company) which is now called Telent?

Who else would I mean???

They were called Marconi at the time.

Only part of the old Marconi is now called Telnet. It was broken up a few years ago.

[Alan Fry]

Originally Posted by Tim Deegan

Who else would I mean???

They were called Marconi at the time.

Only part of the old Marconi is now called Telnet. It was broken up a few years ago.

There have been serveral uses of the "Marconi" name before GEC reamed itself to "Marconi" in 1999

The former GEC/Marconi assets is now owned by Alstom, Siemens, BAE Systems, MBDA, Finmeccanica, Ericsson and Telent

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Alan Fry

There have been serveral uses of the "Marconi" name before GEC reamed itself to "Marconi" in 1999

The former GEC/Marconi assets is now owned by Alstom, Siemens, BAE Systems, MBDA, Finmeccanica, Ericsson and Telent

You missed Astrium!!

The question was nothing to do with what you can read up about the history of Marconi. As a share holder of what is now Telnet I can do that myself.

The question was:

I thought Mercury was part of Marconi?