01-05-2024 21:19 - edited 01-05-2024 21:24
I thought I'd start a thread for those who'd like to share their experience of their early days on cable.
I was living in the London Borough of Haringey and around 1989 Cable London started to dig up the roads and pavements for their ducts. A few short years later cable TV was offered but I resisted, partly because the installation charge was high (can't remember how much but might have been £50-£150). However, one day a card dropped onto my doormat offering free installation and I succumbed, so I became a cable TV customer about 26 years ago in spring 1998.
I have to say that it was like day and night as I suddenly had access to dozens of channels. In early 1998 (ITV2 was yet to launch) there were just five terrestrial TV channels (BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) and the latter was grotty due to poor reception. Well, Channel 5 was clear on cable and it was still grotty. The channel numbers didn't favour PSBs, so BBC One was on channel 31. An oddity was that some channels shared a channel number, so you'd get Nickelodeon from 0600-1900 and Paramount Comedy from 1900-0400 on channel 29.
I was then offered landline but, with fears of problems relating to year 2000, I put that off for a while.
In around 2000 there was a soft launch of digital TV and I, being a techie, heard about it and subscribed. Telewest, which by then had taken full control of Cable London, sent me a digital STB to replace the analogue one, and I reckon I could tell the difference in quality.
In about October 2001 I subscribed to cable broadband which was oddly called Blueyonder by Telewest. Initially the price had been £50pm but it had greatly reduced by then, so I replaced my BT Openworld broadband with Telewest's. I think the speed for both were 0.5Mbps which looks ridiculous now but in comparison dial-up speeds capped out of 56Kbps. Also it was fixed price, so no paying for both phone and internet usage, and you could use the internet and phone at the same time. I'm fairly sure that the tech had to get the MAC address of my PC's network adapter card and phone it to an office so that I could get onto the network. For about a year the broadband lacked some reliability but has been good since.
I think that it was around 2001 that I also ditched BT and subscribed to Telewest's landline, thus making me a Triple Play customer.
In 2005 I moved to the London Borough of Hillingdon and took my services across to what was another Telewest area. I have to say that these services on my HFC network have been very reliable even though the coaxial cable going into my distribution cabinet must be about 25 years old. I do recommend cable to people but with the caveat that customer service is certainly lacking.
01-05-2024 22:13 - edited 01-05-2024 22:14
I vaguely remember signing up with Cabletel in Cardiff after receiving a brief promotional VHS tape explaining how the cable technology worked in layman's terms. We had a stone clad outer wall that snapped the installer's drill bits a couple of times much to his chagrin. I remember the choice of programmes and quality of reception being a real step up despite our very old CRT TV. We received a free monthly cable TV listings magazine through the post for a bit until that was stopped. Internet was via the phone socket via a long lead and a very slow internal modem. It was charged by usage and cost around £30/month. Having web space was a big deal in order to create my own "home page" but this was scrapped too. We then moved house. I think by then it was NTL. The engineer cut our outside TV aerial cable for no reason and replaced the legacy BT master phone socket plate with an NTL one. We even tried Internet through the TV box using an infrared full size keyboard remote control thing. Fine for email but desperate for browsing. We then progressed through 28kbs, 33, 56 etc. Heady days.
02-05-2024 09:08 - edited 02-05-2024 09:34
I remember ENCOM (formerly East London Telecommunications) in London Borough of Havering 1989-1996, streets dug up everywhere and patches of new tarmac. This was Elm Park, Hornchurch, Romford, Harold Wood areas, but encom were also in other parts of East London.
A small Scientific Atlanta set top box for analogue TV, with red led on front like a digital alarm clock that showed the channel numbers. Back then, cable tv had its own opt outs for adverts inserted into Sky One etc, and had its own classical music tv station called "The Landscape Channel". The Box music channel, was dial in where it cost money to request a particular music video to be played. They also had a mosaic channel that showed a few channels in squares so visually you could see what was going on. The set top box only had RF output by aerial lead to a television not SCART, component, HDMI. You could connected this to aerial in on a Video Cassette Recorder like VHS to record anything off-air.
The analogue TV was all off-air feeds from aerial and satellite, and redistributed, and the picture though clear suffered from micro lines (horizontal) in the satellite feeds for Sky and UK Gold. Channel numbering was odd, because BBC1 was channel 04, BBC2 was Channel 08 and ITV was 16 I think and Channel 4 was 20.
Another cable took FM reception to a HiFi, and of course the landline phone with American dial tone.
There was no concept of broadband at this time or two way interactive television. Interactive was usually dial in.
Cost wise; think it was around £10 /month for TV without Movies and Sports with extra set boxes costing £3. During the 1990's, QVC The Shopping Channel was a subscription channel as part of an entertainment package. It was not free to air like today.
Encom (1992-1995), based in London Docklands ultimately went to Bell Cable Media (1995-1999) then C&W (1999-2000) then NTL then VM.
02-05-2024 09:12 - edited 02-05-2024 09:26
Here is the list of Cable operators as it was in the 1990's.
Aberdeen Cable Aberdeen (No Longer exists)
Andover Cablevision Andover
Anglia Cable Harlow (Telewest)
Birmingham Cable Birmingham (Telewest)
Cable Corporation Windsor (Telewest)
Cable London North London (Telewest)
Cable Midlands Wolverhampton (NTL)
Cable North West Liverpool (NTL)
CableTel Luton, Bedfordshire, Surrey and Hants, West Central Scotland, South Wales, Hertfordshire, Kirklees, & Northern Ireland. (NTL)
Cablevision Bedfordshire: South Bedfordshire (NTL)
Cambridge Cable: Cambridge (NTL)
Coventry Cable: Coventry& Midlands (NTL)
Diamond Cable: Midlands&Nottingham (NTL)
Metro Cable: Welwyn Garden city (NTL)
Norwich Cablevision: Norwich,Norfolk (NTL)
Encom: East London & London Borough of Havering, Tower Hamlets (NTL)
Bell Cable Media: Watford,Herts (NTL) (later replacing Encom in other areas)
LCC Cable: Leicester (NTL) (later becoming Diamond Cable before NTL)
NYNEX CableVision: Bromley,Derby,Solent,Sussex.(NTL)
NYNEX CableVision: Blackburn,Darwen & Bolton.(NTL)
Peterborough Cablevision: Peterborough (NTL)
Swindon Cable: Swindon,Wiltshire (Telewest)
Telecential: Hemel Hempstead,Northants. (NTL)
Telecential: Reading and Bracknell (Telewest???)
United Artists: Avon,Croydon,Cotswolds,Dundee (Telewest)
United Artists: Edinburgh,London South,Glenrothes (Telewest)
United Artists: South East,North East,Motherwell (Telewest)
United Artists: Newcastle,perth (Telewest)
BT Cable: Westminster and Milton Keynes. (NTL)
Videotron: Southampton (NTL)
Videotron: Middlesex, south London (NTL)
NYNEX: Middlesex (NTL)
Yorkshire Cable: Bradford,Leeds (Telewest)
North Downs Cablevision: Crawley,Sussex (Telewest Eurobell)
Devon Cablevision: Devon&Somerset(Telewest Eurobell)
East Kent Cablevision: Eastern kent(Telewest Eurobell)
Cable companies after 1995:
OMNE-UK: North West England and parts of Scotland.(Now WightCable North)
Wight Cable: Covers Isle of wight and former OMNE areas. As of 2024, Still operating independent from Virgin Media and the only independent cable company in UK.
Kingston Comms: Telecoms provider for Kingston upon hull now operates Cable Services.
Atlantic Cable: Formerly Aberdeen Cable, Atlantic telecom assets was sold to Opal Telecom except Atlantic Cable, Atlantic Cable went into liquidation together with Atlantic Telecom possibly in 1997.
Company name changes:
United Artists: changed to Telewest Communications
Westminster Cable: Changed to BT Cable
Cable Tel: changed to NTL
Aberdeen Cable: Atlantic Cable
Devon Cablevision: Eurobell South west.
East kent Cablevision: Eurobell South East
North downs Cablevision: Eurobell South east.
NYNEX,Videotron,BellCable media,Mercury all merged creating CWC.
Cablevision Bedfordshire: Cable Tel.
Other Telecom company name changes:
Mercury Communications: Cable and Wireless Communications. (1997)
Cellnet: BT Cellnet (1999)
IPM: Infolines Public Networks (2000)
New World payphones: NWP Spectrum (2002)
BT Internet: BT openworld (2000)
BT paging,Cellnet,Genie: O2 (2002)
One2One: T-Mobile (2002)
Dolphin Telecom: Inquam
NTL Broadcast: Arquiva (2005)
Vizzavi: Vodafone Live! (2003)
Mercury paging: Page One
Infolines Public Networks/Central payphones: 4 Kiosk Solutions (2005)
Guernsey Telecoms: Cable and Wireless Guernsey(2001)
Infolines premier: Premier Tele-solutions (2001)
MCI: MCI-Worldcom (1998)
Value Telecom: Fresh Mobile (2002)
More info on cable TV timeline evolution here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_cable_television_in_the_United_Kingdom
on 02-05-2024 12:50
I became a NTL customer in July 2001 with broadband and phone (replacing a BT landline and a dialup connection service with Pipex).
Cost p.m. at sign-up was £5.80 for the phone and £36.65 for the broadband. The blistering speed of the broadband (which might have been as much as 10 Mbps IIRC) was a marvel compared to the dialup connection.
on 02-05-2024 15:06
Can't remember when I joined NTL, but it was from a dial up 33.6K US Robotics! The first package was a Terayon modem, and I think it was 512K speed(?) with the landline phone that I never used ! That was replaced with an NTL:250 modem, and later a VMNG300 modem. I also had a Tivo in there somewhere 🙂 As for Hubs, had the SH2, SH2ac, Hub 3 and Hub 5.
As far as the actual circuit, I can't fault it really. Only recently had to have a cable repull due to a gardening accident, so the rest of the cables are over 25 years old I suspect. However the POTS landline and TV packages are gone over this past few years, it's solely BB now.
Thankfully I very, very rarely have to speak to CS, as it looks like they have gone down in quality, if these forums are anything to go by.
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02-05-2024 16:01 - edited 02-05-2024 16:17
I have some information about Cable London, and rather than keeping it on my PC I thought it best to share it.
Brief history
Cable London plc was the operating name and brand of a cable telecommunications company that operated in five north London boroughs from the 1980s until the company was purchased by Telewest in 1999. Following the privatisation in 1984 of BT, the company was founded as Cable Camden in 1984 by Stephen Kirk, with investors Malcolm Gee (of Levy Gee), Andrew Karney (of Logica) and Jerrold Nathan; the original premises were in the Elephant House building, and across the road in the then premises of Chrysalis, in Hawley Crescent, Camden Town, London NW1 8NP. The first sales office was set up in Royal College Street, Camden Town and later at 62 Camden Road, NW1 9DR. Cable London's network covered 90% of the 440,000 homes and 40,000 businesses in its boroughs and it provided cable television, cable telephone and internet services to over 100,000 business and residential customers by late 1999, employing 574 people. A text-only television channel - CLTV - was provided as a requirement of the franchise to offer local television services.
In the early 2000s the company brand and identity fell into disuse as the company and customers became fully integrated in Telewest.
Cable London operated in five London boroughs through four franchises regulated by the Independent Television Commission (ITC). The four franchises were named for four separate companies, all part of Cable London plc:
Cable Camden Ltd - for services in the London Borough of Camden
Cable Enfield Ltd - for services in the London Borough of Enfield
Cable Hackney and Islington Ltd - for services in the London Borough of Hackney and London Borough of Islington (this was one franchise: there was no separate franchise for either borough)
Cable Haringey Ltd - for services in the London Borough of Haringey
Investors and fate
Cable London had various small and large investors in its history including, in the early-mid 1990s the large American cable operator Comcast and the "Baby Bell" company US West, but ultimately two large companies owned 50% each - NTL and Telewest. By the late 1990s the company had become the best-performing cable operator in the UK.
In August 1999 consolidation within the cable industry took another step when loss-making Cable London, which had been owned 50:50 by NTL and Telewest, became wholly owned by Telewest which bought out NTL's shareholding for £428m. This was funded by a rights issue backed by Microsoft and Liberty Media, Telewest's two biggest shareholders.
Cable network - construction and legacy
Construction of the cable network by Cable London, all of the coaxial cables laid in green ducting beneath pavements or roads, began in the late 1980s in the London Borough of Camden, around Camden Town, and was completed in that borough by 1996. The first Cable London customers were in Camden Town and the first cable telephone customer was connected there, too, in about 1990.
Construction of the cable network in the London Borough of Enfield, around Lower Edmonton and Ponders End, and in the London Borough of Haringey, around Hornsey, also began in the late 1980s. Construction of the cable network in the London Borough of Islington and the London Borough of Hackney began around Newington Green in 1995.
The busiest years for construction of the cable network were 1994-96 and most of the planned construction of the cable network was completed by the end of 1998, thereafter only construction work necessary to connect new contracted business customers was generally being undertaken. By 1999, the majority of the cable network construction in the four franchises was completed, though small parts of the London Borough of Haringey and the London Borough of Islington were not completed and about one-third of the London Borough of Hackney had not been cabled. Of the then approximately 436,000 homes in the five boroughs, some 400,000 had been "passed" by cable, meaning that cable ducting was in the pavement or street outside those homes. Construction of the cable network under the streets, and the associated technical premises, was a very expensive business and represented a significant investment by Cable London in the telecommunications infrastructure of each of the five London Boroughs.
By 1999, the investment in Cable London's cable network was some £300m. In the early years, therefore, priority for constructing the network was given to high density areas of population, especially blocks of flats and council and private estates, where the prospect of selling residential cable television - and cable telephone - services to customers was reckoned to be higher, and the cost per 'home passed' significantly less. The policy of some local authorities of discouraging satellite dishes on council estates was helpful, incidentally, in promoting sales of cable television. Similarly, construction was undertaken early in business districts, such as Holborn, to enable sales to be made to lucrative large businesses; business telephony provided, by far, the most important revenue stream in the 1990s. Success in providing modern and less expensive business telecommunications services to the public sector also helped to determine the pace and location of construction of the cable network. The legacy of Cable London remains below, and above, the streets of north London, with the cable network beneath, evidence of the brand in covers for openings of pavements, and hundreds of street cabinets on pavements still active and serving Virgin Media cable customers.
Services and principal competitors
In the 1990s, the principal competitor for television services was BSkyB - British Sky Broadcasting. Cable London provided satellite television through its cable network without the need for a satellite dish outside the home, as well as some cable exclusive channels; in 1994 the "line-up" allowed for a maximum of 47 numbered channels, with some channels broadcasting for only part of the day. In 1994, the monthly subscription charge for the standard service of over 25 television channels was just under £2.75 per week.
I read somewhere but, annoying, I can't find the source for the claim by Cable Haringey that it was the world's first cableco to provide landline. This was relatively easy as telephone wires to residential customers were pulled through the same ducting for coaxial cables, the main competitor being BT. Cable London at first provided telephony in association with Mercury Communications. There were rather more competitors for business telecommunications services, though again BT was the principal competitor. Business television services were not big business in the 1990s and internet services were offered from the mid-1990s onwards. The main business advantage for cable companies in the 1990s was the ability to offer all three services: telephone, television and internet. For a while Cable London also offered an FM radio connection for stereo tuners; this facilitated reception of, for example, the BBC World Service in London homes. Customer "churn" was a serious issue for the cable industry in the 1990s. Telephone "exchange" numbers that were originally allocated to Cable London included the London (area codes changing from 01 to 071 and 081, to 0171 and 0181, and finally to 020) and "exchanges" 911 at first (now 7911) and, later, 681 (now 7681) and 916 (now 7916), among others.
on 02-05-2024 16:13
on 02-05-2024 16:31
I have a Telewest channel listing, courtesy of James Welsh, from February 2001 showing, amongst other things, the sharing of channel numbers.
01 FilmFour 18:00-06:00
01 Shop! 06:00-18:00
02 UK Gold 24 hours
03 Sky Cinema Varies
04 Living local listings
04 The Fashion Channel local listings
06 Sky News 24 hours
07 VH1 24 hours
08 CNN: Cable News Network 24 hours
09 Bloomberg 01:00-12:00
09 Travel 12:00-01:00
10 CLTV: Cable London Television local listings
10 Performance local listings
11 Sky One 24 hours
12 British Eurosport Varies
13 Sky Premier Varies
14 Sky Sports 1 Varies
15 Sky Sports 2 Varies
16 BBC Parliament 24 hours
17 Sony Entertainment Television Asia 24 hours
18 Sky Sports 3 Varies
19 Trouble 06:00-20:00
19 Bravo 20:00-06:00
21 CFN: Carlton Food Network 07:00-00:00
22 TV-X 00:00-05:30
22 Euronews 05:30-00:00
23 Sky MovieMax Varies
24 The Box 24 hours
25 MTV: Music Television 24 hours
26 Discovery Home and Leisure 06:00-16:00
26 Discovery 16:00-02:00
27 Cartoon Network 01:00-21:00
27 TNT 21:00-01:00
28 TV Travel Shop 06:00-17:00
28 Challenge TV 17:00-06:00
29 Nickelodeon 06:00-19:00
29 Paramount Comedy Channel 19:00-04:00
30 Disney Channel 06:00-00:00
31 BBC ONE 24 hours
32 BBC TWO 24 hours
33 Carlton (Mon-Fri); LWT: London Weekend Television (weekends) 24 hours
34 Channel 4 24 hours
35 Channel 5 24 hours
36 ITV2 local listings
36 Granada Plus local listings
36 Granada Men and Motors local listings
39 Playboy 20:00-00:00
39 The Adult Channel 00:00-04:00
40 BBC News 24 24 hours
41 QVC 24 hours
42 Hellenic 24 hours
43 Rai Uno 24 hours
44 RTL + 24 hours
45 TV5 24 hours
46 Sci-Fi 24 hours
47 Channel Guide 24 hours
48 The History Channel 12:00-20:00
49 Fox Kids 06:00-18:00
50 Front Row Guide 24 hours
51-54 Front Row Varies
55 E4 16:00-04:00
on 06-05-2024 14:07
Started out with County Cable before it became Telecential. It was the first of the modern cable outfits to have a local channel making just 4 hours of programmes a week recorded in a studio set up at the local headend. I still have a recording of their last ever broadcast before they were shut down to make additional capacity available.
I also have the original TV channel listing from when I switched from Analogue to Digital TV in around 2006.
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