[gother]

As Sky were once made to give their channels to other providers should Virgin Media be made to open up their fibre optic network to others.
So far i have seen Virgin only wanting things their way and not willing to do anything in return (money aside lol).
I don't want fan boys on this thread i want genuine honest opinions and thoughts please.

[platelet]

No. Virgin have gotten rid of their channels so I don't see an issue with it.

The problem with sky is restricting access to their channels to their platforms to give them a USP. The likes of Atlantic, sky one before that, Sky sports HD 3 & 4 etc are all used to limit competition.

I'd much rather platform and content were independant

[gother]

Originally Posted by platelet

No. Virgin have gotten rid of their channels so I don't see an issue with it.

The problem with sky is restricting access to their channels to their platforms to give them a USP. The likes of Atlantic, sky one before that, Sky sports HD 3 & 4 etc are all used to limit competition.

I'd much rather platform and content were independant

Isn't that exactly what VM are doing though with their fibre optic network?

[platelet]

I suppose I see what your saying but...

I want Sky Sports 4 HD (I'm a rugby fan and they shove some key games there) As a result my only option at the moment is Sky's sat service.

If sky were able to shove their channels out on Virgin's network and set their own prices, would they really make it competitive? - given their track record I doubt it.

[gother]

Originally Posted by platelet

I suppose I see what your saying but...

I want Sky Sports 4 HD (I'm a rugby fan and they shove some key games there) As a result my only option at the moment is Sky's sat service.

If sky were able to shove their channels out on Virgin's network and set their own prices, would they really make it competitive? - given their track record I doubt it.

It's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other lol i can see your point on this too.
Personally i think it'd be great if VM and Sky sat down together and sorted something out such as say VM get Sky Atlantic , HD , Sky sports 3+4hd ect and in return Sky get access to VMs network so Sky customers can have fibre optic broadband ect.
If that makes sense? lol.

[Arkudos]

If it resulted in something for Virgin Media's customers (Sky channels, etc) then yes. Otherwise, I couldn't give a hoot.

[mersey70]

BT's fibre footprint (that Sky use) is expected to reach 2/3 of UK homes and businesses by 2014 so I would assume BSkyB don't really need to strike any deals to gain access to Virgin's network.

[Nick_London]

Originally Posted by gother

As Sky were once made to give their channels to other providers should Virgin Media be made to open up their fibre optic network to others.
So far i have seen Virgin only wanting things their way and not willing to do anything in return (money aside lol).
I don't want fan boys on this thread i want genuine honest opinions and thoughts please.

No, for operational reasons. It would just clog up the network and everyone will start having slow connections meaning back to square one.

Also if it was forced to offer communal digital tv to council blocks (free to view) cost charged to the tenants, it would have a lot of problems similar to how the southampton set up was. That is why cable companies don't like MATV contracts. The reason why Ofcom has not forced Virgin Media to open its network, is because it doesn't cover all areas and its coverage is actually very limited in comparison to BT. The reason why Sky was pushed to offer its content is because it holds a much larger slice of the cake in the market.

If you want Virgin broadband, then subscribe to it, soon it will be no different to BT infinity, your question however should be directed to Kingston Communications who operate in Hull, they hold literally 99% of the market there as they are the BT for Hull, BT does not operate there and for some reason they are funny about opening there network to the rivals.

Also why would anyone want to subscribe to a internet service piggybacking Virgin Media's network? You would be paying that service provider plus Virgin Media, so it would actually be pointless,that is why I don't understand why people subscribe to Sky Connect and Orange broadband. Virgin Media would charge a wholesale price to the service provider and then that service provider will bill you, Virgin Media will undercut them by offering limited capicity and will charge them a lot of money even if they are forced to open the network. Virgin Media like Cable and Wireless Worldwide and Verizon can charge what they like regardless of whether they are forced to open there networks or not.

BT Wholesale offer a reasonable level of service and can't see many providers actually paying both BT and Virgin Media for 2 same services with one not reaching most homes.

You should also ask if Everything Everywhere who own Orange and T-Mobile in the UK if they are going to open there network up when they offer 4G as they are now the largest network and someone in government allowed this shower in to create a monopoly of the mobile and 4G telecoms market.

[stuntmaster]

You got it spot on Nick.

Southampton was a right mess.

cabled out everywhere, and an early adopter of it. Many listed buildings were fitted with cable points to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. (no need for aerials or dishes and can deliver Pay TV).

Course when it was time to upgrade... it caused a major mess. With Southampton being stuck in a blackout area. Listed as cabled but could not get anything.

thankfully they saw the light at the end of the tunnel and we now have cable fully upgraded. Missed the whole NTL era, and the V+ years.

I wonder if these blocks that are listed, be allowed to have Virgin TV M? (not M+) Before they simply got either a coax lead which was F terminal to standard plug.or an actual analogue box enabled just for the FTA stuff.

I am lucky, glad they updated. Been a long time. least I can get Sky Sports again now.

[Nick_London]

Originally Posted by stuntmaster

You got it spot on Nick.

Southampton was a right mess.

cabled out everywhere, and an early adopter of it. Many listed buildings were fitted with cable points to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. (no need for aerials or dishes and can deliver Pay TV).

Course when it was time to upgrade... it caused a major mess. With Southampton being stuck in a blackout area. Listed as cabled but could not get anything.

thankfully they saw the light at the end of the tunnel and we now have cable fully upgraded. Missed the whole NTL era, and the V+ years.

I wonder if these blocks that are listed, be allowed to have Virgin TV M? (not M+) Before they simply got either a coax lead which was F terminal to standard plug.or an actual analogue box enabled just for the FTA stuff.

I am lucky, glad they updated. Been a long time. least I can get Sky Sports again now.

No, they won't, the council pulled out of the contract with Virgin Media last year when they completed the roll out of IRS systems, anyone wanting M+ will have to pay the usual price as everyone else. Not all streets were upgraded to Digital whilst the rest of Southampton was, however as they are expanding to areas which are not cabled at all in Southampton, I think they will or would have upgraded the analogue only areas to Digital by now.

Milton Keynes is another area with the same problem, but even worse, BT will not upgrade it unless Virgin Media pay over the odds to do so.

My council here in London looked at the possibility of using Virgin Media as a communal digital tv service apparently Virgin Media didn't even turn up to the meeting to discuss the Digital options for the area, shows how interested they were. It would have been a disaster because I know for a fact that one particular estate was never cabled it was planned to do so in 99 but Telewest pulled out. Instead the council here rolled out a IRS system and was slated by the media for wasting millions on a system that was not required. I currently have to pay 87p per week for the IRS system.

[Nick_London]

Originally Posted by stuntmaster

You got it spot on Nick.

Southampton was a right mess.

cabled out everywhere, and an early adopter of it. Many listed buildings were fitted with cable points to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. (no need for aerials or dishes and can deliver Pay TV).

Course when it was time to upgrade... it caused a major mess. With Southampton being stuck in a blackout area. Listed as cabled but could not get anything.

thankfully they saw the light at the end of the tunnel and we now have cable fully upgraded. Missed the whole NTL era, and the V+ years.

I wonder if these blocks that are listed, be allowed to have Virgin TV M? (not M+) Before they simply got either a coax lead which was F terminal to standard plug.or an actual analogue box enabled just for the FTA stuff.

I am lucky, glad they updated. Been a long time. least I can get Sky Sports again now.

By the way in Milton keynes and before it got switched off in Westminster and Barbican, the standard price for receiving channels without a set top box is £4 per month nearly the same as my 87p per week through the IRS system. Any new customers in Milton Keynes wanting that service will be offered that as they are no longer able to give out set top boxes, General Instrument(Motorola) no longer manufacture them as well as Scientific Atlanta(Cisco) and the old ones from previous customers are quite old dating back to 1989 in some cases with others such as the Scientific Atlanta ones dating back to 1997 meaning Virgin Media cannot gaurantee a fault free service.

[joshua_welby]

Yes, they should open up their network to others and if they do not do it soon then they should be forced to, it is not fair that they are the only Cable Operators in town,
the same goes for Kingston Communications in Hull, but they are not like Virgin, they are like BT, they used to have a TV service but it has been closed down for a long while,
time they upgraded their whole system to fibre optic and offer TV, Broadband and Phone to their residents

[rich2012]

I was not too assured when a service engineer arrived to carry out the installation and he told me he
Does not work for vm but some company called PPR Solutions Ltd
HE LOOKED LIKE HE WAS GOING TO HAVE A HART ATACK GOING ON ABOUT HOW MUCH WORK HE GOT TO DO AND HE NOT GOT THE TIME TO SHOW ME HOW MY NEW Tivo BOX WORKS.. IN AND OUT WITH IN 15 / 20 MINS AND HE TOLD ME IT WILL START WORKING SOON AND LEFT ...... NO PIC ....
SH#T SERVICES AND WOTS PPR Solutions Ltd AND WHYS THERE ENGINEER SAYING HE NOT A VIRGIN ENGINEER BUT LOOKS LIKE ONE???
SOUNDS LIKE THE FAT CATS Contractor ARE MAKEING THE REAL MONEY AND THERE SENDING V BAD ENGINEERS TO YOUR HOMES ??? OVER WORKED AND UNDER PAYED ???
I HOPE Richard Charles Nicholas Branson HAPPY WITH THIS ???? SOMEONE AT VIRGIN NEEDS TO LOOK INTO THIS??

[BenMcr77]

Originally Posted by joshua_welby

it is not fair that they are the only Cable Operators in town

Why not? Their network is private, paid for by private money

Oh and they aren't the only cable operator. There is both Smallworld cable and Wight cable who are the only cable operators in their areas - if Virgin Media are forced to open their network up as they are a 'monopoly', should they be as well?

[fozzi]

Originally Posted by Nick_London

My council here in London looked at the possibility of using Virgin Media as a communal digital tv service apparently Virgin Media didn't even turn up to the meeting to discuss the Digital options for the area, shows how interested they were. It would have been a disaster because I know for a fact that one particular estate was never cabled it was planned to do so in 99 but Telewest pulled out. Instead the council here rolled out a IRS system and was slated by the media for wasting millions on a system that was not required. I currently have to pay 87p per week for the IRS system.

I live in a converted block of flats. All five flats wanted to get Virgin services. Just as you say Virgin weren't interested despite the fact that we had pre wired all the flats to a point at the front of the house. All they had to do was a final fix in each flat and connect a cable drop to a distribution box! They have lost nearly £500 a month income from the services that we all wanted! I managed to stay connected on an old Cable London connection (I live in the basement flat) but everyone else has gone to BT Infinity Broadband and TV.

[gother]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

Why not? Their network is private, paid for by private money

Oh and they aren't the only cable operator. There is both Smallworld cable and Wight cable who are the only cable operators in their areas - if Virgin Media are forced to open their network up as they are a 'monopoly', should they be as well?

So are Skys channels. So far all i have seen is VM cry cry cry wanting this , that the other but giving absolutely nothing in return they seem to want it all their own way.
Yes other cable companies should also open up their networks too.

[Nick_London]

Originally Posted by gother

So are Skys channels. So far all i have seen is VM cry cry cry wanting this , that the other but giving absolutely nothing in return they seem to want it all their own way.
Yes other cable companies should also open up their networks too.

There is no commercial benefit nor benefit to the consumer, Ofcom has already recently ruled out that they do not have to open there network, it will just cost you the consumer and other companies a lot of money and you will get a less reliable service than BT.

The cable network will be over subscribed and it will slow the internet down, you will be paying over the odds for a service which will be heavily throttled and there is very little Virgin Media can do to deal with over subscribing, communal and open access simply won't work, the network hasn't been designed for it.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by joshua_welby

Yes, they should open up their network to others and if they do not do it soon then they should be forced to, it is not fair that they are the only Cable Operators in town,

The UK cable network is a series of franchises which is why there is only one network in each area. I think it's pretty much how it works in many other countries too.
You have to think what would happen if this network was opened up. I think this would just weaken Virgin and lead to more dominance by Sky, less competition and higher prices.

[Nick_London]

Originally Posted by fozzi

I live in a converted block of flats. All five flats wanted to get Virgin services. Just as you say Virgin weren't interested despite the fact that we had pre wired all the flats to a point at the front of the house. All they had to do was a final fix in each flat and connect a cable drop to a distribution box! They have lost nearly £500 a month income from the services that we all wanted! I managed to stay connected on an old Cable London connection (I live in the basement flat) but everyone else has gone to BT Infinity Broadband and TV.

yeah, if you was using the basic analogue hook up service, that has now ended and you will have a message on screen telling you the service has been switched and asking you to upgrade. I think you need to email the list of people wanting the service to cablemystreet email address listed on somewhere on the site, I wouldn't call the sales line, think they just read from a script.

[BenMcr77]

Originally Posted by gother

So are Skys channels.

Yes they are, and most of them are supplied via commercial agreements

The only ones that regulated are those that have a monopoly i.e. Sky Sports and Sky Movies.

Virgin Media don't have a monopoly of broadband or TV anywhere in the UK

[gother]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

Yes they are, and most of them are supplied via commercial agreements

The only ones that regulated are those that have a monopoly i.e. Sky Sports and Sky Movies.

Virgin Media don't have a monopoly of broadband or TV anywhere in the UK

Technically isn't their fibre optic network currently a monopoly though? It certainly can be seen as one until other networks get their arse into gear and roll out their fibre optic networks to more people.

[BenMcr77]

Originally Posted by gother

Technically isn't their fibre optic network currently a monopoly though? It certainly can be seen as one until other networks get their arse into gear and roll out their fibre optic networks to more people.

There is a difference between a de-facto monopoly due to circumstance, and one where it excludes any opportunity for someone else to do the same

It is the latter that is regulated, as is the case of Sky Sports and Sky Movies, as no-one else can supply that content at the same time as Sky

However no-one is stopping another company from building their own network to compete with Virgin Media, apart from that no company except BT has the wish to do so.

[gother]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

There is a difference between a de-facto monopoly due to circumstance, and one where it excludes any opportunity for someone else to do the same

It is the latter that is regulated, as is the case of Sky Sports and Sky Movies, as no-one else can supply that content at the same time as Sky

However no-one is stopping another company from building their own network to compete with Virgin Media, apart from that no company except BT has the wish to do so.

Ah i see where you're coming from now.

[Nick_London]

Originally Posted by BenMcr77

There is a difference between a de-facto monopoly due to circumstance, and one where it excludes any opportunity for someone else to do the same

It is the latter that is regulated, as is the case of Sky Sports and Sky Movies, as no-one else can supply that content at the same time as Sky

However no-one is stopping another company from building their own network to compete with Virgin Media, apart from that no company except BT has the wish to do so.

Ben is certainly right here, an example can be seen in Bournemouth with that Fibrecity programme by a private company, Virgin Media and BT both operate fibre products in this area.

[Nick_London]

Originally Posted by gother

Technically isn't their fibre optic network currently a monopoly though? It certainly can be seen as one until other networks get their arse into gear and roll out their fibre optic networks to more people.

No certainly not, the Cable and Wireless Worldwide network formerly Mercury,Energis and Thus is formed of fibre, it passes many residential properties in some areas, but by choice they don't want to serve domestic customers directly, and when they do, it will be over BT's fibre network. Same with Verizon.

It's meant to be a free country, you can't force someone to provide a service to someone if they don't want to. In some areas like Milton Keynes, the network is owned by BT Global, smart of BT as this entitles them to the same benefits as the non-pre dominant phone companies meaning universal service conditions doesn't apply to them, which is why they have got away with refusing to upgrade the cable network for Virgin Media in Milton Keynes