Currently I subcribe to broadband with Tiscali. Do I automatically get TV with them? Will i need extra equipment, or just the PC?

I'm a bit of a trek from Birmingham (countryside outside Shrewsbury), which is our nearest town to have Tiscali TV. However, after speaking to Tiscali over a seperate issue they do class us as being provided from Birmingham - is this confirmation we'll get Tiscali TV.

Nobody's heard anything firm about Tiscali TV so it's impossible to tell you with any certainty.

However, as regards Homechoice, the service we are on, the ability to pickup the service depends on the equipment being installed in our local exchange. Being "near x" is not good enough - it has to be on our exchange. There also needs to be a connection to a Server Centre where the VOD and TV is stored (London has Croydon & Staples Corner among others)

Now I imagine you have had Tiscali Broadband for a while, and I would guess this is a separate product from any Homechoice/TTV product that might exist.

You say Birmingham will have Tiscali TV. This would itself be news because Birmingham was never AFAIK served by Homechoice. I would suggest that this would mean a Server Centre has been setup in Birmingham which would be good for you but I still think you would be reliant on your own Exchange being converted.

At least you only have another 11 days to wait - you could try entering your postcode at www.homechoice.co.uk in the meanwhile - they might still be updating the database in the meanwhile...

Check out at http://www.samknows.com if your local telephone exchange has been 'Tiscali'd yet.

You can do a search on your phone number there - it'll then give you a list of which companies provide a LLU service on your telephone exchange. If Tiscali is one of them, then you should be able to get Tiscali TV at some point in the near (*) future.

If Tiscali haven't already LLU enabled your exchange though, it's unlikely that they'll do it within the next 2 years.

[* near future = between March 1st 2007 and Dec 31st 2008]

If you live near Shrewsbury I would definitely not be expecting to be able to pick up Tiscali TV from Birmingham, it's 40 or 50 miles away! That's not to say that they won't make it available on your exchange (although I believe they're focusing on cities) although I'd expect somewhere relatively rural like Shrewsbury to be fairly low priority. I'd have thought Telford getting it would be a better bet for you than Birmingham.

Fair enough. Bit of a shame, but any profitability would be negligable at the moment - we're very rural and not in shrewsbury centre.

Looking at that Sam knows site has raised an interesting issue though - we have no LLU presence from any provider. So, although we're billed by Tiscali and have tiscali software, is our broadband actualy supplied by BT?

The actual line and the hardware you connect to in the exchange is BT however, the server you actually connect to the Internet via is Tiscali. If you were unbundled, then the hardware in the exchange would also be Tiscali owned.

Just to confirm, if you are not on an LLU connection you will not get Tiscali TV.

If you do get an LLU connection then Tiscali intend that "the TV service will be available to Tiscali's entire unbundled local loop network by the end of 2008. " Birmingham will be one of the first additions online in "April or May".

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/technology/...iscali-tv.html