Which cable broadband is outside my front door ?

[WHBM]

OK, fed up with going through to PPRuNe on Vodafone 3G broadband, want to have cable broadband.

Virgin Media, on their address checker, says no cable at my address.

But there is - right outside the front door are the scars in the pavement where the cable was installed in our road (inner London) about 10 years ago, in the big push to put cable in. I forget who did it, it was one of NTL or Telewest, all of whom are now part of Virgin.

Can someone help point me to find out who runs the cable out there, then ?

Thank you.

[hellsbrink]

It could be that the cable is actually one of the "older" types which can handle TV and that's it.

Without knowing where you are in London, I wouldn't be able to say for certain but there are big chunks where this sort of thing is the case


For example, Coldharbour Lane in Brixton is not able to get Virgin cable, but can get Virgin's ADSL. Could be a similar case for you

[tony draper]

Virgin media broadband worked just fine on the same coaxial cable as the television,certainly better than the old multi pair telephone cables, the main runs have been unrated to fiber optics round here but it still comes into the the houses on coaxial drop ins,the same cable that carries the TV progs.
:)
Been with what was Blueyonder and is now Virgin for near ten years now I've never had any serious complain,longest I been off line was a couple of days due to a cut cable.
If you can get cable TV broadband go for it.:ok:
PS,I can watch progs on the bbc iplayer high definition channel with not a single hint of jerkiness or pauses,of course a lot depends on your graphic card for HD as well.

[al446]

Anywhere can get Virgin ADSL as long as they have a BT line, no different to any other ADSL.

[hellsbrink]

I know that, Al, but since the OP was talking about Virgin's cable service and not DSL I gave a reason as to why he could not get cable services.

As I say, there are big chunks of London where you cannot get cable at all, even if the cable has been laid in the street some years ago. Also, some areas like Gosterwood Street in Deptford still only have analogue cable services, meaning you get TV and that's it. It's by no means as clear cut as people think, and most of these "dead" are old NTHell areas which were never upgraded

[green granite]

Have you tried asking your neighbours?

[Jofm5]

I lived on the isle of dogs in docklands up until around a year and a half ago - Probably one of the densest populated areas for fibre optic cabling to supply canary wharf etc (plus the communications companies based there).

However the isle of dogs was a considerable distance from the Poplar BT Exchange so DSL was limited to 1.5mbps and the cable network around the Isle of Dogs is so old that 1) it is still analogue, 2) Virgin were looking to just switch it off as spares were no longer made and 3) Virgin had no plans to upgrade the network as did not have the money or the customer base to support it (everyone had moved over to Sky as cheaper, more channels (only around 30 on cable) and better picture quality).

Whilst the cables may be able to carry a digital signal, the investment in cabinets and head end equipment preclude this where the investment cannot be recovered.

[gizmocat]

You could try asking around here. They're very helpful :-
Cable Forum (http://www.cableforum.co.uk)

[ORAC]

Does this site help? (http://www.cable.co.uk/regions/london/london/digital-tv.html)

[Hyph]

Stick your postcode into the SamKnows (http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php) checker? (hint: click on "Cable" for the relevant answers)