What is the deadline for NTL

LegacyUser

Now i know they have to have 130000 homes upgrade to digital tv by september (how far are they along with that anyway)but after they do that, is there any deadline for the rest of their areas to be upgraded, or are they just going to sit there with 130000 homes untill their licence runs out

LegacyUser

I know this has not much in relation to your topic, but it might effect NTL anyway:

I heard on a dublin radio station today that the Irish goverment was clamping down on telecoms companies digging up the roads, and if any companies did dig up excessively, they would be fined and not allowed dig up any more roads for 5 years .... As far as I know, NTL do have to dig up a looooooot of roads to put down their Fiber Optics cable ....

LegacyUser

actually there a hell of alot of fibre down now, i cant see them needing to rip up much more road, its all a case of getting their act together

LegacyUser

As far as I know, its not as simple as them just getting their act together, its all financial problems at the moment with NTL...

If they did'nt pull out of upgrading their network last year, we would all have broadband in one form or the other by now !! (remember Eircom immediatly stopped their ADSL trials after NTL pulled out of the race for broadband)

But, I heard that NTL were going to continue upgrading in "high demand areas" ..... Bet ya its Tallaght !! lol

I don't have much confidence in NTL either way, especially as earlier this year they were upgrading cable 150 meters away from my house, when they decided to pull out
Soooooo close ...

LegacyUser

the areas of high demand are jsut place were they have to provide digital tv but cant do so on the cable allready down, im pretty sure im in one of those areas,
it will all come down to who offers my broadband first and at what price,

if eircom do it all well and good, if ntl does ill drop eircom for phone and go to them and if esat does ill drop eircom for the phone as well and go to them, but what ever way it is, it will be next year before i see it

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gladiator:
but what ever way it is, it will be next year before i see it</font>

NEXT YEAR ,man thats depressing !!

LegacyUser

Here's an extract from odtr9945.doc [1] on the ODTR website:

2.Licensee will ensure that no later than the dates indicated licensed services will be available in digital format to the following minimum numbers of homes within the licensed area:

Date        Numbers of homes
31/3/2001       86,760
31/3/2002      169,775
31/3/2003      265,534
31/3/2004      349,874

The above figures are for the Dublin region.

Please note paragraph 9 (3) of the licence:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
If, within a period of 6 months after the dates specified in the digital roll-out plan, the licensee does not comply with the requirements specified in the plan, the Director may, without prejudice to any other powers or remedies he or she may have under the Wireless Telegraphy (Programme Services Distribution) Regulations, 1999, reduce the period of exclusivity granted to the licensee under paragraph 2 (1) for part or all of the area described in Part III by such period as the Director considers appropriate.</font>

What are these digital services? See paragraph 9 (11) of the licence:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">11. The licensee shall comply with:

(a) the technical conditions for analogue transmission systems set out in Part Part IX; [2]

(b) the technical conditions for digital transmission systems set out in Part X ; [3]

(c) the conditions for the operation of conditional access systems set out in Part XI; [4]

(d) any other technical conditions notified to the licensee in writing by the Director;

and with any alterations or additions thereto so notified to the licensee.</font>

Unfortunately, I could not find any mention of bi-directional or Internet broadband in any of the above licence regulations.

Why wasn't NTL required to supply this? Afterall the purpose of selling NTL was to end the then Telecom Eireinn local loop monopoly . From Noel Treacy, T.D. [5]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Now looking at the trends in Ireland, I have some tremendous hope and aspiration, yet some prevailing concerns. The commitment to deregulation of the telecommunications market as witnessed by the proposed sale of Cablelink and the early ending of the "local loop" monopoly by Telecom will ensure that the important recommendations of the Information Society report and the Commission are positively acted upon.</font>

It was one of the National Competivness Council's recommendations: [6]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">An early sell-off of Cablelink to a company that would invest significantly in its development for the provision of broadband and compete strongly with other telecom operators using the Cablelink frastructure.
</font>

And indeed, after the sale went ahead, it was understood that there were conditions attached:

Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment [7]:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The sale of Cablelink has been completed subject to an upgrade of the network to provide broadband services</font>

Mary O'Rourke TD, Minister for Public Enterprise [8]:

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The sale must entail a commitment by the purchaser to upgrade the Cablelink network to a state of the art multi-media platform with third party access. This platform will enable Cablelink to become an important provider of a range of advanced multi-media services including digital television, internet, telephony, and value added services such as data services, messaging, video on demand, video conferencing and interactive services such as home shopping and home banking.</font>

So anyway, I'm still looking for where this committment is stated. The obvious place to put it would have been in the licence. The licence requirements are very specific on TV channels, frequencies etc. but nothing as far as I can see on broadband and telephony. They got a local monopoly out of us. What are we getting in return?

References:

[1] Cable TV Licence (amended) - Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1926 - P

[2] Technical Conditions for the operation of Analogue Cable Relay Systems - Part XI

[3] Technical Conditions for the Operation of Digital Cable Television Systems

[4] Technical Conditions for the Operation of Conditional Access Systems

[5] Address by Mr. Noel Treacy, T.D., Minister for Science, Technology and Commerce for The Information Society public meeting on "teledemocracy" on 28th May 1998

[6] Broadband Telecommunications Investment in Ireland
[7] Report on e-Commerce The Policy Requirements - The Developing Digital Economy

[8]7th April 1998: Government Approves Cablelink Sale


[This message has been edited by Skeptic1 (edited 16-07-2001).]

LegacyUser

well done, so on september 31 they have to have 86000 homes upgraded to digital tv, to launch their digital service, sounds good

Who wants to take best it will be only the south side of dublin

sceptre

As far as I remember that question was asked in the meeting with the ODTR and NTL don't have any requirement to povide broadband services (read "they won't be breaking the terms of their licence if they don't" for that)

Seamus

PS - Limerick is Chorus or nothing (so it's, erm, nothing in my case)

Skeptic gave the perfect answer to the original question.

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by sceptre:
As far as I remember that question was asked in the meeting with the ODTR and NTL don't have any requirement to povide broadband services (read "they won't be breaking the terms of their licence if they don't" for that)
</font>

Yes. I needn't have gone to great lengths to show this since the ODTR admitted it in the meating. However, my main point was that NTL were supposed to have been required to do a full upgrade but somewhere along the line it got changed to pure digital TV. I think if we knew why this is the case, we would understand a lot more about why we are in this situation (lack of broadband, lack of flat rate) now. I think I have shown that it was the intention originally:

"The sale must entail a commitment by the purchaser to upgrade the Cablelink network to a state of the art multi-media platform with third party access. This platform will enable Cablelink to become an important provider of a range of advanced multi-media services including digital television, internet, telephony, and value added services such as data services, messaging, video on demand,"

Why didn't the ODTR write this in to the licence requirements?

BTW, you need to add six months to all those figures to get the real deadlines. NTL took advantage of this "grace period" when they halted the upgrade.

sceptre

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Skeptic1:
I think I have shown that it was the intention originally:

"The sale must entail a commitment by the purchaser to upgrade the Cablelink network to a state of the art multi-media platform with third party access. This platform will enable Cablelink to become an important provider of a range of advanced multi-media services including digital television, internet, telephony, and value added services such as data services, messaging, video on demand,"

Why didn't the ODTR write this in to the licence requirements?
B]</font>

Bang on, skeptic - that's the precise question I'd like answered by the ODTR on that issue (obviously it doesn't personally affect me, being out of their monopoly area but it's another thing that needs to be rammed home on the issue of broadband access in Dublin)