Telewest was a cable internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was also once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
NTL Incorporated, branded as ntl:, was a United States-listed British company founded in 1992, which provided cable television, cable internet and fixed-line cable telephone services. While NTL had its headquarters in New York City, the company's activities focused heavily on the United Kingdom, with operational headquarters in Hook, Hampshire.
NYNEX Corporation was an American telephone company that served five states of New England as well as most of the state of New York from January 1, 1984 to August 14, 1997.
Living TV Group was a British television consortium originally called Flextech before becoming a subsidiary of British Sky Broadcasting, with Challenge still broadcasting.
NTL Communications (Ireland) Limited was a cable television and Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Service (MMDS) company in Ireland. As of 2005 it was owned by Liberty Global Europe, having been divested by NTL. It was rebranded as UPC Ireland.
Analogue television in the United Kingdom includes terrestrial, satellite and cable services that were broadcast using analogue television signals. Following the termination of Virgin Media's analogue cable television service in Milton Keynes in November 2013, all television in the United Kingdom is broadcast in digital only.
In telecommunications, quadruple play or quad play is a marketing term combining the triple play service of broadband Internet access, television and telephone with wireless service provisions. This service set is also sometimes referred to as "The Fantastic Four".
Virgin Media Limited is a telecommunications company from Britain, founded in 2007, which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint venture between Liberty Global and Telefónica.
V+ is a set-top box for Virgin Media's Virgin TV service, which provides personal video recording (PVR) and high definition (HD) functionality to customers who subscribe to the service. Virgin TV have taken a different approach from rival Sky's Sky+ and later Sky+ HD services, by implementing a rental scheme for the V+ Box. When Virgin TV was launched, there was an installation charge and a monthly charge for all customers with a discount for XL customers. On 1 June 2007 pricing was revised, with all customers paying a one-off set-up fee and TV M and L customers paid a monthly charge, while TV XL customers had no extra charges. Various deals to lower the set-up fee have been made available to all customers in order to compete with rival Sky.
T-Mobile UK was a mobile network operator in the UK. First launched as Mercury One2One on 7 September 1993, the network was originally operated by Mercury Communications. one2one was purchased by Deutsche Telekom in 1999, who rebranded it with their global T-Mobile brand name in 2002.
CableHell was an independent consumer lobby group designed by customers of Virgin Media to discuss issues and create a community where people could submit their own views of the company, and opinions on how to improve products or services. The forum membership included a number of Virgin Media employees who helped out customers of Virgin Media and provided a source of official information.
Virgin TV is a digital pay cable television service in the United Kingdom, owned by Liberty Global (50%) and Telefónica (50%) after the merger its UK businesses to form Virgin Media O2. Its origins date from NTL and Telewest, formerly two of the UK's largest cable operators, which merged on 6 March 2006. All NTL:Telewest services were rebranded as Virgin Media in February 2007. Since the acquisition of Smallworld Cable in 2014, Virgin is the sole national cable TV provider in Great Britain. Currently about 51% of UK households have access to Virgin's network, which is independent from BT's Openreach network.
Virgin Media Ireland is Liberty Global's telecommunications operation in Ireland. It is the largest digital cable television provider within the country. As of 3 August 2024, the company offers broadband internet, digital television digital (VoIP) telephony and mobile phone services to 1 million customers. Until 4 May 2010, Virgin Media Ireland traded under the name Chorus NTL and UPC Ireland until 5 October 2015. Its main competitors in the Irish pay TV market are Sky Ireland, Eir and Vodafone Ireland.
There are four major forms of digital television (DTV) broadcast in the United Kingdom: a direct-to-home satellite service from the Astra 28.2°E satellites provided by Sky UK, a cable television service provided by Virgin Media ; a free-to-air satellite service called Freesat; and a free-to-air digital terrestrial service called Freeview. In addition, an IPTV system known as BT TV is provided by BT. Individual access methods vary throughout the country. 77% of the United Kingdom has access to HDTV via terrestrial digital television. Satellite is the only source of HDTV broadcast available for the remaining 23%.
Virgin Mobile UK was a mobile phone service provider. The company was launched by Virgin Group and One2One in 1999 as the world's first mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), initially using the One2One network. Virgin Mobile offered contract mobile packages, as well as mobile broadband services. It sold its services directly, as well as through price comparison sites.
The United Kingdom has been involved with the Internet throughout its origins and development. The telecommunications infrastructure in the United Kingdom provides Internet access to homes and businesses mainly through fibre, cable, mobile and fixed wireless networks, with the UK's 140-year-old copper network, maintained by Openreach, set to be withdrawn by December 2025, although this has since been extended to 31st January 2027 in some areas due to reasons including panic alarms in sheltered housing needing a persistent connection which can't be guaranteed with internet-based DECT systems.
TalkTalk Telecom Group Limited is a British telecommunications company that provides pay television and Internet access services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2003 as a subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse and was demerged as a standalone company in March 2010. Its headquarters are in Salford.
The Eurovox is a Digital Cable set-top box, notoriously known for its ability to decode cable television services without a subscription, which has been imported into the UK from Korea since 2004.
In Northern Ireland over 80% of the population has access to the internet, with 9 in 10 people having an internet connection in the home.
This is a timeline of cable television in the United Kingdom.
