The early days of cable telecommunications
The following pages are something of a collage of archived material from the early days of cable telecommunications in the UK. ‘Broadband’ cable, as it was then termed, started in the late 1980s, with the BT/Mercury Duopoly Review acting as the main catalyst.
Between 1989 and 2006 the UK cable TV industry evolved from over 100 franchises selling a single product, cable TV, to a single company (now Virgin Media) selling multiple products, both TV and telecommunications based.
But it all started with a a few dozen pioneers across the country, raising investment funds from North American telecoms and cable giants, and courageously building networks in the hope that that the British people would take to a new form of entertainment.