Mark Robinson wrote:

Does that infrastructure still exist, and has anyone found a use
for it yet?

Off the top of my head I don't know, but MK is fully covered by cable
TV, and at one point it was illegal to install a TV aerial (I believe
this has now been repealed). It might well be that the cable system (a
rather dated analogue one) used these lines. Until a few years ago,
the cable TV system was, unusually, owned and operated by BT, which
might also point to such a use.

Neil

In message .com, Neil
Williams writes
Mark Robinson wrote:

Does that infrastructure still exist, and has anyone found a use
for it yet?

Off the top of my head I don't know, but MK is fully covered by cable
TV, and at one point it was illegal to install a TV aerial (I believe
this has now been repealed). It might well be that the cable system (a
rather dated analogue one) used these lines. Until a few years ago,
the cable TV system was, unusually, owned and operated by BT, which
might also point to such a use.

That's exactly what it was (and also the reason for BT owning the
system; they were specifically prohibited from bidding for the new cable
franchises when the old Cable Authority was set up).

At some point (possibly between the GPO and BT eras, a multichannel
cable TV set-up called "SelecTV" was established in MK. Unfortunately,
Googling hasn't quite allowed me to discover more about this (not that
I've tried hard) but at one point . I'm not sure if this is the same
SelecTV which later functioned as an independent production company, not
the current Australian pay TV operator.

Whatever else, cabling every home in a new town must have seemed
incredibly futuristic and far-sighted. It was just that technology
leaped ahead of the infrastructure!
--
Ian Jelf, MITG
Birmingham, UK

Registered Blue Badge Tourist Guide for London and the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk

Ian Jelf wrote:

Whatever else, cabling every home in a new town must have seemed
incredibly futuristic and far-sighted. It was just that technology
leaped ahead of the infrastructure!

Indeed.

The trouble with it now is that the infrastructure is old and outdated,
and the job of replacing it all with fibre-optics to offer a decent,
modern service is so prohibitive that Freeview and Sky are becoming
ever more popular.

Neil

Mark Robinson wrote:
Neil Williams wrote:

A surprisingly good location

Apropos of nothing at all, and completely off topic, but since
you're an MK resident, Neil, I'll ask anyway...

I was reading a 1972 issue of /Practical Electronics/ t'other day,
as you do. A news article revealed that in the progressive new
city of MK, as well as 'phone lines the GPO would be installing
a co-ax cable to the houses. The writer couldn't think of any
immediate use, apart from the ever thrilling possibility of having
your gas meter read remotely, but was sure that lots of uses would
be found, including the new Viewdata terminals that were just
around the corner (I believe it was actually 1975 before Prestel
was launched).

Does that infrastructure still exist, and has anyone found a use
for it yet?

It's used for Milton Keynes cable TV!

These days it's more a ball and chain than anything. Now owned by NTL
(after having being bought from BT who inherited it from the postoffice)
it will require a significant upgrade to fibre-optic to be able to go
digital!

Ian Jelf wrote:
In message .com, Neil
Williams writes
Mark Robinson wrote:

Does that infrastructure still exist, and has anyone found a use
for it yet?

Off the top of my head I don't know, but MK is fully covered by cable
TV, and at one point it was illegal to install a TV aerial (I believe
this has now been repealed). It might well be that the cable system (a
rather dated analogue one) used these lines. Until a few years ago,
the cable TV system was, unusually, owned and operated by BT, which
might also point to such a use.

That's exactly what it was (and also the reason for BT owning the
system; they were specifically prohibited from bidding for the new cable
franchises when the old Cable Authority was set up).

At some point (possibly between the GPO and BT eras, a multichannel
cable TV set-up called "SelecTV" was established in MK. Unfortunately,
Googling hasn't quite allowed me to discover more about this (not that
I've tried hard) but at one point . I'm not sure if this is the same
SelecTV which later functioned as an independent production company, not
the current Australian pay TV operator.

Whatever else, cabling every home in a new town must have seemed
incredibly futuristic and far-sighted. It was just that technology
leaped ahead of the infrastructure!

There were 4 places in England where I know this infrastructure was put
in by the GPO.

Swindon
Milton Keynes
Westminster
The "Eastern District" of Northampton.

BT/GPO eventually sold swindon cable to a management buy out team.
Swindon cable was bought by Telecential, which was bought by Comtel
which was bought by NTL.

Milton Keynes (already discussed)

Westminster (pretty much the same story as Milton Keynes, except not new
build).

Northampton Eastern district cable TV came under the local authority,
who hived it off to an outfit called county cable, which was bought by
Telecential who replaced all the old infrastructure and then expanded
over the rest of the town using a cable authority licence. See Swindon
for what happened to Telecential.

etillet wrote:
There were 4 places in England where I know this infrastructure was put
in by the GPO.

Swindon
Milton Keynes
Westminster
The "Eastern District" of Northampton.

When my uncle moved to Bedford (Goldington) about 30 years ago his new
council house had some sort of pre-installed radio & TV distribution
system. I think it was called "multisignal".
--
Bruce Fletcher
Stronsay, Orkney
www.stronsay.co.uk/claremont
(Remove teeth to reply)
"Some days you are the pigeon. Some days you are the statue"

Bruce wrote:

etillet wrote:
There were 4 places in England where I know this infrastructure was put
in by the GPO.

Swindon
Milton Keynes
Westminster
The "Eastern District" of Northampton.

When my uncle moved to Bedford (Goldington) about 30 years ago his new
council house had some sort of pre-installed radio & TV distribution
system. I think it was called "multisignal".


Rediffusion?

Tony Polson wrote:

Rediffusion?

Rediffusion used a system about as basic as you can get - a wire for
each TV or radio channel, with a common return. Oddly enough, I saw
one of their rotary switches (lettered for each channel) a couple of
weeks ago.

One of the problems was that the system wasn't up to higher
frequencies. Some details of their Hull installation he

http://www.hackhull.com/projects/rediffusion/index.html