media . telewest former type public industry communications fate merged with ntl successor virgin media founded 1984 defunct 8 february 2007 headquarters united kingdom products cable television broadband telephone mobile phone website via wayback machine http www.telewest.co.uk telewest formerly telewest broadband and telewest communications 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 once a constituent of the ftse 100 index . in march 2006 telewest merged with fellow cable telecom company ntl and created ntl telewest which then also merged with virgin mobile and virgin.net in june 2006 creating the united kingdom s first quadruple play telecom provider offering television internet landline phone and mobile phone services . in february 2007 ntl telewest was rebranded as virgin media . contents 1 history 2 operations 2.1 television 2.2 internet 2.3 telephone 3 marketing 4 references 5 external links history edit telewest originated in croydon in 1984 under the name croydon cable . 1 in 1988 united cable of denver us acquired croydon cable . franchises extended the company scope in edinburgh and the south west and south east of england . in 1989 united cable merged with united artists cable international . in may 1991 united artists announced a merged deal with their largest shareholder tci now update liberty media to form the largest cable operator in the us deal was valued at 142.5 m 2 by june year needed the deal was improved . 3 a week later on 8 june year needed the deal was finalized with itc acquiring the remaining 46 % of united artists to allow full control . 4 tci and us west announced a joint venture and in 1992 the joint venture company became telewest communications . in 1995 telewest merged with sbc communications adding franchises in the midlands and north west serving 1.3 million homes . during this time telewest founded a consortium called cable internet . this consisted of the major cable companies in the uk working together a provide national internet access service . 5 in march 1998 telewest announced a merger with general cable 6 and acquired the outstanding interest in birmingham cable adding a further 1.7 million franchise homes in yorkshire west london and birmingham . 7 telewest purchased the remaining 50 % stake in cable london from ntl in august 1999 adding 0.4 million franchise homes in north london . 8 in april 2000 telewest merged with flextech 9 and in november extended its cable network with the acquisition of eurobell taking the total number of homes passed to 4.9 million . 10 the company later became known as telewest broadband in a re brand during 2001 . 1 in subsequent years telewest experienced many financial problems due to huge debts incurred as a result of constructing its cable network and of acquiring other cable companies and assets . notably the eurobell acquisition had been funded by an equity based deal with a cash option the poor performance of the company s stock meant that the cash option was favourable and the company was not able to cover the call . in september 2003 telewest re structured itself by swapping its unsecured debt for 98.5 % of its shares . 11 the london stock exchange then de listed the consolidated shares . major telewest shareholders included huff and liberty media run by cable tycoon john malone . afterwards the company emerged from financial restructuring and completed a merger with ntl in 2006 . 12 operations edit a telewest vauxhall vivaro van in plymouth devon . on its cable network telewest provided several residential services including television edit the majority of telewest s television was digital . there were however areas that received an analogue service slough windsor and some other areas in west london . telewest was in the process of converting the remaining analogue areas to digital and it was expected that the analogue service would cease in 2007 . the digital television service offered a number of different products including true video on demand a pvr and hdtv . on demand on demand formerly known as teleport was the brand name for telewest s video on demand vod service . the on demand service launched in 2005 . in contrast to sky digital which due to technical limitations is only able to provide near vod services teleport is a true vod system . users could search through a large library of programmes and watch them when they want to as part of their subscription . this library included a free 7 day watch again feature for tv programmes produced by the bbc channel 4 and virgin media television formerly known as flextech . on demand also offered movies that could be purchased and watched as many times as desired within a twenty four hour period . on demand also offered hd content that worked in conjunction with the telewest pvr now renamed the v . hdtv telewest was the first uk broadcaster to offer hdtv . telewest s hdtv service launched several months earlier than that of their chief competitor sky digital . 13 telewest s hd service initially comprised around 10 30 hours per week of video on demand content with no linear high definition television channels available although the early trial services of bbc hd and itv hd were carried for a brief time . in january 2006 telewest started to broadcast hd documentaries such as the blue planet planet earth and pride through their teleport service and later broadcast some movies in hd . telewest had an agreement with both itv and the bbc and claimed to be the only provider in the uk to offer all the 2006 world cup matches in hd . in reality however half of the final group stage matches were not available in hd . telewest s hd service was provided exclusively through their tv drive box . sky launched their hd service in may 2006 initially charging a 300 setup fee and an additional 10 month for several subscription hd channels including hd versions of sky one sky movies and sky sports . telewest charged a 75 setup fee and 10 month although no subscription hd channels were offered . telewest s fees however included the tv drive recording service equivalent to the recording features of the sky service . tv drive was the name of telewest s digital video recorder pvr service . the product incorporated a 160 gigabyte hard drive as standard meaning it was able to store around 80 hours of recorded programmes . this was in contrast to bskyb s sky service which offered only 80 gigabytes 40 hours . similarly telewest s product incorporated three tuners while sky s incorporated only two meaning that telewest s service could record two channels at the same time while watching a third . a few days ahead of the rebranding to virgin media tv drive was renamed v . internet edit telewest s internet service called blueyonder formerly branded as cable internet ran on the cable internet architecture and offered speeds of 2 mbit s 4 mbit s and 10 mbit s downstream . the broadband service was uncapped meaning that its use was unlimited and no extra charges were payable related to the amount of data downloaded . on 21 november 2006 after the merger with ntl the register reported that subscriber traffic management was being trialled in areas in the north of england and was rolling out nationwide . 14 blueyonder also provided dial up internet services on a pay as you go or fixed monthly fee of 14.99 for unlimited use . telephone edit talk unlimited talk evenings and weekends talk weekends provided uk landline calls for up to an hour for a fixed fee monthly inclusive of line rental . telewest were the first when uk landline company to offer unlimited calls to landlines for a fixed monthly fee . talk mobile uk mobile calls with 25 % reduction from standard rates . talk international similar principle to talk mobile with different reductions to different countries . talk anywhere 200 minutes 400 minutes 800 minutes telewest were the first when landline company to offer a package of this kind as it included bundled minutes every month that could be carried over to the next . it included calls to uk mobiles landlines 01 and 02 ; latterly also 03 businesses with 0845 and 0870 numbers and specified international mobiles and landlines . it was available nationally varying in price depending on the number of minutes . marketing edit this section does not cite any sources . please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . july 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message telewest has tried a number of different strategies over the years with a solid corporate identity not coming out until late 2005 to coincide with the three for 30 offer . until 2007 the company used the mascot ellie west to promote its services . in 2004 when the incredibles was released . telewest promoted blueyonder internet services with branding from the film including television adverts starring characters from the film . references edit a b company history . virgin media . retrieved 2007 04 27 . united artists . la times . 1991 06 08 . tci cable television . chicago tribune . 1991 06 08 . united artists deal . new york times . 1991 06 08 . cascade switches spearhead telewest s cable internet infrastructure . uk s largest cable operator selects cascade multiservice switches for frame relay network to provide cable internet services telewest in 649m merger . retrieved 2009 01 01 . dead link telewest buys up ntl stake . retrieved 2009 01 01 . dead link telewest buys cable london . bbc news . bbc . 1999 08 26 . retrieved 2009 01 01 . mcintosh bill 1999 12 07 . telewest merger with flextech would challenge murdoch grip . the independent . london . retrieved 2009 01 01 . uk group buys independent . retrieved 2009 01 01 . dead link telewest signs debt swap deal . bbc news . bbc . 2003 09 15 . retrieved 2009 01 01 . ntl seals 6bn takeover . bbc news . bbc . 2005 10 03 . retrieved 2009 01 01 . telewest beats sky to hd launch . broadcast now . ntl telewest admits limiting unlimited web access . the register . 2006 11 21 . retrieved 2007 04 27 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to telewest . virgin media business home page v t e virgin media a subsidiary of liberty global products and services virgin broadband virgin media business virgin mobile virgin phone virgin tv former subsidiaries and shareholdings bid shopping uktv virgin media television predecessors ntl telewest virgin mobile uk category commons v t e cable satellite and other specialty television providers v t e cable satellite and other speciality television providers in africa asia and oceania cable cable tv hong kong cablevision lebanon cablelink destiny cable docomo pacific digicable india eonet japan first media foxtel hathway hot incablenet itscom japan jctv japan kbro lanka broadband networks sri lanka montage cable tv nigeria nayatel okevision optus television ooredoo qatar ppctv rostelecom siti cable skycable tbc taiwan tokai cable top tv indonesia transact tata sky truevisions united communication service vodafone new zealand worldcall satellite airtel digital tv aora astro malaysia bein big tv indonesia canalsat afrique canalsat cal donie cignal consat nigeria dd free dish ddishtv dialog tv sri lanka dish tv dish tv sri lanka dish home dishhd dream satellite tv dstv foxtel g sat hitv indosat indovision k vietnam kristal astro kt skylife medianet metro digital mbc mrtv 4 myhd njoi ntv plus orangetv osn pacific broadcasting services fiji pearl digital