123-760: Virgin Media Limited/Virgin Media O2 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 . Virgin Media owns and operates its own Hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) and Fibre to
246-412: A thermionic tube or thermionic valve uses thermionic emission of electrons from a heated cathode for a number of fundamental electronic functions such as signal amplification and current rectification . The simplest vacuum tube, the diode invented in 1904 by John Ambrose Fleming , contains only a heated electron-emitting cathode and an anode. Electrons can only flow in one direction through
369-454: A VDSL2 line to a roadside cabinet. The cabinets were linked to Virgin Media backhaul via new fibre laid by Vtesse Networks through BT's local exchange, 5 km away. As well as broadband, Virgin Media offered its full range of TV services, including high definition and on demand, over the new infrastructure. On 11 March 2010, Virgin Media announced a six-month trial using telephone poles to deliver 50 Mbit/s broadband and TV services to
492-411: A radio broadcasting station , the station's large power amplifier is the transmitter and the broadcasting antenna is the interface between the power amplifier and the free space channel. The free space channel is the transmission medium and the receiver's antenna is the interface between the free space channel and the receiver. Next, the radio receiver is the destination of the radio signal, where it
615-621: A 10.5% shareholding. NTL:Telewest rebranded under the Virgin Media name on 8 February 2007. The company set up in 2004, Virgin Mobile Group (UK) Limited, became dormant and was eventually dissolved in 2020. In May 2020, it was announced that the owner of Virgin Mobile, Virgin Media , was in talks with Telefónica , owner of the O2 network, to merge the two companies. Following approval by
738-411: A better price for their goods. In Côte d'Ivoire , coffee growers share mobile phones to follow hourly variations in coffee prices and sell at the best price. On the macroeconomic scale, Lars-Hendrik Röller and Leonard Waverman suggested a causal link between good telecommunication infrastructure and economic growth. Few dispute the existence of a correlation although some argue it is wrong to view
861-438: A caveat for it in 1876. Gray abandoned his caveat and because he did not contest Bell's priority, the examiner approved Bell's patent on March 3, 1876. Gray had filed his caveat for the variable resistance telephone, but Bell was the first to document the idea and test it in a telephone.[88] Antonio Meucci invented a device that allowed the electrical transmission of voice over a line nearly 30 years before in 1849, but his device
984-497: A change-of-ownership clause written into the agreement for UKTV , a joint venture with Telewest's Flextech content division. To prevent this, Telewest instead acquired NTL. In December 2005 NTL:Telewest and mobile virtual network operator ( MVNO ) Virgin Mobile UK announced that talks had taken place regarding a merger. Virgin Mobile's independent directors rejected the original bid of £817 million ($ 1.4 billion), taking
1107-441: A connection between two or more users. For both types of networks, repeaters may be necessary to amplify or recreate the signal when it is being transmitted over long distances. This is to combat attenuation that can render the signal indistinguishable from the noise. Another advantage of digital systems over analogue is that their output is easier to store in memory, i.e., two voltage states (high and low) are easier to store than
1230-495: A continuous range of states. Telecommunication has a significant social, cultural and economic impact on modern society. In 2008, estimates placed the telecommunication industry 's revenue at US$ 4.7 trillion or just under three per cent of the gross world product (official exchange rate). Several following sections discuss the impact of telecommunication on society. On the microeconomic scale, companies have used telecommunications to help build global business empires. This
1353-492: A decade. Set to invest £3bn in improving its fibre optic broadband network, Virgin Media will be increasing the network's reach from 13 million to 17 million homes. On 29 September 2015, Virgin Media announced its broadband packages would be rebranded as Vivid. The company will upgrade existing customers from 50 Mbit/s to 70 Mbit/s, 100 Mbit/s to 150 Mbit/s and 152 Mbit/s to 200 Mbit/s. The speed upgrade will be rolled out to 90% of customers by
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#17327929266261476-472: A form of bandwidth throttling whereby customer bandwidth was reduced temporarily after a threshold was reached during peak periods. The company experimented with and revised all parameters involved in the throttling, such as threshold size, peak period definitions, throttling percentage and duration. Separate thresholds were applied to upstream and downstream, and thresholds varied between packages. In 2013, Virgin Media changed their traffic management policy to
1599-545: A free speed boost from their M500 package to their new M600 package, replacing 516 Mbit/s download and 36 Mbit/s upload with 636 Mbit/s download and 41 Mbit/s upload. The free upgrades were completed for all customers by 31 March 2021. M600 is only available through the Ultimate Oomph package bundle. Virgin Media maintain on their consumer website that they do not throttle users' download or upload bandwidth. However, Virgin Media did originally employ
1722-502: A further 40 stations by the end of 2012. The service, which gives access to mobile internet via a TfL portal offering travel, news and entertainment bulletins, will remain free for Virgin Media customers, along with customers of partnered companies, such as Vodafone and EE , after the 2012 Summer Olympics . Other users will only be able to access a limited amount of free content on the TfL portal, with full mobile internet services offered on
1845-406: A higher-frequency signal (known as the " carrier wave ") before transmission. There are several different modulation schemes available to achieve this [two of the most basic being amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM)]. An example of this process is a disc jockey's voice being impressed into a 96 MHz carrier wave using frequency modulation (the voice would then be received on
1968-450: A key advantage of digital signals over analogue signals. However, digital systems fail catastrophically when noise exceeds the system's ability to autocorrect. On the other hand, analogue systems fail gracefully: as noise increases, the signal becomes progressively more degraded but still usable. Also, digital transmission of continuous data unavoidably adds quantization noise to the output. This can be reduced, but not eliminated, only at
2091-494: A minimum payment guarantee included in the contract meant that the actual amount due would exceed twice the payment. The EPG name for Sky News was replaced with Old Sky Snooze . On 2 March 2007, the National Consumer Council accused Sky and Virgin of "behaving like children" and stated that it would consider whether or not to raise a super-complaint against them "that will help to knock heads together" by
2214-838: A new international frequency list and used in conformity with the Radio Regulation". According to the ITU's Radio Regulations adopted in Atlantic City, all frequencies referenced in the International Frequency Registration Board , examined by the board and registered on the International Frequency List "shall have the right to international protection from harmful interference". From a global perspective, there have been political debates and legislation regarding
2337-591: A non-cable telephone line). Virgin Broadband in cabled areas is marketed as "fibre optic broadband". It is a Hybrid fibre-coaxial network, where fibre optic trunk lines are used to connect the area's headend to cabinets on the street. In July 2009 and 2010, Virgin Media Broadband came first in an Ofcom broadband speed test in the UK. Ofcom tested typical speeds of broadband services provided by most ISPs in
2460-734: A pay-as-you-go basis. On 11 February 2010, ntl:Telewest Business was rebranded as Virgin Media Business , marking the end of the NTL and Telewest brand being used by the company. The company provides dedicated internet and telecommunications services to businesses. Virgin Phone offers landline telephone services; it ranks as the number two service behind the former UK state monopoly, BT Group . On 1 April 2010, Virgin Media began to offer free home phone to mobile calls. Virgin Phone customers are able to call Virgin Mobile customers at no charge, within
2583-437: A person's age, interests, sexual preference and relationship status. In this way, these sites can play important role in everything from organising social engagements to courtship . Prior to social networking sites, technologies like short message service (SMS) and the telephone also had a significant impact on social interactions. In 2000, market research group Ipsos MORI reported that 81% of 15- to 24-year-old SMS users in
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#17327929266262706-491: A radio as the channel "96 FM"). In addition, modulation has the advantage that it may use frequency division multiplexing (FDM). A telecommunications network is a collection of transmitters, receivers, and communications channels that send messages to one another. Some digital communications networks contain one or more routers that work together to transmit information to the correct user. An analogue communications network consists of one or more switches that establish
2829-494: A result of this, 30 Mbit/s or higher packages were only throttled on the upstream, where as 20 Mbit/s or below packages were throttled on both the upstream and the downstream. Sometime after this Virgin Media changed their policy again due to further feedback from customers, and they now state on their website that no matter what broadband package users have taken, they will not be subject to any bandwidth throttling. Virgin Media customers may use Usenet servers ( NNTP ) with
2952-475: A service that operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed. In the Middle Ages, chains of beacons were commonly used on hilltops as a means of relaying a signal. Beacon chains suffered the drawback that they could only pass a single bit of information, so the meaning of the message such as "the enemy has been sighted" had to be agreed upon in advance. One notable instance of their use
3075-581: A similar package called NTL Freedom . Telewest and NTL began discussions about a merger in late 2003. Thanks to their geographically distinct areas, NTL and Telewest had co-operated previously, as in redirecting potential customers living outside their respective areas. On 3 October 2005, NTL announced a US$ 16 billion purchase of Telewest, to form one of the largest media companies in the UK. The merger agreement as structured would have required NTL to negotiate with BBC Worldwide (the BBC 's commercial arm) due to
3198-411: A telephone network, the caller is connected to the person to whom they wish to talk by switches at various telephone exchanges . The switches form an electrical connection between the two users and the setting of these switches is determined electronically when the caller dials the number. Once the connection is made, the caller's voice is transformed to an electrical signal using a small microphone in
3321-412: A version of the electrical telegraph that he unsuccessfully demonstrated on September 2, 1837. His code was an important advance over Wheatstone's signaling method. The first transatlantic telegraph cable was successfully completed on July 27, 1866, allowing transatlantic telecommunication for the first time. The conventional telephone was patented by Alexander Bell in 1876. Elisha Gray also filed
3444-413: A £962.4 million recommended offer for Virgin Mobile. The offer had three options: 372 pence per share in cash; 0.23245 new NTL:Telewest Inc. shares for each Virgin Mobile share, worth 389 pence; or 0.18596 of an NTL:Telewest share, and 67 pence in cash, worth in total 387p. Branson indicated that he would accept the third option, which led to him receiving at least a 10.1% stake in
3567-581: Is adapted from the French, because its written use was recorded in 1904 by the French engineer and novelist Édouard Estaunié . Communication was first used as an English word in the late 14th century. It comes from Old French comunicacion (14c., Modern French communication), from Latin communicationem (nominative communication), noun of action from past participle stem of communicare, "to share, divide out; communicate, impart, inform; join, unite, participate in," literally, "to make common", from communis". At
3690-671: Is called point-to-point communication because it occurs between a transmitter and a receiver. Telecommunication through radio broadcasts is called broadcast communication because it occurs between a powerful transmitter and numerous low-power but sensitive radio receivers. Telecommunications in which multiple transmitters and multiple receivers have been designed to cooperate and share the same physical channel are called multiplex systems . The sharing of physical channels using multiplexing often results in significant cost reduction. Multiplexed systems are laid out in telecommunication networks and multiplexed signals are switched at nodes through to
3813-451: Is called (in the jargon of the field) " quadrature amplitude modulation " (QAM) that are used in high-capacity digital radio communication systems. Modulation can also be used to transmit the information of low-frequency analogue signals at higher frequencies. This is helpful because low-frequency analogue signals cannot be effectively transmitted over free space. Hence the information from a low-frequency analogue signal must be impressed into
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3936-434: Is commonly called "keying" —a term derived from the older use of Morse Code in telecommunications—and several keying techniques exist (these include phase-shift keying , frequency-shift keying , and amplitude-shift keying ). The " Bluetooth " system, for example, uses phase-shift keying to exchange information between various devices. In addition, there are combinations of phase-shift keying and amplitude-shift keying which
4059-794: Is converted from electricity to sound. Telecommunication systems are occasionally "duplex" (two-way systems) with a single box of electronics working as both the transmitter and a receiver, or a transceiver (e.g., a mobile phone ). The transmission electronics and the receiver electronics within a transceiver are quite independent of one another. This can be explained by the fact that radio transmitters contain power amplifiers that operate with electrical powers measured in watts or kilowatts, but radio receivers deal with radio powers measured in microwatts or nanowatts . Hence, transceivers have to be carefully designed and built to isolate their high-power circuitry and their low-power circuitry from each other to avoid interference. Telecommunication over fixed lines
4182-481: Is degraded by undesirable noise . Commonly, the noise in a communication system can be expressed as adding or subtracting from the desirable signal via a random process . This form of noise is called additive noise , with the understanding that the noise can be negative or positive at different instances. Unless the additive noise disturbance exceeds a certain threshold, the information contained in digital signals will remain intact. Their resistance to noise represents
4305-609: Is self-evident in the case of online retailer Amazon.com but, according to academic Edward Lenert, even the conventional retailer Walmart has benefited from better telecommunication infrastructure compared to its competitors. In cities throughout the world, home owners use their telephones to order and arrange a variety of home services ranging from pizza deliveries to electricians. Even relatively poor communities have been noted to use telecommunication to their advantage. In Bangladesh 's Narsingdi District , isolated villagers use cellular phones to speak directly to wholesalers and arrange
4428-448: Is separated from its adjacent stations by 200 kHz, and the difference between 200 kHz and 180 kHz (20 kHz) is an engineering allowance for the imperfections in the communication system. In the example above, the "free space channel" has been divided into communications channels according to frequencies , and each channel is assigned a separate frequency bandwidth in which to broadcast radio waves. This system of dividing
4551-449: Is the informational equivalent of two newspaper pages per person per day in 1986, and six entire newspapers per person per day by 2007. Given this growth, telecommunications play an increasingly important role in the world economy and the global telecommunications industry was about a $ 4.7 trillion sector in 2012. The service revenue of the global telecommunications industry was estimated to be $ 1.5 trillion in 2010, corresponding to 2.4% of
4674-605: Is the main cable provider in the UK, with the exception of WightFibre on the Isle of Wight , and covers 51% of UK households. Virgin Media competes primarily in broadband with Sky , BT ( EE ) and TalkTalk . The company's origins lie in both Telewest and NTL , which merged in March 2006. Telewest began in 1984 in Croydon under the name "Croydon Cable", and was acquired by United Cable of Denver in 1988. The company expanded during
4797-473: Is used in full. Virgin Mobile originally offered pay-as-you-go contracts, but in October 2019 these were closed to new customers and tariffs were increased for existing customers. On 6 November 2019, it was announced that Virgin Mobile would end their 20-year contract with BT and EE, and would use Vodafone 's network from 2021, initially for five years. From January 2021 new customers were connected to
4920-651: The Advertising Standards Authority upheld claims made by Virgin Media in its marketing, despite a complaint from Sky. Until 2013, the company was listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market and the London Stock Exchange . On 5 February 2013, Liberty Global announced that they had agreed to buy Virgin Media for approximately US$ 23.3 billion (£15 billion) in a stock and cash merger. On 15 April, EU regulatory approval for
5043-566: The Berkshire village of Woolhampton . Virgin Media identified more than one million homes in parts of the UK that could benefit from deployment over telephone poles, without the need for government subsidy. During July the trial was extended to existing commercial infrastructure in the Welsh village of Crumlin , Caerphilly. On 7 October 2010, Ofcom ordered BT to open up its fibre-optic network to competing broadband providers to help drive forward
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5166-657: The Competition and Markets Authority , the merger to form Virgin Media O2 was completed on 1 June 2021. Virgin Media said that Virgin Mobile customers would see no immediate changes. In January 2023, it was confirmed by Virgin Media O2 that Virgin Mobile would close, with all customers moving from Virgin Mobile to O2; migration started in March 2023 and was completed in August 2023. On 31 August 2023, sales of new Virgin Mobile SIM only and device plans were stopped and
5289-773: The Nipkow disk by Paul Nipkow and thus became known as the mechanical television . It formed the basis of experimental broadcasts done by the British Broadcasting Corporation beginning on 30 September 1929. However, for most of the 20th century, televisions depended on the cathode ray tube invented by Karl Ferdinand Braun . The first version of such a television to show promise was produced by Philo Farnsworth and demonstrated to his family on 7 September 1927. After World War II, interrupted experiments resumed and television became an important home entertainment broadcast medium. The type of device known as
5412-580: The Office of Fair Trading about BSkyB's move, and would withdraw its attempt to buy ITV plc, stating it did not believe it could make a deal on favourable terms. In November 2006, the company signed a deal with Sir Richard Branson to license the Virgin brand for the combined business. NTL Group's services – previously marketed under the NTL , Telewest and Virgin.net brands were merged with Virgin Mobile under
5535-458: The Sky1 , Sky2 , Sky Travel , Sky Travel Extra , Sky Sports News and Sky News channel content with a standard message. Sky attributed part of the rate rise to the fact that the new deal would also include Sky3 , Sky Arts and undisclosed high definition and video on demand content. Sky said the deal would cost only 3p per customer per day (roughly £35,000,000 per year), but Virgin said that
5658-691: The privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission network. In 1998 CableTel adopted "NTL" as its new name. NTL purchased the ISP Virgin.net in 2004, having originally operated it as a joint venture with Virgin Group since it launched in November 1996. It sold ADSL broadband services through BT landlines to those living outside areas served by NTL's cable network and also offered subscription-based and subscription-free dial-up Internet access. Prior to acquiring Virgin.net, NTL offered
5781-440: The spark gap transmitter for radio or mechanical computers for computing, it was the invention of the thermionic vacuum tube that made these technologies widespread and practical, leading to the creation of electronics . In the 1940s, the invention of semiconductor devices made it possible to produce solid-state devices, which are smaller, cheaper, and more efficient, reliable, and durable than thermionic tubes. Starting in
5904-605: The "Virgin Media" brand on 8 February 2007, referred to by Virgin as V Day . Virgin.net was integrated into the new brand as Virgin Media Beyond Cable (later Virgin Media National). In February 2007, Virgin Central, an on-demand service, gained the rights to begin showing episodes of the television show Lost (already shown on Sky 1), and other shows including Alias and The OC . This service extended
6027-705: The 1932 Plenipotentiary Telegraph Conference and the International Radiotelegraph Conference in Madrid, the two organizations merged to form the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). They defined telecommunication as "any telegraphic or telephonic communication of signs, signals, writing, facsimiles and sounds of any kind, by wire, wireless or other systems or processes of electric signaling or visual signaling (semaphores)." The definition
6150-497: The 1970s. In the 1960s, Paul Baran and, independently, Donald Davies started to investigate packet switching , a technology that sends a message in portions to its destination asynchronously without passing it through a centralized mainframe . A four-node network emerged on 5 December 1969, constituting the beginnings of the ARPANET , which by 1981 had grown to 213 nodes . ARPANET eventually merged with other networks to form
6273-519: The 1990s and adopted the Telewest name in 1992 following the merger of its then-parent TCI and US West . It expanded into cable television access in 1999 by purchasing the remaining 50% stake in Cable London, one of the first cable TV companies in the UK, from NTL, adding 400,000 homes in north London. In April 2000 Telewest merged with Flextech , and in November extended its cable network with
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#17327929266266396-466: The ITU was able to compile an index that measures the overall ability of citizens to access and use information and communication technologies. Using this measure, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland received the highest ranking while the African countries Niger , Burkina Faso and Mali received the lowest. Telecommunication has played a significant role in social relationships. Nevertheless, devices like
6519-744: The Internet. While Internet development was a focus of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) who published a series of Request for Comments documents, other networking advancements occurred in industrial laboratories , such as the local area network (LAN) developments of Ethernet (1983), Token Ring (1984) and Star network topology. The effective capacity to exchange information worldwide through two-way telecommunication networks grew from 281 petabytes (PB) of optimally compressed information in 1986 to 471 PB in 1993 to 2.2 exabytes (EB) in 2000 to 65 EB in 2007. This
6642-767: 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. NTL:Telewest bought Virgin Mobile on 4 April 2006 and rebranded itself as Virgin Media on 9 February 2007; Virgin Mobile became part of the quadplay of Virgin Media services. Virgin Media was purchased by Liberty Global in 2013, and merged with O2 in 2021. The company began transferring customers to O2 services from March 2023, and it ceased trading on 31 August 2023 upon completion of all customer transfers. Existing Virgin Mobile UK customers are still legally contracted to Virgin Mobile UK, but with O2 providing
6765-566: The Premises (FTTP) networks in the United Kingdom. Although most of the network is urban focused, the new joint venture, Nexfibre (a 50:50 joint venture between Virgin Media O2 and Infravia Capital Partners ) is expanding the network to more areas which never had access to the Virgin Media network before. As of Q2 2023, it had a total of approximately 5.8 million customers. Since the acquisition of Smallworld Cable in 2014, Virgin Media
6888-573: The Talk Plan specified periods. Virgin TV , the digital cable television service from Virgin Media, currently ranks as the UK's second largest pay TV service, having 3.6m subscribers, compared to BSkyB's 8.2m as of Q3 2007. Currently 55% of UK households potentially have access to Virgin's network, while anyone in the UK with a line-of-sight view of the Astra & Eurobird satellites at 28.2° east has
7011-426: The UK including Manchester , Leeds , Edinburgh and Glasgow . This is being provided through upgrades to downstream to DOCSIS 3.1, with upload speeds still limited to DOCSIS 3.0 upstream infrastructure. They aim to finish the rollout across the entire Virgin Media network by the end of 2021. On 29 June 2020, Virgin Media announced that customers on their "Ultimate Oomph" broadband, TV and phone package would receive
7134-559: The UK's 26m homes. On 27 October 2010, Virgin Media announced its 100 Mbit/s downstream broadband service, featuring 10 Mbit/s upstream rates, which went on sale on 8 December 2010. Early service areas were parts of London, the South East and Yorkshire. With the faster upstream rates specifically, it expects the uptake in cloud computing services will also see an increase. The roll-out was expected to be complete by mid-2012. On 11 January 2012, Virgin Media announced plans to double
7257-467: The UK's first ' quadruple play ' media company, offering television, internet, mobile phone and fixed-line telephone services. The deal included a 30-year exclusive branding agreement that saw NTL adopt the "Virgin" name after it completed its merger with Telewest. NTL:Telewest announced on 8 November 2006 it would change its name to "Virgin Media Inc". On 9 November 2006, NTL announced it had approached
7380-446: The UK, including BSkyB, BT, Tiscali, AOL, TalkTalk, Plusnet, O2 and Orange. Since most broadband connections in the UK are provided by ADSL, and the quality of individual phone lines varies according to distance from exchange, most landline broadband services are marketed as being the maximum speed that the individual's phone line will support, "up to 8 mb". As a result, actual speeds obtained vary greatly, but are always constrained by
7503-485: The UKTV channels on their service with other networks. This led to a backlash by customers with some threatening to leave. The dispute finally ended after three weeks on 11 August 2018 after Virgin Media and UKTV reached an agreement. Virgin Media gradually restored all 10 UKTV channels with their +1 and HD Simulcast channels along with now added simulcast GOLD HD and the reinstalled UKTV Play app. The app now features five times
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#17327929266267626-442: The United Kingdom had used the service to coordinate social arrangements and 42% to flirt. In cultural terms, telecommunication has increased the public's ability to access music and film. With television, people can watch films they have not seen before in their own home without having to travel to the video store or cinema. With radio and the Internet, people can listen to music they have not heard before without having to travel to
7749-598: The United Kingdom's first "quadruple play" media company, bringing together TV, broadband internet access , mobile phone and fixed-line phone services, and allowing NTL:Telewest to use the Virgin brand. Under the deal, Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson was understood to be planning to swap his controlling 72% stake in Virgin Mobile for a 14% holding in NTL:Telewest, which would make the billionaire entrepreneur
7872-797: The United States was spent on media that depend upon telecommunication. Many countries have enacted legislation which conforms to the International Telecommunication Regulations established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is the "leading UN agency for information and communication technology issues". In 1947, at the Atlantic City Conference, the ITU decided to "afford international protection to all frequencies registered in
7995-520: The Virgin Group, with the agreement that if the company were to become public in the following two and a half years they would receive 25% of the proceeds. The two companies had previously argued over the terms of the agreement made in 1999 and Richard Branson had filed a High Court action against T-Mobile. Branson had considered making Virgin Mobile public in 2002. Eventually, dealing in shares of Virgin Mobile began on 21 July 2004, with 37% of
8118-581: The Vodafone network, and it was reported that existing customers would be moved from EE to Vodafone by early 2022. However, following the mid-2021 merger, Virgin Media O2 stated that notice to cancel the MVNO agreement had been given, and that the company intended to bring all consumer mobile services onto the O2 network. In January 2021, Virgin Media launched 5G services using the Vodafone network. Later that year,
8241-533: The ability to receive Sky's service. Virgin TV ranks as the UK's largest provider of on-demand content, with over 3 million Video on Demand (VoD) customers and as of October 2011 over 6,500 hours of programming. Telecommunications Telecommunication , often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom , is the transmission of information with an immediacy comparable to face-to-face communication. As such, slow communications technologies like postal mail and pneumatic tubes are excluded from
8364-464: The acquisition of Eurobell , taking the total number of homes past 4.9 million. NTL was established by Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal in 1993 as "International CableTel", taking advantage of the deregulation of the UK cable market. Initially, Cabletel acquired local cable franchises covering Guildford , Northern Ireland and parts of Central Scotland and South Wales . In 1996, CableTel acquired National Transcommunications Limited (NTL),
8487-691: The address "news.virginmedia.com". These servers are outsourced to the Highwinds Network Group and are physically based in Amsterdam , Netherlands. Virgin Media also hosts another operational Usenet server previously known as "text.news.ntlworld.com", now "text.news.virginmedia.com", which again has certain restrictions and limits article size to 50 kb. In March 2012, Virgin Media won an exclusive contract to provide Wi-Fi access to London Underground platforms until 2017. The company announced mobile internet at 80 stations by July 2012 and
8610-426: The amount of more on-demand content now available. All UKTV Channels and UKTV app were all completely restored to Virgin Media platforms by 15 August 2018. On 7 May 2020, Liberty Global reached an agreement with Telefónica to merge their UK businesses, Virgin Media and O2 , in a deal worth £31bn, subject to regulatory approval by the Competition and Markets Authority . The CMA approved the merger on 19 May 2021, and
8733-552: The biggest shareholder in the combined group, and give him a share of future revenues. The first bid of £817 million (US$ 1.4 billion) was rejected by Virgin Mobile's independent directors, who took the view that NTL:Telewest's bid "undervalued the business." Branson was reported to be confident that a restructured deal could be completed. The offer was increased in January 2006, to £961 million, or 372 pence per share. On 4 April 2006, NTL:Telewest announced
8856-505: The caller's handset . This electrical signal is then sent through the network to the user at the other end where it is transformed back into sound by a small speaker in that person's handset. Virgin Mobile UK 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
8979-483: The combined company. NTL and Telewest formally completed their merger on 3 March 2006, making the merged company the UK's largest cable provider, with more than 90% of the market. The combined company renamed itself NTL Incorporated, with ex-NTL shareholders controlling 75% of the stock and ex-Telewest shareholders 25%. Nine of the 11 directors of the new board came from NTL, with two from Telewest. NTL:Telewest's takeover of Virgin Mobile completed on 4 July 2006, creating
9102-460: The commercial television broadcaster ITV plc about a proposed merger, after a similar announcement by ITV. BSkyB effectively blocked the merger on 17 November 2006 by controversially buying a 17.9% stake in ITV plc, a move that attracted anger from NTL shareholder Richard Branson , and an investigation from media and telecoms regulator Ofcom . On 6 December 2006 NTL announced that it had complained to
9225-437: The correct destination terminal receiver. Communications can be encoded as analogue or digital signals , which may in turn be carried by analogue or digital communication systems. Analogue signals vary continuously with respect to the information, while digital signals encode information as a set of discrete values (e.g., a set of ones and zeroes). During propagation and reception, information contained in analogue signals
9348-737: The deal was granted, the final hurdle in the acquisition. On 4 June, shareholders approved the acquisition and the deal was completed on 7 June. On 3 February 2014, Virgin Media acquired Smallworld Fibre , a cable provider based in North West England and Western Scotland, for an undisclosed fee. Smallworld's network was merged into Virgin Media's during 2014. In November 2014, Virgin Media reached an agreement to sell its ADSL business to TalkTalk Group , allowing Virgin to focus on its cable broadband offering. Virgin began transferring customers to TalkTalk in February 2015. On 20 July 2018, it
9471-500: The definition. Many transmission media have been used for telecommunications throughout history, from smoke signals , beacons , semaphore telegraphs , signal flags , and optical heliographs to wires and empty space made to carry electromagnetic signals. These paths of transmission may be divided into communication channels for multiplexing , allowing for a single medium to transmit several concurrent communication sessions . Several methods of long-distance communication before
9594-629: The detriment of their customers. The policy stated a maximum throttling amount of 40% on most services, however users reported being throttled by as much as 54%. Virgin Media's advertisements regarding their "unlimited" broadband services, and their controversial traffic management were investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority, after having previous advertisements banned. From 28 February 2014, Virgin Media announced that they were scrapping traffic management for downstream traffic on 30 Mbit/s or higher packages. As
9717-519: The development of optical fibre. The Internet , a technology independent of any given medium, has provided global access to services for individual users and further reduced location and time limitations on communications. Telecommunication is a compound noun of the Greek prefix tele- (τῆλε), meaning distant , far off , or afar , and the Latin verb communicare , meaning to share . Its modern use
9840-537: The device—from the cathode to the anode. Adding one or more control grids within the tube enables the current between the cathode and anode to be controlled by the voltage on the grid or grids. These devices became a key component of electronic circuits for the first half of the 20th century and were crucial to the development of radio, television, radar, sound recording and reproduction , long-distance telephone networks, and analogue and early digital computers . While some applications had used earlier technologies such as
9963-422: The electrical telegraph, the last commercial line was abandoned in 1880. On July 25, 1837, the first commercial electrical telegraph was demonstrated by English inventor Sir William Fothergill Cooke and English scientist Sir Charles Wheatstone . Both inventors viewed their device as "an improvement to the [existing] electromagnetic telegraph" and not as a new device. Samuel Morse independently developed
10086-771: The end of 2015. On 22 March 2017, Virgin Media made ultrafast speeds standard with new bundles. 100 Mbit/s entry level rising to top speed of 300 Mbit/s. On 29 April 2019, Virgin Media unveiled a new bundle with a download speed of 500 Mbit/s; due to Virgin Media's practice of over-provisioning, this bundle can expect average speeds of 516 Mbit/s and a max of 575 Mbit/s. On 30 September 2019, Virgin Media announced their new Gig1 package rollout, providing download speeds up to 1,140 Mbit/s (over 1 Gbit/s) and upload speeds up to 52 Mbit/s, starting in Southampton , which has subsequently rolled out to selected major cities and their surrounding areas across
10209-587: The end of that month. Then on 5 March 2007, Virgin Media threatened to take legal action against BSkyB if the matter remained unresolved in 30 days. On 12 April 2007, Virgin Media filed a legal case in the High Court against BSkyB under the UK Competition Act 1998 and Article 82 of the EC Treaty . BSkyB claimed that Virgin Media made little effort to further arbitration. On 9 May 2008, it
10332-403: The expense of increasing the channel bandwidth requirement. The term "channel" has two different meanings. In one meaning, a channel is the physical medium that carries a signal between the transmitter and the receiver. Examples of this include the atmosphere for sound communications, glass optical fibres for some kinds of optical communications , coaxial cables for communications by way of
10455-458: The first decade of the 20th century, a revolution in wireless communication began with breakthroughs including those made in radio communications by Guglielmo Marconi , who won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics . Other early pioneers in electrical and electronic telecommunications include co-inventors of the telegraph Charles Wheatstone and Samuel Morse , numerous inventors and developers of
10578-431: The importance of social conversations and staying connected to family and friends. Since then the role that telecommunications has played in social relations has become increasingly important. In recent years, the popularity of social networking sites has increased dramatically. These sites allow users to communicate with each other as well as post photographs, events and profiles for others to see. The profiles can list
10701-447: The individual phone line – the quality of which is out of the control of the broadband provider. Cable broadband has no such speed variability caused by connection quality as the network is fully owned and controlled by the cable company providing the broadband – any slowdowns are wholly as a result of traffic shaping, or local capacity being over-sold or over-subscribed. For this reason, the results showed that Virgin Media's broadband speed
10824-552: The management of telecommunication and broadcasting. The history of broadcasting discusses some debates in relation to balancing conventional communication such as printing and telecommunication such as radio broadcasting. The onset of World War II brought on the first explosion of international broadcasting propaganda. Countries, their governments, insurgents, terrorists, and militiamen have all used telecommunication and broadcasting techniques to promote propaganda. Patriotic propaganda for political movements and colonization started
10947-567: The medium into channels according to frequency is called " frequency-division multiplexing ". Another term for the same concept is " wavelength-division multiplexing ", which is more commonly used in optical communications when multiple transmitters share the same physical medium. Another way of dividing a communications medium into channels is to allocate each sender a recurring segment of time (a "time slot", for example, 20 milliseconds out of each second), and to allow each sender to send messages only within its own time slot. This method of dividing
11070-414: The medium into communication channels is called " time-division multiplexing " ( TDM ), and is used in optical fibre communication. Some radio communication systems use TDM within an allocated FDM channel. Hence, these systems use a hybrid of TDM and FDM. The shaping of a signal to convey information is known as modulation . Modulation can be used to represent a digital message as an analogue waveform. This
11193-558: The merger meant Virgin Mobile customers reported losing signal as EE consolidated the coverage of the two formerly separate networks. As part of the merger, Virgin Media continued the agreement with EE to use its network, and phones could roam between a formerly T-Mobile UK mast and a former Orange mast from early October 2011. In November 2016, Virgin launched 4G with new tariffs and an unused monthly data rollover feature. Users on 4G plans have free access to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger apps by " zero-rating " until their data allowance
11316-469: The merger was completed on 1 June 2021. This created one of the UK's largest entertainment and telecommunications companies, to rival BT Group . The resulting company is called VMED O2 UK Limited, operating as Virgin Media O2 . The broadband division combines NTL's cable-broadband operations ( broadband Internet access connections through cable ), Blueyonder (Telewest's cable-broadband operations) and Virgin.net ( ADSL , broadband Internet access through
11439-742: The mid-1930s. In 1936, the BBC broadcast propaganda to the Arab World to partly counter similar broadcasts from Italy, which also had colonial interests in North Africa. Modern political debates in telecommunication include the reclassification of broadband Internet service as a telecommunications service (also called net neutrality ), regulation of phone spam , and expanding affordable broadband access. According to data collected by Gartner and Ars Technica sales of main consumer's telecommunication equipment worldwide in millions of units was: In
11562-596: The mid-1960s, thermionic tubes were replaced with the transistor . Thermionic tubes still have some applications for certain high-frequency amplifiers. On 11 September 1940, George Stibitz transmitted problems for his Complex Number Calculator in New York using a teletype and received the computed results back at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire . This configuration of a centralized computer ( mainframe ) with remote dumb terminals remained popular well into
11685-429: The modern era used sounds like coded drumbeats , the blowing of horns , and whistles . Long-distance technologies invented during the 20th and 21st centuries generally use electric power, and include the telegraph , telephone , television , and radio . Early telecommunication networks used metal wires as the medium for transmitting signals. These networks were used for telegraphy and telephony for many decades. In
11808-529: The monthly fee for existing 100 Mbit/s customers. On 11 November 2013, Virgin Media announced its 152 Mbit/s downstream broadband service, featuring 12 Mbit/s upstream rates, which started rolling out to customers from 28 February 2014. The company also upgraded existing customers, from 30 Mbit/s to 50 Mbit/s, 60 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s, and 120 Mbit/s to the new 152 Mbit/s service. The rollout completed in early 2015. In February 2015, Virgin Media announced its biggest investment in broadband infrastructure in over
11931-452: The music store. Telecommunication has also transformed the way people receive their news. A 2006 survey (right table) of slightly more than 3,000 Americans by the non-profit Pew Internet and American Life Project in the United States the majority specified television or radio over newspapers. Telecommunication has had an equally significant impact on advertising. TNS Media Intelligence reported that in 2007, 58% of advertising expenditure in
12054-400: The neighbourhood of 94.5 MHz (megahertz) while another radio station can simultaneously broadcast radio waves at frequencies in the neighbourhood of 96.1 MHz. Each radio station would transmit radio waves over a frequency bandwidth of about 180 kHz (kilohertz), centred at frequencies such as the above, which are called the "carrier frequencies" . Each station in this example
12177-405: The network ceased operations. Virgin Mobile sells contract airtime, mobile phones and mobile broadband , marketed through Virgin Media and its high street stores. Following the 2010 merger of T-Mobile and Orange to form EE , many Virgin Media customers were able to use phones previously locked to either of these companies, although EE SIMs would not work in phones locked to Virgin. However,
12300-426: The newly enlarged NTL:Telewest, and helped to fund the increased 372p per share in cash for the minority shareholders. The independent directors of Virgin Mobile indicated to NTL:Telewest that they "intended unanimously to recommend that Virgin Mobile shareholders vote in favour of the scheme". NTL:Telewest acquired Virgin Mobile on 4 July 2006, delisting it from the London Stock Exchange and leaving Virgin Group with
12423-627: The on-demand service previously known as Teleport TV . Teleport TV was renamed TV Choice offering recently broadcast shows and other shows and series. A channel agreement for Virgin Media to keep non-premium Sky channels ended on 1 March 2007. Virgin Media and Sky failed to reach agreement on the issue, and Sky reacted by posting a letter to the public in major UK newspapers on 28 February 2007. Despite Sky's letter, Virgin Media blamed Sky for tyrannizing them and inciting consumers to switch. The companies failed to resolve their differences, and subsequently after midnight on 1 March 2007, Virgin Media replaced
12546-515: The presence or absence of an atmosphere between the two. Radio waves travel through a perfect vacuum just as easily as they travel through air, fog, clouds, or any other kind of gas. The other meaning of the term "channel" in telecommunications is seen in the phrase communications channel , which is a subdivision of a transmission medium so that it can be used to send multiple streams of information simultaneously. For example, one radio station can broadcast radio waves into free space at frequencies in
12669-709: The relationship as causal. Because of the economic benefits of good telecommunication infrastructure, there is increasing worry about the inequitable access to telecommunication services amongst various countries of the world—this is known as the digital divide . A 2003 survey by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) revealed that roughly a third of countries have fewer than one mobile subscription for every 20 people and one-third of countries have fewer than one land-line telephone subscription for every 20 people. In terms of Internet access, roughly half of all countries have fewer than one out of 20 people with Internet access. From this information, as well as educational data,
12792-458: The rollout of high-speed internet services in the UK. Ofcom further ordered BT to free up access to network infrastructure – including all telephone poles and underground ducts – for the rollout of broadband to areas BT does not plan to reach. Virgin Media confirmed plans to expand its broadband network in the UK by using the infrastructure owned by BT. By using the approach, the company hoped to expand its network to reach as many as 16 million of
12915-436: The same period. The agreements include fixed annual carriage fees of £30 million for the channels with both channel suppliers able to secure additional capped payments if their channels meet certain performance-related targets. As part of the agreements, both Sky and Virgin Media agreed to terminate all High Court proceedings against each other relating to the carriage of their respective basic channels. On 26 August 2009,
13038-618: The services until the end of the contract. Virgin Mobile was launched in November 1999 as a private joint venture between One2One (later T-Mobile UK) and the Virgin Group . The joint venture involved leasing network bandwidth from One2One and re-selling it under the Virgin Mobile brand, making it significantly cheaper to run than if Virgin operated its own network infrastructure. The company reported its first annual profit in 2003, following successful Christmas sales. In 2004 Deutsche Telekom sold their 50% holding in Virgin Mobile to
13161-419: The shares made available for sale as an initial public offering and the rest held by the Virgin Group. At the time, the company had 4.1 million customers and employed 1,400 staff in the UK; the listing valued the company at £500 million. In December 2005 it was announced that Virgin Mobile UK was in talks with NTL:Telewest regarding a sale. The combination of Virgin Mobile and NTL:Telewest would create
13284-498: The speeds of selected broadband packages; its 10 Mbit/s package increased to 20 Mbit/s, 20 Mbit/s and 30Mbit/s to 60 Mbit/s, 50 Mbit/s to 100 Mbit/s, and its 100 Mbit/s package to 120 Mbit/s. The roll-out is expected to begin in February 2012 and be completed by mid-2013, at a cost of £110m. Since the announcement, Virgin Media has confirmed that it now plans to also upgrade 50 Mbit/s customers to 120 Mbit/s at no extra cost, in effect cutting
13407-516: The telephone including Antonio Meucci , Philipp Reis , Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell , inventors of radio Edwin Armstrong and Lee de Forest , as well as inventors of television like Vladimir K. Zworykin , John Logie Baird and Philo Farnsworth . Since the 1960s, the proliferation of digital technologies has meant that voice communications have gradually been supplemented by data. The physical limitations of metallic media prompted
13530-412: The telephone system were originally advertised with an emphasis on the practical dimensions of the device (such as the ability to conduct business or order home services) as opposed to the social dimensions. It was not until the late 1920s and 1930s that the social dimensions of the device became a prominent theme in telephone advertisements. New promotions started appealing to consumers' emotions, stressing
13653-631: The then-newly discovered phenomenon of radio waves , demonstrating, by 1901, that they could be transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean. This was the start of wireless telegraphy by radio. On 17 December 1902, a transmission from the Marconi station in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada , became the world's first radio message to cross the Atlantic from North America. In 1904, a commercial service
13776-418: The view that NTL's bid "undervalued the business". Sir Richard Branson reportedly expressed confidence that a restructured deal could go ahead, and in January 2006 NTL increased its offer to £961 million (372p per share). On 4 April 2006, NTL announced a £962.4 million recommended offer for Virgin Mobile. According to reports, Branson accepted a mix of shares and cash, making him a 10.7% shareholder of
13899-490: The voltages and electric currents in them, and free space for communications using visible light , infrared waves, ultraviolet light , and radio waves . Coaxial cable types are classified by RG type or "radio guide", terminology derived from World War II. The various RG designations are used to classify the specific signal transmission applications. This last channel is called the "free space channel". The sending of radio waves from one place to another has nothing to do with
14022-492: The wartime purposes of aircraft and land communication, radio navigation, and radar. Development of stereo FM broadcasting of radio began in the 1930s in the United States and the 1940s in the United Kingdom, displacing AM as the dominant commercial standard in the 1970s. On March 25, 1925, John Logie Baird demonstrated the transmission of moving pictures at the London department store Selfridges . Baird's device relied upon
14145-418: The world's gross domestic product (GDP). Modern telecommunication is founded on a series of key concepts that experienced progressive development and refinement in a period of well over a century: Telecommunication technologies may primarily be divided into wired and wireless methods. Overall, a basic telecommunication system consists of three main parts that are always present in some form or another: In
14268-411: Was announced that Virgin Media would stop broadcasting all of the UKTV channels from 22 July 2018 over fees and an issue with Virgin's on-demand broadcasting rights. The companies were not able to agree terms to allow the ten channels and their +1 and HD offshoots to continue to be available on the platform and the channels stopped being available at just after midnight on 22 July 2018 with Virgin replacing
14391-440: Was closer to (although still not 100% of) the "up to" figures it advertised, compared to the other providers tested. While landline broadband providers offered rates of "up to" 24 Mbit/s , the launch of a Virgin's 50 Mbit/s service on 15 December 2008 was advertised as "the UK's Fastest Broadband." On 8 October 2009, Virgin Media began trials to deliver its TV and broadband services at up to 50 Mbit/s downstream via
14514-490: Was during the Spanish Armada , when a beacon chain relayed a signal from Plymouth to London . In 1792, Claude Chappe , a French engineer, built the first fixed visual telegraphy system (or semaphore line ) between Lille and Paris. However semaphore suffered from the need for skilled operators and expensive towers at intervals of ten to thirty kilometres (six to nineteen miles). As a result of competition from
14637-407: Was established to transmit nightly news summaries to subscribing ships, which incorporated them into their onboard newspapers. World War I accelerated the development of radio for military communications . After the war, commercial radio AM broadcasting began in the 1920s and became an important mass medium for entertainment and news. World War II again accelerated the development of radio for
14760-471: Was later reconfirmed, according to Article 1.3 of the ITU Radio Regulations , which defined it as "Any transmission , emission or reception of signs, signals, writings, images and sounds or intelligence of any nature by wire , radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems". Homing pigeons have been used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post had Persian roots and
14883-676: Was later used by the Romans to aid their military. Frontinus claimed Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul . The Greeks also conveyed the names of the victors at the Olympic Games to various cities using homing pigeons. In the early 19th century, the Dutch government used the system in Java and Sumatra . And in 1849, Paul Julius Reuter started a pigeon service to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels ,
15006-486: Was of little practical value because it relied on the electrophonic effect requiring users to place the receiver in their mouths to "hear". The first commercial telephone services were set up by the Bell Telephone Company in 1878 and 1879 on both sides of the Atlantic in the cities of New Haven and London. In 1894, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi began developing a wireless communication using
15129-619: Was reported that Virgin Media and Sky had held talks to resolve the dispute. On 4 November 2008, it was announced that an agreement had been struck for Sky's Basic channels – including Sky1, Sky2, Sky3, Sky News, Sky Sports News, Sky Arts 1 , Sky Arts 2 , Sky Real Lives and Sky Real Lives 2 to return to Virgin Media from 13 November 2008 until 12 June 2011. In exchange, Sky would provide continued carriage of Virgin Media Television 's channels – Living , Livingit , Bravo , Bravo +1, Challenge , Challenge Jackpot and Virgin1 for
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