It's interesting that the different cable situations in different countries play so heavily into the market dynamics for broadband. It makes national comparisons hazardous to a certain degree. And because many cable operators in Europe are crippled with debt, bad customer service (and associated image issues) and an apparent incapacity to innovate, outsiders looking in tend to dismiss them as passé despite their very real assets in the paradigm shift towards next generation access. And I'm as guilty as the next guy, although I try to curb my evil instincts!
Case in point, Virgin Media. A few years back, when Virgin Media was a painful merger between NTL and Telewest it was commonly accepted that they were a dying company that had not managed to anticipate the broadband revolution. It was clear to all observers that BT was the one who had managed its mutation and was poised to dominate the field. And yet, a few years down the line, it looks like the tables are turning again.
BT is now crippled by its uncertain NGA strategy, with a public image as a company managed by broadband luddites (as hinted at by ex-BT CEO Peter Cochrane in his article Become a Bandwidth Scavenger), whereas Virgin is apparently very successful with its new 50Mb/s service and has recently announced that they would start deploying network again. Yes, you read that right, and you can read some more in the Register article entitled Virgin Media to add 500k homes to cable network.
I believe that this is a very significant announcement. As far as I know, Virgin is the only cable operator in Europe to envisage further cable deployment, and the timing is significant too. Virgin wants to grab the few remaining spots of land that can yield revenue for low deployment costs. If BT doesn't grasp the meaning of that then...
