NTL Cabeltel has already completed a £30 million (€38 million) fibre optic link between Britain and Ireland, writes Madeleine Lyons
The company has come to epitomise the modern telecommunications company, characterised by an eagle eye for emerging markets and rapid infrastructure installation. The New York-based company originally traded under the name International CableTel before changing to NTL Cabletel in 1997. The aim was to create a national telecommunications company in Britain, where NTL had already gained a reputation as a communications service provider.
Since its entry into the Northern Ireland market nearly four years ago, it has invested more than £600 million sterling (€910 million) in a complete fibre optic network to service 80 per cent of Northern Ireland's homes by 2003. It currently serves about 70,000 homes in the North and says it can offer savings of up to 15 per cent on British Telecom phone bills.
Recently, the completion of a £30 million, high-speed, Britain-Ireland fibre optic link marked NTL Cabletel's entry into the Republic. This offers a very powerful ring for the transmission of data to any point within the Republic, Northern Ireland and Britain.
If it controlled Cablelink, customers could expect the company to upgrade existing infrastructure to offer services including digital transactional television, telephone and Internet services. A multiplicity of television channels and high-speed Internet access would also be on the agenda. Services might include video on demand to the television set, with the charge appearing on the Cabletel phone bill.
NTL Cabletel has more than 1.4 million telephone, cable television and Internet customers in Britain and says it has 40 per cent penetration of the telephone and cable television services market in some areas.
Earlier this month, NTL Cabletel announced annual revenues of $1 billion (€930 million) to the end of December 1998. Over the year it increased its telephone, television and Internet customer base from 400,000 to 1.3 million.
