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NTL is a US listed company providing cable services. It is listed on the NYSE, but does the
majority of its business in the UK and Ireland.
In the UK the company provides digital cable TV services, dial-up and broadband internet services to homes as NTL
Home and mixed voice, data and internet services to businesses as NTL Business. The company has around 2.7 million customers
History
NTL was founded in 1993 as International CableTel Inc (trading name: CableTel) by
Barclay Knapp and George Blumenthal, the founders
of the cellular network company Cellular Communications, Inc. (sold to Airtouch in 1996). CableTel was founded to take advantge
of the deregulation of the UK cable business. Franchises were acquired covering the London area and parts of Scotland and Wales. In 1998 the business was renamed NTL. The new name was an abbrivation of
National Transcommunications Limited, the privatised UK Independent Broadcasting Authority transmission network which CableTel had acquired
previously. The company spent heavily on both expanding its network and acquiring rivals. Its UK network is built of a 7,800km
fibre backbone and has the potential to reach 8.4 million residential homes and around 600,000 businesses. The company began to
expand outside of the UK in 2000, buying into markets on continental Europe and also in
Ireland.
The collapse of the telecommunications markets from mid-2000 was a serious blow to the
company. Devalued and struggling with debts of around $18bn NTL was forced to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2002 in order to organise
a refinancing deal. The company did not emerge from protection until January
2003, having converted around $11bn of debt into shares in what was, technically, the largest debt default in US corporate
history. the company's debt was reduced to $6.4bn. NTL itself was reorganised into NTL Inc. covering the UK and Irish markets and
NTL Europe Inc. for the French, Swiss and German parts of the business. To the surprise of many the NTL president and CEO,
Barclay Knapp, remained in charge while Stephen Carter, the MD and COO, was pushed in November 2002. Carter is the current (2003) chief executive of OFCOM.
In 2002, Many websites had been created to provide a customer care base for people who had encountered unfortuate situations
with the company, such as nthellworld. NTL launched its own brand in late
2003, which was closed shortly after without any warning to it's customers.
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