| Type | Private Company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cable Communications |
| Headquarters | Registered: Morecambe, Lancashire Head Office: Irvine, Scotland |
| Products | Cable television Broadband Telephone |
| Website | Smallworld Cable |
Smallworld Cable (previously Smallworld Media, Wightcable North and OMNE) is a provider of digital cable television in the UK based in Irvine. The coverage area is Irvine, Dreghorn, Troon and Kilmarnock in the west of Scotland, and Carlisle, Lancaster and Morecambe in the north-west of England, serving over 40,000 homes.
Smallworld provides broadband, telephone and digital television services to residential customers.
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In May 2002, the company's then owner Omne Communications went into administration. In February 2003, it was announced CLS Holdings had purchased 75% of the company, saving it from closure. CLS Holdings subsequently rebranded the company from Omne to Wightcable North.
In January 2006, Wightcable North was sold by its previous owner, CLS Holdings, at a loss of £2.1 million, to Netfonics.[1][2]
In March 2007, Smallworld was rebranded from its old name, Wightcable North.[3]
In April 2007, Smallworld mistakenly broadcast pornography instead of BBC One and BBC Two. A spokesperson for Smallworld apologised for broadcasting offensive material, stated as a consequence of upgrading their systems.[4]
In May 2007, Smallworld stated their intention to provide IPTV services.
In December 2009, Smallworld Media rebranded itself as Smallworld Cable and refreshed the layout of its website. A new logo was produced to coincide with this change.
On 18 December 2009, Smallworld announced that they had completed core network upgrades and planned to roll out faster 50Mbps DOCSIS 3.0 broadband across its cable network. The company also confirmed they had connected the town of Dreghorn to their network, increasing their customer base by around 1200 homes.[5]
As a "triple play" cable provider with its own network, Smallworld Cable provides cable TV, broadband and fixed line telephone services.
Smallworld provides 3 tiers of service (as of May 2010) of 10Mbps, 25Mbps and 50Mbps download speeds. These speeds are only available to customers within their cable network footprint and ADSL broadband services are available for customers who want service outwith their cable network. Wireless home network kits are available to customers for an additional fee if required. Standard installation tends to be free of charge when broadband is taken as part of a bundle with other products. Smallworld advertise their broadband as a fibre-optic network but they utilise a hybrid fibre-coaxial network to distribute service to customers, similar to the topology of fellow UK provider Virgin Media.
Smallworld ran a "speedometer" on its website that gave a "live" view of the average network speed on the cable network they provide but not the internet speed. As of 21 December 2009 this speed stood at 24.4Mbps (out of 25Mbps). As of March 2010 they no longer run a speed test.
The upload speeds are 200kbps for the 2Mbps, 350kbps for the 10Mbps and 512kbps for the 25Mbps, 1.5Mbps for the 50Mbps.
Smallworld provides a digital TV service over its cable TV network and provides over 120 channels including all local terrestrial services and subscription services, like Sky Sports and Sky Movies as well as ESPN. Multiroom services are available for an additional fee on top of the main TV subscription.
Fixed line phone services are available within the Smallworld Cable network with features such as caller ID, call forwarding and voicemail available. Smallworld offers free local calls to its cable phone customers and its local area covers Scotland, Northern Ireland and "a large section of Northern England". Also as of April Smallworld Cable offers free weekend calls to 01,02 and also 0870 numbers free with phone rental.
Smallworld provides a wide range of "At Home" services for customers who need assistance setting up their home technology and devices. Ranging from setting up games consoles to home wireless networks, they can even setup new TVs or PCs and provide standard cable provider services like extending home cabling (telephone or co-ax).[6]
The customer premised equipment utilised by Smallworld appears to vary with no official external list available.
Smallworld uses set-top boxes manufactured by Kaon Media for its standard definition TV service.[7] In 2011 Smallworld began to offer a PVR service, with a Topfield manufactured set top box which has HD capabilities. There is also a higher capacity 1TB model available.
The most recent modem provided by Smallworld for its DOCSIS cable broadband service was the Motorola 5101 EuroDOCSIS model.
Smallworld Cable was the main strip sponsor of Kilmarnock FC.
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