Digital Switchover Information - Cornwall Redruth

The Redruth transmitter in the West Country TV region will switch to digital in two stages on July 8th and August 5th 2009. The transmitter has 16 relays and covers around 97,000 homes, and Digital UK predict that in the West Country region 96% of homes will be able to receive the basic 17 or 18 channels after switchover and 74% will get more channels on top of that. Currently only 63% of households in the area can receive digital TV through an aerial, so switchover will bring a big improvement.

We've taken three random postcodes in the area, TR18 4HS in Penzance, TR15 1LT in Redruth and TR11 4SJ in Falmouth. These are the results we got using the BT, Virgin Media and Sky postcode checkers.

BT

In the BT postcode checker the message was similar for all three of our test postcodes - a good result showing decent broadband speeds with the improved ADSL2+ to come in January 2010. Penzance and Redruth came back with the same speeds;
"Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial check on your postcode indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line rate up to 2Mbps. Our check also indicates that your line currently supports a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 6.5Mbps or greater. Your exchange is planned to have ADSL2+ by 31st January 2010. Our check also indicates that your line currently supports a potential ADSL2+ broadband line rate of 9Mbps or greater."
The message for Falmouth was the same but with a slight variation in speed;
"Your exchange is ADSL enabled, and our initial check on your postcode indicates that your line should be able to have an ADSL broadband service that provides a fixed line rate up to 2Mbps. Our check also indicates that your line currently supports a potential ADSL Max broadband line rate of 5Mbps or greater. Your exchange is planned to have ADSL2+ by 31st January 2010. Our check also indicates that your line currently supports a potential ADSL2+ broadband line rate of 7Mbps or greater."
What does this mean? BT broadband is available to these postcodes and will be fast enough to be able to deliver BT Vision - you need a broadband speed that averages at least 2Mbps for this. It's advisable to check your own postcode to get your particular line speed, but if you are already a BT broadband customer or are considering BT then BT Vision would be a very good choice for digital TV in this area.

Virgin Media

The general rule with cable services like Virgin is you are likely to be able to get it in built-up areas and less likely in rural areas, so with Virgin Media more than any other service we recommend checking your own postcode here - it can vary from street to street.

However, all of our test postcodes came up with the same message - "Your home is not in a Virgin Media cable area so you can't get our fibre-optic cable services, but you can get our National services. National services up to 16Mb! Our National broadband and phone services are available to all. Unlike our cable services, they're delivered down your phone line - in just the same way other companies offer it."
What does this mean? As mentioned above, Virgin Media availability can vary from one street to the next, but in these two cases it means you can get Virgin Media broadband down your phone line but no cable TV services - they offer a Freeview box for £40 but this is not connected to the broadband (the way it would be with BT Vision), it's just a Freeview box like any other you would get from a shop.

Sky

The message for all 3 postcodes was the same; "Great news, Sky Broadband is currently available in your area. Based on the postcode you have entered there is a good indication you are in a Sky Broadband network area, where Sky Broadband Base, Mid, and Max are currently available. In order to join Sky Broadband you will need an active BT compatible phone line."
What does this mean? It means the whole range of Sky products (broadband, TV and phone) is available in these areas.

Freeview

Freeview Channel Availability

TR18 4HS in Penzance and TR15 1LT in Redruth

For this postcode in Penzance there are up to 53 channels available, what changes is the quality of reception for each one as the switchover occurs. Pre-switchover 33 of these channels have only variable reception, after July 8th this falls to 27, then 19 during August and finally in September 2009 good reception is forecast for all 53. Better news for the Redruth postcode - the same 53 channels but with good reception predicted all along.
Here are the channels - the month in brackets tells you after what date you can expect good reception on that channel in the Penzance area;

Free Channels Available

Subscription Channels Available - All from September 09

TR11 4SJ in Falmouth

The pre-switchover forecast for channel reception is nothing, rising to 8 TV channels available during the switch (after 24th June) at variable reception and finally up to 18 TV channels plus radio and text services after July 2009 with good reception. A retune of equipment will be required during switchover - more information on that here.

The 8 channels available between July 8th and August 5th are;

Which are then joined when switchover is complete by the following channels;