View Full Version : NTL price increase and their reasons
Okay the price increase came into effect from today, 1st June, yet still no speed increase.
After a bit of searching i found the letter regarding the price increase and there reasons behind it. It was to keep inline with the competition, yet for some reason NTL in there infinite wisdom compared their service, a cable based BB service with 2 of bt's ADSL services, namely BT yahoo and BT Broadband. Why did they ignore the only other Cable based BB available, name Telewest. Indeed BT BB is more expensive than NTL and Telewest. But its not the same service, its ADSL not cable
.
Lets compare at todays price and speed, NTL with another cable BB service, Telewest.
Telewest's 1.5MB bb connection is £35 yet NTL's 1mb bb connection is £38. Okay so the speed is allegedly going to be 1.5mb, but when ? NTL say summer... lol, good going NTL, you know when its forcast
so why not tell us or better still why not put the price up when its released? k so at the minute we are paying £3 more for 50% less on our connection. Yet NTL have told us how the price increase was neccessary to keep in line with the competition. So why put the price way beyond the direct competition.
Okay then, if they insist on comparing with ADSL (a differnt service all together) then lets compare. Yes BT is the most expensive, but if u shop around, because u can with adsl, u'll find an equal service being offered, at the 1mbit barrier for £30 (eg: aol). So NTL are £8 dearer for the same 1mbit service. So to price inline with the competition NTL should infact decrease
their prices to £30 for 1mbit, oh and if u insist put it back to £35 inline with the competition (Telewest) once the 1.5mbit comes into effect.
NTL we are not fools, if u want to compare prices then do so properly, dont compare your service with the most expensive u can find. You aint fooling
anyone other than urselves.
There's some well made points in there, but let's not forget that the price increase has nothing to do with the speed increase-it was only done as a knee jerk reaction to TW raising their speeds-ntl announced it, & thought about it afterwards. :rolleyes:
There's some well made points in there, but let's not forget that the price increase has nothing to do with the speed increase-it was only done as a knee jerk reaction to TW raising their speeds-ntl announced it, & thought about it afterwards. Agreed, and as i said the price increase was in response to the "competition" - nothing to do with the speed increase. After all, Telewest didnt increase their prices in response to the speed increase, so why should NTL.
Incidently, with cable based 1.5mb being offered for £35 by telewest and with aol offering 1mb adsl some £8-11 cheaper than BT's broadband and BTyahoo, im pretty sure other adsl companies will be forced into reducing their prices, which will leave NTL HIGH and dry :)
Still way off the mark for the rest of europe and probably the world. I have a friend in Canada who pays the equivalent of £50 for a 5mbit service... makes me sick :rolleyes:
etccarmageddon
01-06-2004, 16:57
they didnt compare themselves with Telewest because they compete with ADSL not other cable companies. ie. where you can get cable, you will not find another cable supplier.
So a rise of £8 more than the same 1mbit by aol's adsl is competing ?
Lets face it most adsl companies are now going to have to look at dropping their prices in response to telewest, the true market leaders for BB in the uk.
So a rise of £8 more than the same 1mbit by aol's adsl is competing ?
Lets face it most adsl companies are now going to have to look at dropping their prices in response to telewest, the true market leaders for BB in the uk.
wish we could get blueyonder (telewest) lol im sure its better than ntlworld.
Ignition
02-06-2004, 13:53
nothing to do with the speed increase-it was only done as a knee jerk reaction to TW raising their speeds-ntl announced it, & thought about it afterwards. :rolleyes:
Actually that isn't the case, bad Neil! :p:
Still way off the mark for the rest of europe and probably the world. I have a friend in Canada who pays the equivalent of £50 for a 5mbit service... makes me sick
Worth mentioning that service is capped as well, and he's getting ripped off, cogeco.ca will provide 5Mbit/640kbit for less than £25 a month and 10Mbit/1Mbit for £35 a month, however there are a lot of reasons why it's so different here which I won't go into too much.
Canadians could consider themselves ripped off as a number of Japanese can take 100Mbit in both directions for the same price they pay for 10Mbit...
th'engineer
02-06-2004, 13:58
Actually that isn't the case, bad Neil! :p:
Wonder what evidence you have to support that statement :D
Wonder what evidence you have to support that statement :D
and i wonder if neil has any evidence to support his original statement... :D
and i wonder if neil has any evidence to support his original statement... :D
Ok....
If it was the case (as you appear to be suggesting) that it was in fact ntl that decided to increase the downstream speed for no additional cost, & it was TW that copied them....
How on earth did Telewest manage to get it rolled out successfully & efficiently to all their customers, & 2 weeks ahead of schedule, & ntl have not even started yet?
I'll tell you why-ntl were caught napping by TW's decision & paniced to match their offer. The reason TW got it rolled out so quickly was that they had clearly planned for it & ntl had not. :angel:
[Edit]-If you are indeed suggesting (as I think you are) that it was in fact Telewest that copied ntl's idea of giving customer's a free downstream speed increase, then you have confirmed ntl to be the biggest, most incompetant bunch of monkeys around!
If TW copied ntl, & got their rollout done so quick, & all ntl can say is 'late summer', how stupid are ntl? :nono:
Not even ntl could feck something up of this proportion (could they......?) :erm:
th'engineer
02-06-2004, 20:02
Now lets have the NTL view Q justanothernoob:angel:
Ignition
02-06-2004, 22:58
Now lets have the NTL view Q justanothernoob:angel:
Nope again not interested in debate, Neil is suggesting that ntl decided on spur of moment the morning Telewest announced their speed increases that they would do the same. That's not the case.
As far as proof goes, could tell you but then I'd have to kill you :angel:
Believe what you want to, no skin off my schnozz + not debating it as in return for nicer treatment of associate types promised I wouldn't :angel:
Upgrade time, not being hasty, around the world ISPs have upgraded speeds for free, UK is now following, just wait a while (though being with Pipex now you won't get any upgrade for free from BT :p ) and when it comes enjoy.
There are various reasons why it can't be done yet. I wonder how all those Telewest STB customers who didn't get the upgrade because their STB couldn't support it felt? Wonder how the custs who can't achieve the upgraded speed, or are achieving lower than previous speed are doing.
Amusing part is that if it had been the other way around Telewest would be being praised for waiting until all is ready, ntl would be accused of rushing.
It'll come when everything else is ready - remember ntl have twice the customers Telewest do, and amalgamate more companies, there are various issues that make this simpler for TW, and it's not entirely a success story...
My contribution to this thread now over! :angel:
Nope again not interested in debate, Neil is suggesting that ntl decided on spur of moment the morning Telewest announced their speed increases that they would do the same. That's not the case.
As far as proof goes, could tell you but then I'd have to kill you :angel:
Believe what you want to, no skin off my schnozz + not debating it as in return for nicer treatment of associate types promised I wouldn't :angel:
But if ntl had this planned well in advance of TW as you are suggesting, then you they have proven themselves to be even bigger buffoons than even I thought they were.
So.....
I'll ask again...:angel:
If TW's increase was the knee jerk reaction after they got wind of ntl's plans, how did TW get theirs all done, & ntl customers are still waiting???
There are various reasons why it can't be done yet.
Such as? ;)
I wonder how all those Telewest STB customers who didn't get the upgrade because their STB couldn't support it felt?
Let down I would suspect (better get used to it if ntl take over though!)
Wonder how the custs who can't achieve the upgraded speed, or are achieving lower than previous speed are doing.
Same as ntl customers with *****e pings, or those ntl customers that have to constantly change proxies just to browse the web I suspect. ;)
Amusing part is that if it had been the other way around Telewest would be being praised for waiting until all is ready, ntl would be accused of rushing.
But ntl have used the old 'coming soon' card once to often m8. :nono:
It'll come when everything else is ready -
Won't hold my breath then!
remember ntl have twice the customers Telewest do
True, but if what you say is right, then ntl had already planned this ahead of TW-the number of customers is surely not relevant.
and amalgamate more companies,
Something else that has been 'coming soon'....
there are various issues that make this simpler for TW, and it's not entirely a success story...
TW have their speed upgrades done & dusted-how is that not a success story?
My contribution to this thread now over! :angel:
:D
Such as? ;)
Let down I would suspect (better get used to it if ntl take over though!)
Same as ntl customers with *****e pings, or those ntl customers that have to constantly change proxies just to browse the web I suspect. ;)
But ntl have used the old 'coming soon' card once to often m8. :nono:
Won't hold my breath then!
True, but if what you say is right, then ntl had already planned this ahead of TW-the number of customers is surely not relevant.
Something else that has been 'coming soon'....
TW have their speed upgrades done & dusted-how is that not a success story?
:D
:notopic: wasn't this thread started about the price increase, not the speed increases and finding yet another reason to criticise ntl? I have had little to add to this topic as i believe the issues being discussed have been done to death. :zzz:
ian@huth
02-06-2004, 23:22
There are probably a couple of possible reasons why the speed increases were announced at the same time by TW and NTL.
I would imagine that both companies know fairly well in advance what the other is going to do, from information gained by fair means or foul. TW having a less complex structure could gain an agvantage over NTL if they so wished.
With all the talk of an imminent merger of the two companies it makes sense for them to be offering roughly the same products prior to the merger.
Does it really matter who was first as long as customers get an improved service at the end of the day.
What you have to realise is that NTL (and all companies) have to juggle product enhancements and pricing in order not to just remain competitive but also to maximise revenue. This can mean that sometimes pricing may not appear competitive but the higher price being charged would generate more revenue even after allowing for customers leaving because of the price than a lower price would generate with no churn.
etccarmageddon
03-06-2004, 08:23
Nope again not interested in debate, Neil is suggesting that ntl decided on spur of moment the morning Telewest announced their speed increases that they would do the same. That's not the case.
As far as proof goes, could tell you but then I'd have to kill you :angel:
if the speed increase was something that NTL had been planning all along and just not a knee jerk reaction, then they would have announced the 1mb service price increase and the speed increase in a single press release.
MetaWraith
03-06-2004, 08:42
if the speed increase was something that NTL had been planning all along and just not a knee jerk reaction, then they would have announced the 1mb service price increase and the speed increase in a single press release.
That assumes the price increase and speed increase were planned by the same department, which many not have the case. You know right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.
Okay the price increase came into effect from today, 1st June, yet still no speed increase.
After a bit of searching i found the letter regarding the price increase and there reasons behind it. It was to keep inline with the competition, yet for some reason NTL in there infinite wisdom compared their service, a cable based BB service with 2 of bt's ADSL services, namely BT yahoo and BT Broadband. Why did they ignore the only other Cable based BB available, name Telewest. Indeed BT BB is more expensive than NTL and Telewest. But its not the same service, its ADSL not cable
.
Lets compare at todays price and speed, NTL with another cable BB service, Telewest.
Telewest's 1.5MB bb connection is £35 yet NTL's 1mb bb connection is £38. Okay so the speed is allegedly going to be 1.5mb, but when ? NTL say summer... lol, good going NTL, you know when its forcast
so why not tell us or better still why not put the price up when its released? k so at the minute we are paying £3 more for 50% less on our connection. Yet NTL have told us how the price increase was neccessary to keep in line with the competition. So why put the price way beyond the direct competition.
Okay then, if they insist on comparing with ADSL (a differnt service all together) then lets compare. Yes BT is the most expensive, but if u shop around, because u can with adsl, u'll find an equal service being offered, at the 1mbit barrier for £30 (eg: aol). So NTL are £8 dearer for the same 1mbit service. So to price inline with the competition NTL should infact decrease
their prices to £30 for 1mbit, oh and if u insist put it back to £35 inline with the competition (Telewest) once the 1.5mbit comes into effect.
NTL we are not fools, if u want to compare prices then do so properly, dont compare your service with the most expensive u can find. You aint fooling
anyone other than urselves.
tbh I think the price increase did have Telewest in mind, after all the price did rise to the exact price that TW were charging for their 1Mb service. NTL were undercutting TW for a long time and TW hadnt made any attempt to match it and I wouldnt be suprised if in fact someone at NTL went "we arent in compitition with TW so why are we undercutting them". So they decided to raise the price to TW's level they announced it only to get caught out by TW then reducing their price.
After all as you have stated they clearly arent bringing it inline with ADSL which is getting cheaper and cheaper so this to me does seem like the only viable reason.
gooner4life
03-06-2004, 10:04
Okay the price increase came into effect from today, 1st June, yet still no speed increase.
After a bit of searching i found the letter regarding the price increase and there reasons behind it. It was to keep inline with the competition, yet for some reason NTL in there infinite wisdom compared their service, a cable based BB service with 2 of bt's ADSL services, namely BT yahoo and BT Broadband. Why did they ignore the only other Cable based BB available, name Telewest. Indeed BT BB is more expensive than NTL and Telewest. But its not the same service, its ADSL not cable
.
.
Technically Telewest are not competition you dont have a choice between NTL and Telewest/Blueyonder its one or the other
Technically Telewest are not competition you dont have a choice between NTL and Telewest/Blueyonder its one or the other
Exactly - NTL are not in the same areas as Telewest, and (if the rumours are true) will soon be working "very closely" with Telewest.
NTL compete with BT, AOL etc (all ADSL broadband), and as such, they were cheaper for the 1M service than their competitors.
NTL dropped the price from 50 to 35, the others did not drop as low as NTL, so they can afford to up the price and still be competetive.
That is not to say those of us currently on the 1M service are not understandably peeved that the price is going up, when the general trend is down, just that from a purely business viewpoint, NTL can get £3 per moth more from N customers, without losing the ability to draw in more.
Yes, they may well lose customers to the 600k tier (especially when it goes to 750), but from NTLs point of view, that is not a huge problem, as this will free up some bandwidth for others..
As always - Just my 2c :angel:
etccarmageddon
03-06-2004, 15:06
NTL dropped the price from 50 to 35, the others did not drop as low as NTL, so they can afford to up the price and still be competetive.
the 1mb price ISNT competitive when you compare it to ADSL 1mb offered from AOL at £30 a month or the bulldog 2mb service which is around the same price at the NTL 1mb!!!
i just think NTL is camparing their price to BTs
as BT is the main broadband supplier
the 1mb price ISNT competitive when you compare it to ADSL 1mb offered from AOL at £30 a month or the bulldog 2mb service which is around the same price at the NTL 1mb!!!
Not forgetting Central Point (http://www.cpbb.co.uk/price.htm) who offer 2MB DSL for the same price as ntl's 1MB BB!
Not only that, but there are no caps/"guidelines" in place, & no 12 month contract. :tu:
http://www.cpbb.co.uk/index.htm
th'engineer
03-06-2004, 15:28
Nope again not interested in debate, Neil is suggesting that ntl decided on spur of moment the morning Telewest announced their speed increases that they would do the same.
So no other view then surprised at you not like you to bow out from a debate if you think someone is incorrect
ian@huth
03-06-2004, 15:31
I would imagine NTL could fairly easily write a program that searches their database of customers and fairly accurately identifies what xDSL service each customer may be able to get. That would give them an indication of possible loss of customers to xDSL on each service level and the degree of competitaveness (is that a word?) required.
th'engineer
03-06-2004, 15:36
I would imagine NTL could fairly easily write a program that searches their database of customers and fairly accurately identifies what xDSL service each customer may be able to get. That would give them an indication of possible loss of customers to xDSL on each service level and the degree of competitaveness (is that a word?) required.
Now then you know NTL would they look that far forward, they must have had a large churn rate on BB. Its only money the directors are interested in remember Bill "THE CAP" Goodland tapes. "Customers to thick" "save money on bandwidth".
:D
the 1mb price ISNT competitive when you compare it to ADSL 1mb offered from AOL at £30 a month or the bulldog 2mb service which is around the same price at the NTL 1mb!!!
Fair comment, I didn't realise that AOL was that cheap...
Do remember that Bulldog is only 512 during the day, and 2M off peak. :angel:
[BorgMaster]
03-06-2004, 16:25
Not forgetting Central Point (http://www.cpbb.co.uk/price.htm) who offer 2MB DSL for the same price as ntl's 1MB BB!
Not only that, but there are no caps/"guidelines" in place, & no 12 month contract. :tu:
http://www.cpbb.co.uk/index.htm
The pricing is no doubt competitive, and the service they are advertising is also competitive.
However I think people posted on this thread are looking too much at cost. Simply because you pay less doesnt mean your anywhere near likely to get 'that' level of service.
We'll take CP as an example - they're a datastream provider and as such can not provide pings less than 50 - a major downfall for competitive gamers.
So I expect someone to tell me - they're not a gamer, they dont worry about pings. Ok fair point, but dont for one minute expect to get your full 2mbps download rates consistently, datastream is well known for its contention at a local level, so instead of 15,000 users contending on 1 155mbps pipe, you end up contending with 50 people on 2mbps with only 1 1mbps pipe. Same contention ratio, however the odds of you actually experiencing contention just went up 100 fold.
Something everyone on any forum discussing broadband or any product should bare in mind is that you pay for what you get, bar a few companies who are extortionate for the services they provide you must find a balance between the amount of money you pay and the service levels you receive. NTL generally is quite good at that (in its areas that dont suffer from major contention on upstreams and the alike)
I would just like to point out that ADSL is not the holy grail people make it out to be. Just because some of the providers are cheaper - it most certainly does not mean they're worth signing up for - not if you expect to see a decent service. ADSL is a great deal harder to understand as there are also so many variants of it: IPstream, Datastream, LLU, etc. All of which operate at different levels.
Oh and at risk of offending you Neil, I do have to point out Pipex's mail servers are probably just as reliable (or not in this case) as NTL's). Sorry, but it is within the theme of my post, and the original topic :)
[BorgMaster]
03-06-2004, 16:28
Fair comment, I didn't realise that AOL was that cheap...
Do remember that Bulldog is only 512 during the day, and 2M off peak. :angel:
I'm afraid not, some of their services do work like this. Primetime as its termed, but their normal Alltime services run at 2mbps all the time, and they are more expensive as you might expect.
ADSL broadband is more like mobile phone companies, and their various forms of tarriffs reflecting what kind of service you want, what kind of additional services you want applied to your connection, and how fast you want it to go. This can make it very confusing.
']I'm afraid not, some of their services do work like this. Primetime as its termed, but their normal Alltime services run at 2mbps all the time, and they are more expensive as you might expect.
It is the primetime service that is comparable in price to the NTL service, and as it was suggested that Bulldog was an example of a better priced competitor to NTL, I felt this was a valid point. :angel:
For all NTLs faults (and they do have a few :naughty: ) they do provide a reasonable level of availability, and a reasonable speed (I tend to get 1M out of my service most of the time) in the majority of cases.
They may not be the cheapest, but in terms of what you get, they are still competative in the market.
They have always looked at BT as their main competitor, and this is probably valid, as other ISPs have to pay BT for the line usage.
NTL <probably> don't care about AOL, as they offer BB over NTLs cables, and I'm sure NTL get a nice payment for it, without the hassle of supporting it or supplying the kit.
As always - just my 2c (and no - I do not think NTL are perfect - far from it, they are just not any worse than most other ISPs I have come across)
']Oh and at risk of offending you Neil, I do have to point out Pipex's mail servers are probably just as reliable (or not in this case) as NTL's). Sorry, but it is within the theme of my post, and the original topic :)
No offence taken. :angel:
I have had one issue with my Pipex mail in the 8 months I have had it. My PC is on 24/7, & Outlook stays open, so it is constantly polling the mail server.
Like I said-1 issue (which was dealt with quickly, professionaly, & efficiently I might add) is no bad thing.
We worked out a while ago, using ntl's Server Status Page over the last year, that they had announced a mail problem once a week for the previous 12 months......
Not so with Pipex I'm afraid-their mail servers have not been the subject of write ups on The Register et all. ;)
etccarmageddon
03-06-2004, 16:53
It is the primetime service that is comparable in price to the NTL service, and as it was suggested that Bulldog was an example of a better priced competitor to NTL, I felt this was a valid point. :angel:...
wrong - the primetime service is not comparable with NTL as it is much cheaper!!!
primetime 1mb - £30 a month
primetime 2mb - £35
I was comparing NTL to the AllTime service which is £33 for 1mb or £38 a month for 2mb. That's why I say bulldog ADSL gives you 2mb for the same price as NTL's 1mb service.
I will NOT pay anymore for my 1MB service. Why pay more for what I already have? I have so far had no news of this increase other than a little mention on there homepage which I hardly ever look at.
Unless I get the faster speeds to go with the increase in price I will cancell my contract with them then and there.
For the same price as the proposed price increase you can get an UNCAPPED 2MB line from plusnet. And if you do not mind some restrictions the price can drop as low as £31 for it.
I will have no hesitations in leaving as I am sure many others will do the same, I know 3-4 Of my friends will do the same. It is a shame NTL feel the need to do the things they are doing? MMMmm oh well there loss I suppose..........
http://www.plus.net/products/broadband_home.html
Worth going for eh?
etccarmageddon
03-06-2004, 18:12
worth going for provided your ADSL line is able to support 1mb or 2mb - check using the BT ADSL checker to make sure you are close enough to the exchange.
[BorgMaster]
03-06-2004, 20:08
I will have no hesitations in leaving as I am sure many others will do the same, I know 3-4 Of my friends will do the same. It is a shame NTL feel the need to do the things they are doing? MMMmm oh well there loss I suppose..........
http://www.plus.net/products/broadband_home.html
Worth going for eh?
In my case, no ;) I'll show you why:
Total for 12 months: £456
Plusnet 1MB
USB modem @ £44.99
Activation @ £58.75
1 or 12 month contracts (if 1 month activation = £70.90)
Regrade costs: £11.75 per tier change
Cost per month: £30
Total for 12 months: £475.49
NTL 1mbps (soon to be free regrade to 1.5mbps)
Free installation
Free Modem
12 month min contract
Free regrades (Through 150kbps, 600kbps and 1mbps)
Cost per Month: £38 by DD
Total for 12 months: £456
(NB: 1.5mbps soon.)
I have already looked at this, and although I'm basing it on 1mbps speeds, I would guess the 2mbps to be very similar. I dont really need 2mbps, but would gladly have it if it was reasonably priced.
i just think NTL is camparing their price to BTs
as BT is the main broadband supplier
K well maybe they should compare it to satellite, as thats the dearest BB in the uk and it will surely make NTL look cheap - thats all they have done - they aint fooled anyone..... no ? okay... well why compare to the dearest ADSL suppliers in the uk ? Surely thats just suicide ?
']In my case, no ;) I'll show you why:
Total for 12 months: £456
Plusnet 1MB
USB modem @ £44.99
Activation @ £58.75
1 or 12 month contracts (if 1 month activation = £70.90)
Regrade costs: £11.75 per tier change
Cost per month: £30
Total for 12 months: £475.49
NTL 1mbps (soon to be free regrade to 1.5mbps)
Free installation
Free Modem
12 month min contract
Free regrades (Through 150kbps, 600kbps and 1mbps)
Cost per Month: £38 by DD
Total for 12 months: £456
(NB: 1.5mbps soon.)
I have already looked at this, and although I'm basing it on 1mbps speeds, I would guess the 2mbps to be very similar. I dont really need 2mbps, but would gladly have it if it was reasonably priced.
If you take into account the 1GB cap layed down by NTL then you need to make the same comparison with PLUSNET. Unfortunately their lowest cap is 2GB (DOUBLE NTL'S!!!!) This makes the direct comparison between NTL and PLUSNET (Both on their 1MB line) A little closer as the price for plusnet per month is just £23.99. Seem a little better??
If you decided on their 2MB line the LOWEST cap here is 4GB which is 4 times that of NTL and 500K quicker than the proposed 1.5MB of NTL.
The price for this is only £31.99 which kinda balances out the cost of modem/activation. Oh and you can buy your own modem anyway and save even more!!
']In my case, no ;) I'll show you why:
Total for 12 months: £456
Plusnet 1MB
USB modem @ £44.99
Activation @ £58.75
1 or 12 month contracts (if 1 month activation = £70.90)
Regrade costs: £11.75 per tier change
Cost per month: £30
Total for 12 months: £475.49
NTL 1mbps (soon to be free regrade to 1.5mbps)
Free installation
Free Modem
12 month min contract
Free regrades (Through 150kbps, 600kbps and 1mbps)
Cost per Month: £38 by DD
Total for 12 months: £456
(NB: 1.5mbps soon.)
I have already looked at this, and although I'm basing it on 1mbps speeds, I would guess the 2mbps to be very similar. I dont really need 2mbps, but would gladly have it if it was reasonably priced.
What ?
NTL 12 months contract - oh and capped to sommat silly.. 1gb
37.99 per month for 1MB (not 1.5 atm and not for the forseeable future)
free connection/modem
= 455.88
Plus net 12 months contract - 4gb limit
31.99 per month for 2MB (real 2MB, not soon to be 2MB)
connection - £58.75
modem - 44.99
= 497.62
30 quid per yr for double the service... oh okay if u insist 30 quid per yr for double the service until ntl pull their fingers out, then its still 500k faster. So 30 quid per yr for an extra 500k connection - bargain. Oh and u can get an adsl internal modem for £20...
Just looked again and plusnets bandwidth restrictions are per month I think. (they do not make this to clear). So you would have to go for the PREMIERE pack to get unlimited bandwidth which makes it a little more expensive but still better in the long run me thinks.
Think I may well be moving in the future unless this upgrade comes soon. I have had no letter about the 1GB limit yet so I guess there is no "degredation" in my area just yet so the cap does not bother me at the moment. I already exceed this limit practically ever day.
Tezcatlipoca
03-06-2004, 21:28
If you take into account the 1GB cap layed down by NTL then you need to make the same comparison with PLUSNET. Unfortunately their lowest cap is 2GB (DOUBLE NTL'S!!!!) This makes the direct comparison between NTL and PLUSNET (Both on their 1MB line) A little closer as the price for plusnet per month is just £23.99. Seem a little better??
If you decided on their 2MB line the LOWEST cap here is 4GB which is 4 times that of NTL and 500K quicker than the proposed 1.5MB of NTL.
The price for this is only £31.99 which kinda balances out the cost of modem/activation. Oh and you can buy your own modem anyway and save even more!!
Sorry, but you are wrong regarding the bandwidth limit. [EDIT: Ah, I've just noticed that you realised this with your next post in the thread]
NTL's bandwidth limit is 1 GB per day, which is roughly equal to 30GB per month.
PlusNet's bandwidth limits are monthly
http://www.plus.net/products/broadband_home.html
The £23.99 1Mb package comes with only 2 GB of bandwidth per month
2GB Bandwidth
You get 2GB included bandwidth each month, with extra bandwidth available if you need it
The £31.99 2Mb package comes with only 4 GB of bandwidth per month
4GB Bandwidth
You get 4GB included bandwidth each month, with extra bandwidth available if you need it.
Makes NTL's "cap" look quite generous now, doesn't it? ;)
What ?
NTL 12 months contract - oh and capped to sommat silly.. 1gb
37.99 per month for 1MB (not 1.5 atm and not for the forseeable future)
free connection/modem
= 455.88
Plus net 12 months contract - 4gb limit
31.99 per month for 2MB (real 2MB, not soon to be 2MB)
connection - £58.75
modem - 44.99
= 497.62
30 quid per yr for double the service... oh okay if u insist 30 quid per yr for double the service until ntl pull their fingers out, then its still 500k faster. So 30 quid per yr for an extra 500k connection - bargain. Oh and u can get an adsl internal modem for £20...
NTL limit: 1 GB per day
PlusNet limit: e.g. 2GB per MONTH on the 1Mb service, or 4GB per MONTH on the 2Mb service
(see above part of my post)
Just looked again and plusnets bandwidth restrictions are per month I think. (they do not make this to clear). So you would have to go for the PREMIERE pack to get unlimited bandwidth which makes it a little more expensive but still better in the long run me thinks.
The package selector is very clear that the bandwidth limit is monthly.
e.g. pick the 1Mb service, & select the basic bandwidth - it will tell you:
2GB Bandwidth
You get 2GB included bandwidth each month, with extra bandwidth available if you need it
But, yes, the "Premiere" option, although 6-8 quid extra, does make it quite good value.
Sorry, but you are wrong regarding the bandwidth limit.
Did I not already point this out in my reply??
Still though to have a faster service and completely UNCAPPED plusnet i think is still the better choice.
Unless NTL up their speed pretty quickly!! Maybe they will surprise us all?
Upload speed is what I want an increase in mostly. All i.s.p's seem to offer no more than 256kb/s which is CRAP.
Any idea on timescale for faster speeds?
They were quick enough to up the price!! Now where is the promised speed!!!
Upload speed is what I want an increase in mostly. All i.s.p's seem to offer no more than 256kb/s which is CRAP.
Who, and at what price ?
They were quick enough to up the price!! Now where is the promised speed!!!
Not "promised" until late summer - which gives them until Late August or Early September. :)
Tezcatlipoca
03-06-2004, 21:52
Did I not already point this out in my reply??
Yeah, I noticed your 2nd reply after I wrote my reply to your 1st (& so I changed it, plus added a bit more). Check my post again ;)
Sorry, but you are wrong regarding the bandwidth limit. [EDIT: Ah, I've just noticed that you realised this with your next post in the thread]
Still though to have a faster service and completely UNCAPPED plusnet i think is still the better choice.
It does seem quite good, so long as you choose the "Premier" option.
£39.99 for a 2Mb service with unlimited bandwidth is very good.
Better than £37.99 for a 1Mb ("soon" to be 1.5Mb) service with a ~30GB "limit".
Unless NTL up their speed pretty quickly!! Maybe they will surprise us all?
It'd be nice.
Upload speed is what I want an increase in mostly. All i.s.p's seem to offer no more than 256kb/s which is CRAP.
Totally agree.
I'd love a higher upload. I'd prefer a higher upload to a higher download (although I'll still appreciate the 1Mb>1.5Mb increase)
Any idea on timescale for faster speeds?
LOL, no idea - I don't work for NTL.
All I have heard, is the official (& vague) "late summer" timescale.
They were quick enough to up the price!! Now where is the promised speed!!!
"Coming soon" ;)
ian@huth
03-06-2004, 23:39
NTL's bandwidth limit is 1 GB per day, which is roughly equal to 30GB per month.
With all this talk of bandwidth limits can I point out that you can download way more than 30GB per month (more than double this, in fact) on NTL and stay within the AUP guidelines. When xDSL ISPs quote a capped service it is usually a combined traffic level for both downloads and uploads, so a 2GB limit per month will not allow you to download 2GB.
With speeeds available on xDSL you have to remember that line distance from the exchange affects the level of service that you can get and that not all exchanges supply all the service levels advertised. Line quality also affects your ability to obtain xDSL so you can live within a line distance that should support your requirements but line quality can mean you are unable to get that service. Also, what is not very often mentioned is that xDSL upload speeds degrade rapidly with line distance from the exchange.
[BorgMaster]
04-06-2004, 02:06
With speeeds available on xDSL you have to remember that line distance from the exchange affects the level of service that you can get and that not all exchanges supply all the service levels advertised. Line quality also affects your ability to obtain xDSL so you can live within a line distance that should support your requirements but line quality can mean you are unable to get that service.
Totally agree, and AFAIK there are no such restrictions for NTL's cable services. This is one of the main benefactors with Cable compared to ADSL. It can run much greater distances (as th'engineer's sig says I believe) Cable can beat ADSL when correctly managed and configured.
One point though, in the total amount of the peopl who have ADSL, only a small percentage suffer from upstream rate adaption (i.e.: less than 256kbps) and the percentage is around the 0.1% mark possibly less. Its definitely no hgiher than 1/1000.
etccarmageddon
04-06-2004, 08:04
bulldog 2mb
activation £1
monthly cost £38
usb modem £40
cost in 1st year £1+12*à ƒÆ’ƒâ€šÃ‚£38+à ƒâ€šÃ‚£40 = £509
NTL is 12 * £38 = £456 for a 1mb to 1.5mb service
basically, lots of cheaper alternatives to NTL out there -so no reason for me to stay...
Incidently, have now gone 2 weeks without the channels on my digi tv that im payin for, had an engineer out a week ago - who installed a new box, then phoned faults up to say the channels were still not there (weds) and still not got em. So thats being cancelled too.... although going off experiences from friends, ntl wont let u cancel - it took my friend 3 months for them to realise he no longer wanted his bb - infact when he left the house, it was still active, despite 3 months earlier cancelling the direct debit and having written confirmation off ntl saying that his bb was cancelled.... weirdos... left hand and right hand not speaking again....
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