Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

I'll be downgrading from 1MB to 750K. The difference between the two is neglible in my book. Even if using p2p you are still governed by your upload speed and the other uploader/s connection. The majority are not on higher speeds as it is. I can't ever remember maxing out my 1MB connection as it is.

Personally would have preferred them to increase the upload speed rather than the download.

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

No offence, but if the 256k upload is important to you guys, and you don't really care about download speeds, why not go for ADSL and save yourself a tenner (and more, soon) a month?

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Thats true....well said.
I'll be sticking with my 1mb ntl bb connection :)

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Im definately sticking to 1Mb/1.5Mb.
Mainly because im in a nice little area full of small villages and towns, with hardly any internet usage, meaning i get uber low pings (bbc.co.uk@10ms, 24/7) my downloading goes at 120kB/s nearly all of the time, and im hoping that streaming video becomes more prominant as time goes on.

Im hopeful (probably in vain) that upload speeds get a 50% speed boost too, 384kbs isnt a huge jump, but would enable me to host sven co-op servers with 10-12 people :D

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Whilst a jump in upload speed to 384k may not seem to be a huge jump you have to remember that upload bandwidth is a much scarcer commodity than download and it would only take you and five others like you to try and max out your uploads on your UBR card to bring the download speeds of every user of your upstream card (maybe 200 users) down to a crawl.

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Am I the only one that is a little surprised that out of 60 voters only 15% have indicated they will downgrade?

Presumably, the thread was started as the OP felt many people would. I know I kind of expected a higher percentage? (though I will stay at 600/750 myself)

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Not all of us can get ADSL even in big cities with cable. If the physical route of the cable to the exchange (not direct "as the crow flies") is just that bit too long, BT say no. I know someone who's in this position where the exchange is something like 1km or 2km away, but the cable goes all over the place and is over 5km in length. Being a private road he can't get cable either.

Okay BT are extending the distances again, but in reality most people will get poor speeds way under the 512/256 unless they live well within the 3km limit (as people forget that for longer distances you get RADSL which means the rate adapts to the line quality and contention, so 512/256 is a mythical maximum to them. My parent's ADSL down in Devon gets around 450 downstream max on RADSL).

In my case I don't know if I can get ADSL, but I'm concerned about the antique looking overhead cable connecting to the house that's probably going to give me a heck of a lot of noise on the line. I'd then have to call BT to get a connection and as it's not a reconnection for me (never had BT in this house or the previous house), then it'll probably cost me a packet, plus I'd have to take time off work, and then I cancel the NTL phone, apply for ADSL and hope I get it. Thankfully now I can keep the cable modem whilst this is going on.

At the end of the day, it's a lot of hassle, although I nearly did it a year ago when my cable modem was up and down all the time for almost a year.

Oh, and one saving grace of NTL is their generous AUP which allows us to freely run servers. A lot of ADSL ISPs are more restrictive.

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

I dunno what I will do. Currently on the 600 service. I do some uploading of email etc, but mostly it's to connect to the office by VPN, to troubleshoot that network out of hours (saves me living at the office 24/7).

Yes I do do some P2P stuff, but a slow upload is less critical for that. Occasionally I look at video streaming, but even now i find that can be unusable due to the inevitable buffering issues.

I'll probably try a downgrade to the 300 service and see what happens. That's if ntl do get round to getting it up and running before I think that financially I'll be better off with Sky, BT and and ADSL ISP.

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Actually 13%, once towny pointed out the change in the upload speed I realised I would not be changing products.

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Ive got 2 lads gaming in this house, my other half has a mini-business that requires d\loads of clip-art etc, and i game as well.
So the 1 meg spread across 2 pc's is pretty well ok.
Not sure i need the extra 500k, or if its going to be reliable, we shall see.
Not happy about paying more for something i didnt want, so i suppose its a sweetner for the price hike.

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

'DK'-What's actually stopping you getting a BT line in? (AFAIK, they charge £75 to connect a 'new' customer)

Either way you will still have an active phone line.

Surely you could get BT to install the line on the proviso that you are only getting it for xDSL (keeping your ntl line in the meantime), & if the BT line then fails their line test as them for your money back?

Surely you've got nothing to lose (I know £75 is a bitter pill to swallow, but if you are that unhappy with ntl, then it would be worth it to find out re xDSL?

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

The antique stuff can be some of the best good thick(ish) copper cable. A BT guy mentioned to me the problems they are having in Essex where a lot of the county is cabled with aluminium cable which will not carry DSL at all.

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

Just the £75 and the hassle of getting it sorted really. I should try it out if I can get a guarantee of a refund for the connection fee if it's no good.

I'm not that annoyed with the price increase to make me switch though, I'll just drop a tier that's all. I have to admit that I was thinking about dropping anyway having analysed my use of 1Mbps, but discovering the extra £3 just confirms my choice. I will say I'm more content with NTL than I was a year ago when things were going horribly wrong ;)

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

NTL have come today to install my 1Mb connection, and am looking forward to using the service since I previously had Freeserve 512Kb/s, but since our house move have had no ADSL or Internet for 2 months.

I have read and my friend who has used NTL 1Mb for 6 months now have read on here that NTL are upgrading the service to 1.5Mb/s, but I am curious about this: Will the upload speed on the service be increasing also, or will it just be the download?

Regards

Richard Green :scratch:

Re: How many will consider changing levels now?
 

There has been no official announcement on upload speeds - but my guess is that they will up them slightly to match the download speed increases. :)