Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

even at 512k, that is 165GB/month... What would you do with that much data? how would you store it? That is over 1 DVD full per day!

Ntl do have statistics. At the moment ntl are not "hard capping" but warning people who are going miles over their usage- most people who have had letters have exceeded the allowance by about 5 times... surely you can't claim that you didn't know you were going to be over 30gb??

I am confident that if (/when) hard capping is introduced, ntl will provide a means of monitoring usage.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

<Mod Edit: Chris W> Personal Attack Removed.
I still feel the points I made are worthy of saying,wish you would of actually made a comment about those and the painfully honest fact that a 30gb per month cap for a family with teenagers isnt worth the £25 theyre charging.

Thats just the point Chris W alot of modern things arnt saved to your hdd like streaming or webcam use,modern winamp video streams are 30-70kbs while your watching them,if NTL are happy to sell their broadbandplus package,then why should they be so anti downloading NTL are just one of 1000s of services that offer pay-per view media.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

I am limited by my hard disk size and my dvd burner speed.

Really time is what stops me from downloading more.

http://www.newzbin.com/

Praticaly when I am out and working I don't download anything. But when I'm in I just QUE things up and my comp just downloads them. And continues downloading when I am out.

I probably do less then 100gig a month, just that July I was home with injury. A 10meg line would not mean more downloading just faster for what I want.

I would be happy to stay with 3meg.

I would like to know though how many households that are on NTL broadband 3 meg, can move to similar or faster ADSL products. NTL tactfully increase speed as ADSL speeds increase (e.g. 3 meg beats the ADSL 2meg at same price). ADSL is getting faster for more people and NTL bring 10meg line to market (although hype).

But why can NTL not offer unlimited, I don't care about the future products that may be available. They have a problem with me now.
I have been threatened to COMPLY now or face reaction in october, but I am happy to go unlimited now - but it's not part of their package, wise up and and become a proper bussiness.

I have just come back form my hols and found it ammusing that where I was staying had a 10meg line (although each download is limited to 100k/s, you could run say 6 downloads and manage 600k/s). But what was more intersting, on one cable line coming into the flat you had at least 3 different cable operators to buy from (thats called compatition). Not just one monoply compay (some say you have BT but canot get same speed from them), I can't get telewest cos NTL is on my road!

BB

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

look folks, just admit it, hands up like me we got caught out, then just remember as long as you keep below 75gigs (they not going to kick you off for this amount as 75gigs will be the new 10meg allowance) when they say they are gonna monitor during September (which they don't as its not monitoring as such but a flag system over a certain amount 150gigs), then you'll be fine, and wait for the unlimited option *if they go ahead with it*, its only a few months - if that

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

Hmm... how much of this is fact and how much is presumption?

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

I have mentioned this a few times, true competition we would be seeing cable operators competing with each other but they are not. NTL have an effective monopoly on the following types of customers, unless you count AOL as effective competition.

People who cannot have a sattelite dish and want premium channels.
People who cannot change their phone socket.
People who cannot have ADSL due to distance or exchange not been enabled.

Most of the people who fall into these categories are probably in rented accomodation where they dont have the freedom to have telecom companies coming in doing work on the cables and sockets.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

Just out of interest is the cap so low because bandwidth is costly to NTL or because the network is not adequate to cope with content being downloaded?
Reason I ask is that there are various web hosting companies that offer 330GB of data transfer a month from your web server they host for £5-6. So my paying £38 for 30GB of data transfer seems a little on the low side.
Also why are people who download that bit more than 30GB being treated like they are hammering the network 24/7 by certain people here. I download between 500MB-3GB a day just watching various shows from the US as I don't watch tv anymore. There is no issue with download space as I delete it when I have watched it and I don't flog anything down the pub.
Looking at my stats for the week I average 43Kb/s down and 3.7Kb/s up which I do not consider to be of heavy usage (using ClarkConnect which is very good by the way). I also would have been none the wiser to the "cap" if I had not come on here to post something, where were the letters? (An amendment to the t/c's is not very helpful as I imagine a large number of people clicked past them on the upgrade like I did).
With the advances of the stuff you can download legally (HDTV clips, demo's, game reviews, music and the ever quoted "Linux Distro's" etc) I cannot see how the limits NTL have imposed are realistic. There is going to be more and more content available on the internet and it is going to be larger in file size. The more you surf the more you see there is to download and the closer you come to your limit, kind of takes the enjoyment out of it. Moan over gone to watch the letterbox for an official looking NTL letter.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

The limits themselves defenitly are on the low side as I already stated previously if the limits were imposed as 20:1 contention it would be nearer to a 160gig cap, but their are 3 reasons why I think they are much lower.

1 - They are any time of day caps and as most people use their net in the evenings, unless their is going to be an off peak cap then limits will have to be treated with higher contention in mind.

2 - The contention levels I think are now going to be much higher then 20:1 and ntl seem confident the usage patterns will be low enough for this to not become a problem. Noone has yet responded to my question of what will happen if a ubr hits congestion and noone using it is above the cap.

3 - Profits, lower limit = more overage charges, the previous limit of 30 gig was low but that was just a guideline. I would expect when all this is rolled out the caps will be hard caps and overage charges will be a possiblity.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

Same as happens now, resegmentation or other upgrades.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

thanks

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

Just a thought, apologies if others have mentioned this (I'm a little ****** ;) ).

If ntl are sending these letters out asking for punters to call in etc. to explain themselves then they should provide a means to monitor their downloads. Failing to do so could lead to ntl being liable to legal ramifications.

How do Mr & Mrs NonTechy with 5 kids who like listening/watching broadband Plus all day monitor their downloads. Do they really want to?

Lots of loop holes here.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

Yep agree, you would 1st think that they would at leat e-mail you if you go over the soft cap instead of sending through royal mail, after all we all know letters go missing and you may not even know about it :angel: , other companies do,

For me i rather they did hard cap and strictly enforce and have different download limit/unlimited options - why? - because this at the moment is a guessing game, do i go over?, will i get done?, how much can i go over?, how often can i go over?.

There should be some sort of direct link to what you download, a personal webspace/chart and i don't want anything running on my PC via software either, i have enought stuff in my taskbar using up resources and don't need anything else, i don't use the BB software NTL supply and don't want to use any BB usage Monitor, what would they want you to install next - blooming AOL likeness browser?, lol

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

Like the way that they email you to tell you that your mailbox is over their "high water mark". That always makes me laugh, your mailbox is full but they are just stuffing even more in there! Like that helps you in some way ! ha ha :D

They must have some way to log usage otherwise how would they know who to send letters to. In that case, why can't they let us as the user have access to their data with an online service (via our account details?) to check & do something about our usage before we get way over the top.
Car manufacturers provide a speedo so you know when your going to break the speed limit, it's really just a similar function but at the NTL end of the network.

Also, why can't they follow the mobile phone companies lead and go to pay-as-you-use systems. Something like 1 pence per Megabyte. Then it would really make people take account of their usage.

As a personal curiosity, do the business rates have caps on them ?

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

Ive been reading the many posts for the last couple of days.
Like a few others I too have had the "letter"

What I want to know is how accurate is NTLs monitoring of the bandwidth usage. When I rang up the "expert" (thats what he told me, he has 8 years IT experiance, unlike my 22 years!!) he couldnt give me an answer.

I only ask as I have been mointoring my usage and yes it does go over the cap.
In fact it goes over what the letter says I used.

When I converted to 2 meg I asked about the cap and was told dont worry its not being implimented until the new year, when there would be announcment.

Its not the new year and theres been no announcement.

Re: *ALL* ntl Cap Discussion (Part 3)
 

NTL,s monitoring is very accurate.

The reason the letter is showing lower then your actual bandwidth usage is becuase the letter does not show your usage from the postal date.

The cap is being implimented but has been a softcap for sometime.