On topic London Broadband thread
 

Perhaps we can open this subject again, without the nastiness and bad attitudes.

I've just see the following over on Digitalspy, and it does look semi-official.

The original post is here, and also contains information about CR3 in London.

I know people around here are very suspicious about any information that's forthcoming, but this guy does give his full name and job title (on the previous page), so it should be easy enough to verify who he is.

Is it?? I fawt it was saaarf east that was in question...that's where RO & UDT are based?

It might just be me but i can't find any record of a person with his name working for ntl :shrug:

Uh oh.

Well, I did say it would easy to verify, one way or the other...

*runs and hides*

Not your fault mate :)

Doh!

:dunce:

Thanks Andre :)

Oh dear..... another thread about London Broadband and another load of BS.
Mystery men of ntl: proclaiming all sorts of things. The mods cannot find them working for ntl: !
Just what one expects from here!
I would love it if the guy did exist, prove that all he said was right, and prove the mods etc. wrong!

:confused: :spin:

I would love that as well but from the infomation that this guy gives on the other site i can't find a trace of him working for ntl just telling ppl the way it is.

Surely thats not a bad thing?
:rolleyes:

Where did I say it was a bad thing?
This is what I said!

All I said was that It would be great if you were wrong!
Take that whatever way you want. It's not my fault if you have a complex!
;)

you also said..
I do take that as being a dig yes ;)

hardly this sites fault that this guy gives a name out and I can't find trace of him within ntl is it!?!?

:shrug:

Take it as a dig if you so wish.:cry: But what that meant was that it is typical for unsubstantiated rumours to be posted on this site especially in regard to London BB issues.
:confused: :shrug:

:Peaceman: It seems i may of taken it the wrong way then!!

I agree with you that some definate answers are needed on this issue and hopefully if people want to work with Andre you might just get some :)

Thank you.
Believe it or not, that is what I have essentially been saying here and on DS and .com..... Stop posting unsubstantiated rumours, it only raises expectations and makes matters worse. What I have wanted (and I am sure what others have wanted) is some official response to the issues. This we never have had. We have had many rumours about London BB from various sources, and I still do not have BB in S. London, so therefore all that has been said before has been proven BS. !
So, come on people out there, unless you can substantiate what you say, or even quote a REAL ntl: source that we can contact, DO NOT POST RUMOURS! It does more harm than good.!
:spin:

I suppose NTL used the trialists to get some idea of the quality of service (if any) they could provide to London customers.

Does anyone from NTL know if any of the 300 London triallists were based in West London?

If so it would be interesting to hear from them.

Not the ones I saw. Judging by DHCP leases they were all in a fairly small area off Lewisham (which matches what's been announced). There's a pocket in West London too, but only a very small one (North Notting Hill if memory serves).

Here's some actual, real news for you all......

I live in the SE3 Lewisham / Greenwich area, and today received a marketing leaflet telling me: "The Wait Is Over (and it was worth it) - 150k Broadband now available for just £17.99 per month."

MAJOR EDIT: I previously wrote a long-winded rant about NTL just offering the Bronze, 150k service and not the others. It turns out that, in fact, the 600k and 1mb services are also available in SE3 now.

And installation is free.

And I don't need a modem (because my STB can route directly)

And they'll give me the first month free if I ask nicely.

It's been four years or so, NTL, but finally, finally, thank you.

Customers in South East London have had an unduly long wait for broadband and I suspect it's only being provided in those parts where there have been successful trials.

It's possible that as NTL start getting their act together they may be in a position to upgrade the networks to carry the 600k and the 1Mb services at some point but like a lot of things with NTL it tends to be a long process.

Having said that I suppose we should give them some credit for getting there at all. Though it does leave a bitter taste in your mouth finally getting only a 150k service after such a long wait but then half a loaf is better than none.

Enjoy your broadband and use it to keep nagging for the higher speed services. Hopefully, they wont be too long arriving.

Just hope that RippedOff, Inkblot and all the other London broadband campaigners are among the lucky ones to get broadband.

I've edited my post. Please ignore my long, earlier rant, which is largely incorrect and somewhat unfair on NTL.

Although I will say this - given that the Silver and Gold services are actually available in my area, and I want them, and have said so to NTL on many, many occasions, you would think they'd have put something, even in small print, saying the faster services are available. Or called me.

The NTL lady I spoke to said the drive is to get customers acclimatised to 150k services first. Maybe so, but it's been like a four year broadband drought where I live. I don't want a sip of water, I want sodding great gulps of it now.

NTL are the only company to offer permanent cable internet connections for £17.99 a month, though.

Looking at a Lewisham UBR, the first box I find is a 1Mb STB, the second is 600k. I'd doubt we'd only launch 150k tbh, even though it sells well. Does the wording explicitly say 'only 150k available'?

EDIT: oh, he's edited it :)

While I'm at it, am I actually correct in assuming that you need the 600kb service for Xbox live? It won't run on 150k, surely?

Thanks for that, BBKing.

Now that SE London is getting sorted you'll have a flood of requests asking when they will do West London, North London etc.

It is good news that broadband has finally arrived. Must admit that London , the nation's capital is getting it later than the provincial cities. It's usually the other way round.

Hopefully, the other areas of London will get broadband services soon. Perhaps we'll get some trials in West London to get the ball rolling and to find out how good or bad the network is in that area.

Just one thing you might not know.

If you're getting broadband through your STB, then the '150k' service is actually capped at 256k, which is a nice bonus.

I have heard of people running XBL connections from this, but I don't know what their games are like. I would think though that it would be okay, as the ping times to the servers would be identical, and I can't see a game filling up the bandwidth totally (especially if you don't use the headset).

The 'official' two IP ntl Xbox service is (still) SACM only, but there's nothing to stop STB users signing up for Xbox separately. Pay a bit of attention to the Xbox threads on this site to get round the browser specific bits of the registration, you should have no problem. Or use a uPnP compliant router and have your PC on at the same time.

Just back from holiday!

Thanks for the thought ntluser. I am in SW London (Streatham) and no sign yet of BB. I still wait in anticipation.
What progress (if any) is taking place in SE/SW London - can anyone out there let us know if they have BB / CR3 yet? It would be good to know where the progress is happening (if at all) and where and when the service arrived.
Cheers
:D

ntl are upgrading the south of london, and it happens to be streatham is the next to get the upgrade. maybe a few weeks...or months! who knows. only ntl can tell us (hint hint)

Oh well... I'll shall wait and see.... meanwhile.... this has gone by email to Chris Slattery at ntl....

Dear Chris Slattery,
I am aware that ntl are currently upgrading and developing Broadband in South London. I have heard on ntlhellworld.co.uk that Streatham (where I live) is the next area due to be upgraded. Can you confirm / deny this please? If this is indeed the case, do you have any idea of the timescales involved?
Thank you,
*************
I shall keep you posted, although I do not expect a reply!(as usual)



:D

when ever i email ntl, they tell me to call the sales team. and they haven't got the foggiest, and guess what they tell me to email ntl. it is a vicious circle!

I second that, sales haven't got a clue. Anyway, even if NTL was offering free broadband to my face I still would not take it.

Yeah... exactly the same with me!
:spin:

WELL, WELL, WELL ! A quick reply from ntl all be it not a favourable one!


Dear Mr.************
Chris Slattery has asked me to deal with you query relating to Broadband. At
the present time we have no confirmed authority to build any further area's.
However, we are at present putting a business case together to enable
broadband connectivity to further homes in the London area. We hope to have
this approval by mid to late October. If all goes to plan, there will be a
two year build probably starting in January 2004.
If you are able to confirm your full address I will find out if it is likely
to be in build plan and also the proposed time that it should be made
serviceable.

Best Regards

Julian Paddock
Build Manager ntl Home

So.... BB maybe in 2006?

So, where does this leave all of you who were saying that London had to have BB by the end of this year. What about all these overheard conversations about SW London getting BB, and what about Streatham being next?????? BOLL*CKS AS USUAL!
:mad:

Hello SKY !

:wavey:

When I reported a problem with my digital TV service in August Customer Services said that it was probably due to the cabling upgrade in Greenwich being completed to enable Broadband and CR3 services.

Little bit sceptical, but when I rang again and talked to a different CS person a few days later, he said something along similar lines. Then, when the engineer turned up, he said that the TV outage was caused by the contractor upgrading the cabling in our street box for broadband. I asked if this meant it was imminent and he said "any day now".

Does that mean CR3 TV too? I've currently got the blue EPG and no interactive - CR2 I think.

Well, for a change we have some answers! NOT GOOD!
My latest reply from ntl:

(I am in the Streatham area of South London)

Dear Mr **********
I can confirm that your address is in the provisional build plan. However the bad news is that at the present time, this are would not be due for release until mid June 2005.
I must stress that we do not as yet have approval for funding of this project. Both time lines and build area may change, I am therefore unable to make any guarantee of service for you at the present time.

Best regards

Juli**Pad***

:mad: :mad: :mad:

Well, RippedOff, although the news is not brilliant at least NTL are communicating with you which has got to be a major improvement from a company whose philosophy is "No Communication Is Good Communication".

It does prove that they do have some plans for London as parts of Lewisham are on line.

The sad thing is that things do move extremely slowly at NTL but we are seeing some movement just not at the speed we would like it.

I think NTL do want to move things on as the problems with London have a knock on effect on other projects like CR3, ETV, EPG amendments etc. which NTL are anxious to get sorted.

As per usual, by chipping away at NTL we do gather snippets of information here and there which help us to gain insights into the overall picture. Maybe NTL will tell us when the decision re: funding for the build plan will be made and it's always possible that your part of Streatham may be in the earlier part of the build plan.

We'll just have to hang in there and wait and see how it all works out.

P.S. Any news from Inkblot, Hawkmoon and the other London Broadband campaigners?

There is nothing to be confused about, the point is why should I buy products from NTL where they have no desire to communicate with their customers in an open, honest manner?

I phoned the sales team again yesterday evening and they say south london is due for completion by christmas 2003

So who is telling the truth??????????????????????????????????

no body knows. but ntl seem to be saying this year for south london. the reply given to rippedoff could have been an out-of-date responce, and ntl have now decided to splash out and upgrade! or 2005 for the whole of london.

This was not a computer generated reply that I received, but a specific response to my question about the progress of BB in South London, and as requested, included my postcode account no. etc. This reply was received on 3rd Sept 2003 by email, on behalf of Chris Slattery of ntl:.......... don't see how that can be construed as being "an out-of- date response"!
I would of course be very happy if I got BB before Chistmas!
:confused:

Found this article today on http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ talking about the 2mb broadband upgrade that Telewest are doing...

Telewest Broadband's Managing Director, Gavin Patterson, said:

"Birmingham is at the heart of our UK broadband plans and with this expansion, we are showing our continued commitment to the area.

†œCustomers have been asking us to make broadband services available and weâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢ve been keen to satisfy this demand. We will be writing to customers over the coming weeks to tell them the good news."

I wish ntl would do the same thing in the London and surrounding areas.......

Strange that - I'm sure that Telewest are in debt just as much as ntl were????:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
How can they manage to upgrade major areas and ntl can't???

Not quite - Telewests debt is £3.5bn. ntl's was £13bn.. ..

i am in the process of creating a website, with the back of ntl! the website will be on line around october time.
ntl have confirmed, the truth, straight from the horses mouth, that they are in the process of upgrading 75,000 homes in London! alot. that is all i can say...i will keep you posted. :)

Heard it all before ! That horse of yours sure talks a lot of shi*!
:td:

I very much doubt anyone in South London actually have cable broadband. If there some then they are very sparse.

Fail to see how that can be lying, maybe they are upgrading 75,000 homes in London, just that yours rippedoff isn't one of them? Man is trying to help you and others in London, rudeness isn't the greatest way to encourage however fed up you are.

You've been given a date of 2005 - if you don't want to wait till then look at alternative options. At least you now have a date!

Who said it was lying? Even you said ' maybe ' ! He is not trying to help me. He is once again spouting unsubstantiated hearsay on this forum, which does NOT help anyone! If you have seen earlier posts about the posting of hearsay you would realise how pointless posting hearsay and rumour is.
If I want to complain about not having BB until 2005 on this forum I am entitled to without Admin Edit: Personal attack removed like you telling me to look at alternatives. If you do not like what I post, tough - nobody forces you to read my posts. And you cannot talk about rudeness - I find your post offensive and rude.

Admin Edit: Personal attack removed

1) The maybe referred to the chances of them actually upgrading but your area not being one of them, plans constantly change as you must know, and for all we know the information you were given previously could be superceded at any time. The fact you described bigitup_j's horse as talking sh*t gives a hint you think there's lying going on there.

2) I'm not telling you to look at alternatives, I'm suggesting that if you don't want to wait that long, which you clearly don't, you might want to check the alternatives out. If ADSL is available to you it seems strange that you want higher speed internet so badly but are determined to wait 2 years and complain all the while when you can get it now.

3) As far as the rest of your post goes, you are bang out of line. I don't appreciate being spoken to in that manner, and it's certainly against the T+Cs of this site. There was no offensive content whatsoever in the post of mine you quoted. Apologies if you find anything that isn't to your liking posted on here so disagreeable. Which you do going by the above and your comment in previous post. :shrug: