Thread: 1GB Cap Letter!!!!
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Old 19-02-2004, 15:03   #265
Charlie_Bubble
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Re: 1GB Cap Letter!!!!
The trouble is that NTL are victims of their own marketing success. They cut the price of 1Meg and so more people went onto it. They upped the bandwidth of the 512k package to 600k. They signed the deal with AOL to provide cable for them. Their network canââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t cope, or at least certain parts of it canââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t cope.

The solution to the problem is clear. No more 1Meg cable. Limit everyone to 512k or 150k packages, or raise the prices charged for the packages. Then hopefully NTLs network would be able to cope again. The total amount of data that could be downloaded would be almost halved or they get more money in to help with upgrading. The problem with this of course is NTL will lose money, about £10 for the x thousand of people they downgrade to 512k from 1Meg (If they all chose to stay). Then they risk looking like a second rate broadband provider when compared with Telewest offering 2meg cable and ADSL companies offering 2Meg ADSL for almost the price of NTLs 1Meg service. This is the crux of the matter. To stop people downloading so much you have to either physically limit them by cutting bandwidth or charging more to discourage it. NTL won't do this though. NTL want as much of people's money as they can. Their problem is that if you cut peopleââ‚Ã⠀šÃ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s bandwidth and they have a choice to go with ADSL, they probably will and you lose money. If they raise prices on premium packages, they stop being competitive when compared to most other ISPs. Itââ‚ ¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s already looking a little too much when you can get cheaper 1Meg ADSL with prices likely to fall a wee bit further as BT tries to encourage more people to take the leap.

So, instead of the sensible option NTL decide a blanket 1gig limit. No matter how much you pay for your connection, at the end of the day you are getting the same product. You might not even reach the limit on 150k, but in real terms you have the same capacity for data download as someone paying twice the money.

People compare this to communism. Thatââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s rubbish. If it truly were like communism, everyone would pay the 150k price and get the 150k service, or the 512k price, or the 1Meg price and get the relevant service. Itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s more like Blairism! If you can afford to pay for 1Meg, you get the same old 150k service as someone paying 150k prices.
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