[Ramrod]

http://www.onlineblog.com/archives/2...89950109186218

Once again, Britain's two cable companies act as one. NTL Broadband has just announced a raft of changes similar to those unveiled by Telewest earlier today (below), although the fact NTL's website hasn't been updated, at the time of writing, suggests this was a hurried move. NTL's 150Kb product will now run at 300Kb, for £17.99 a month. Its 600Kb service will move up to 750Kb for £24.99, and the top-end 1Mb service will go at 1.5Mb, for £37.99. The company also says it has completed trials of a "turbo button" function - essentially, the ability to up your bandwidth for a specific (short) amount of time for an added fee. There's no news on when it'll be released into the wild.

Posted by Neil McIntosh at 10:56 AM | Comment | permalink

Telewest ups broadband speeds
Good news if you live in a Telewest area - the cable company is upgrading three of its four broadband products for nothing. The 512Kb product will now run at 750Kb, but still cost from £25 per month. The 1Mb service moves to 1.5Mb, for the current price of £35 per month, while the 2Mb service becomes what the company is claiming is "the UK's first residential 3Mb service" from £50 a month. [Update: Reader Nick Miners makes the very good point, in the comments below, that Bulldog has faster broadband services already available - just not at 3Mb.] The "entry-level" 256Kb service, costing £17.99, remains unchanged, making it look even worse value for money than before.

It's an interesting move from Telewest which - like fellow cable company NTL - needs to keep its revenues up. By increasing speeds, rather than lowering prices, it keeps everyone paying the same while sidestepping direct comparison with many of its ADSL-based rivals. That's likely why they've not improved the 256Kb service - for fear that too many customers, thinking they were previously quite happy at the 512Kb, might take the opportunity to save a few quid each month by "downgrading" to the product they were previously on.
Posted by Neil McIntosh at 8:56 AM