[ackees]

I think a campaign should be started to open up the NTL network to competition.
I use a dial in internet connection and currently you get much better choice and cheaper prices if you are on a BT phone line than NTL (as little as £4.99 week days, with some services offering no maximum connection time).
The NTL service has got more and more expensive but there has NOT been a subsequent improvement in services, the current price hike is a whopping 25%+ up from £10 to £12+ per month, how many people will be receiving a 25% pay rise this year. And with inflation at less than 2%.
In effect NTL can charge what they like and say things like †œwe are still 1p less than BT", but this is not true because BT lines are open to competition, if you have a BT line you can get internet services for £4.99 per month. Thatâ₠¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s why people switch back its not because BT is any better it is because there is competition on the BT lines and none on NTL.
NTL like to argue that they are more focused on broadband and that no one matches their broadband services. Well if you have an NTL broadband be warned from their record on dial in connection, once they have a critical mass of customers their prices are going to leap up dramatically, yes they may end up £1 or so below BT but with no competition you will end up paying more then the more open BT system where competitors can offer cheaper and more varied services.
The NTL trick seems to be to trap customers with initial hard to refuse offers (remember when you got free internet connections and NTL were winning awards for it), then hike the prices and talk about it being still good value when it cllearly is not. I will not be surprised when NTL suddenly hike broadband prices like they have done to the dial in prices.
Perhaps the government can force NTL to open up their non competitive services to competition the way they opened up the BT service.