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Originally Posted by Ignition
You forgot the cost of the Sky+ box, they aren't free last I checked sir!
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Of course not. It's a PVR. You don't get those for free no matter what (and if NTL did them they wouldn't be free).
Cheapest I've seen Sky+ now is £99 which equals the price of a TiVo when it was at it's cheapest.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by MikeyB
Good, thats what I was thinking, I knew they used to quote the price including the phone line.
So, I'm paying exactly the same for my Sky plus a phone line (£19.50 + £9.50) as I would for NTL.
At least thats cleared that one up, they are both the same price when you take into account the phone lines.
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Exactly, so the age old "but NTL includes phone" argument is irrelevant. All parties involved (Sky, BT, NTL) compete and will raise/lower prices to match so who's cheaper doesn't really come into it.
To be fair to Sky though, the comparison should not be Sky + BT(or NTL) phone line compared with NTL, but Sky compared with NTL
minus phone line. Sky are doing nothing wrong by publishing prices without the phone as they do not provide a phone service. You also don't have to get BT to have Sky.
However, what you get in terms of content and customer service is another matter.
As for Broadband, I'm afraid NTL is living in the dark ages when it comes to speeds, network infrastructure/connectivity, package options, and prices.
I switched to 2Mbps PlusNet uncapped for £40 recently and I'm just gobsmacked by the general browsing and download performance which I put down to the connectivity they have. The pings are just amazing by comparison to what I was getting with NTL. Download speeds are excellent, as are upload speeds, even at peak times.
I'm paying £2 more than NTL's 1.5Mbps service for a 512kbps more, fully uncapped service, with 250mb web space including CGI/PHP/MySql support, static IP, your own domain name, flexible online control panel to configure your account (rather than having to phone on a 40 minute hold), and one heck of a level of customer service the likes I've not seen before! (I'm truly impressed by their CS, but that's not difficult when I'm used to NTL).
If I go for a capped service, it's cheaper than NTL and yet I can PAYG for each GB I go over the cap. If you don't go over often it works out a lot cheaper in the long run.
And then with ADSL, you have an advancing technology, with ADSL2/2+ around the corner promising speeds that make cable a joke. Cable is still stuck in the dark ages with NTL bosses grumbling about "bandwidth hoggers"
. Even NTL admit that it's cheaper to invest in ADSL technology, to expand the network (hence they are).
I still think NTL's 128kbps upstream for the <1.5Mbps service is pathetic though. The big advantage with ADSL is the 256kbps upstream which you can get on 512kbps for £15 (a heck of a lot cheaper than £38).
BT's benefits...
ADSL works with BT, this means you have "choice" when it comes to BB ISPs
Caller ID availability
3rd party call package options
Voice over IP options (BT themselves are due to switch completely to VoIP by 2009). I'm not aware of NTL even considering this.
SMS via landline support.
No 40 minute wait on the phone to CS, only to be cut off when they answer