Cable Forum - View Single Post - Does ntl offer a viable product any more?

Stuart · 18-11-2004, 10:41

Unforetunatly, as Neil says, NTL are reacting to other companies, not being pro active.

Lets look at the upcoming service changes.
Speed increases

True, NTL has recently increased speeds, and will be doing so again in the near future. Telewest has had the new speeds for months now, and even ADSL offers some people 4M or 8 M (although they will only be available to a small percentage of users due to cable length limitations). The one major advantage that NTL offers is that they will be available to everyone, which neither Telewest nor the ADSL ISPs can promise.

PVR
NTL are apparently going to offer a Personal Video Recorder facility. V. Nice (and something I am looking forward to). We don't have any real info on it's facilities yet (hard drive size, ability to watch one channel & record another, extended program guide etc) , and, TBH, Sky + has been around for a couple of years now..

True Video On Demand
Again, this is a nice facility to have, but not, IMO, as good as a true PVR. But, Homechoice (and Kingston Cable I think) have been offering this service for years. In fact it was demonstrated by BT on Tommorrow's World over ten years ago. And, I believe it's not actually being offered by NTL, but another company using the NTL network. So, technically, NTL can claim they are offering VOD in the same way that BT can say they offer 8Meg ADSL..

Regarding Interactive, I personally don't use it, but I have a friend who developed a site for NTL Interactive for her degree project (it was a private site, and was never released). She researched the various systems, and found that in terms of facilities made available to the developer, NTL's interactive (on CR3 or equivalent) is equal to Sky's interactive. She also found NTL considerably more helpful than Sky. She wrote the same letter to NTL, Sky and Telewest. Sky said they could help, but it would cost a lot of money. Telewest didn't reply and NTL said they would help for free and sent her a complete CR3/Liberate development kit & emulator and gave her access to a special test server they have that's not on the main network. I do believe they also gave her extensive technical support.

My point in stating the above is that if the Interactive services provided are crap, I don't think it's entirely NTL's fault. Yes, the pace boxes are underpowered and should be replaced, but apart from that, I lay the blame for crap NTL interactive entirely at the feet of the broadcasters..

18-11-2004, 10:41	#15
Stuart - Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Somewhere Services: Virgin for TV and Internet, BT for phone Posts: 26,546	Re: Does ntl offer a viable product any more? Unforetunatly, as Neil says, NTL are reacting to other companies, not being pro active. Lets look at the upcoming service changes. Speed increases True, NTL has recently increased speeds, and will be doing so again in the near future. Telewest has had the new speeds for months now, and even ADSL offers some people 4M or 8 M (although they will only be available to a small percentage of users due to cable length limitations). The one major advantage that NTL offers is that they will be available to everyone, which neither Telewest nor the ADSL ISPs can promise. PVR NTL are apparently going to offer a Personal Video Recorder facility. V. Nice (and something I am looking forward to). We don't have any real info on it's facilities yet (hard drive size, ability to watch one channel & record another, extended program guide etc) , and, TBH, Sky + has been around for a couple of years now.. True Video On Demand Again, this is a nice facility to have, but not, IMO, as good as a true PVR. But, Homechoice (and Kingston Cable I think) have been offering this service for years. In fact it was demonstrated by BT on Tommorrow's World over ten years ago. And, I believe it's not actually being offered by NTL, but another company using the NTL network. So, technically, NTL can claim they are offering VOD in the same way that BT can say they offer 8Meg ADSL.. Regarding Interactive, I personally don't use it, but I have a friend who developed a site for NTL Interactive for her degree project (it was a private site, and was never released). She researched the various systems, and found that in terms of facilities made available to the developer, NTL's interactive (on CR3 or equivalent) is equal to Sky's interactive. She also found NTL considerably more helpful than Sky. She wrote the same letter to NTL, Sky and Telewest. Sky said they could help, but it would cost a lot of money. Telewest didn't reply and NTL said they would help for free and sent her a complete CR3/Liberate development kit & emulator and gave her access to a special test server they have that's not on the main network. I do believe they also gave her extensive technical support. My point in stating the above is that if the Interactive services provided are crap, I don't think it's entirely NTL's fault. Yes, the pace boxes are underpowered and should be replaced, but apart from that, I lay the blame for crap NTL interactive entirely at the feet of the broadcasters..