[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by The Cyclist

Hi, I didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t say everyone should or would be upgraded at once, we all understand theirââ‚ƚ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s going to be a roll out. But the most frustrating part of this exercise, is not knowing which areas are being upgraded, plus the STB fiasco. I know for instance there are some who have been upgraded, via postings, within my area. If they contacted Pace STB users prior to the upgrade they would have known who and who didnââ‚ ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t want to go beyond the 1meg limit. That would then have give an indication of the STBââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s needed. But instead what we have now is people ringing up and being told †˜you canââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t have one until at least 4th April and then there may be 2 week wait for it to be installed. This does not make for good customer service!

NTL would have a pretty good idea of how many STBs needed changing. They know who has got broadband through a Pace STB and what speed they are on. It is a fairly valid assumption that users on the 300k service will either want to stay on that or move to 1Mb. Both of these options don't require aSTB change. Users on 750k and 1.5Mb will certainly want the upgrade. So the sum is quite simple, count the number of Pace broadband users on 750k and 1.5Mb and that total equals the number of STBs to change. I have no idea what that number may be but would imagine it to be quite substantial. NTL may have only decided on these new upgrades some six months ago or less which may not have given enough lead time to enable Samsung to manufacture all those extra boxes. They wouldn't have had them sitting in the stores waiting. From what has been posted already in this thread it could be that deliveries from Samsung may be taking place on the 4th April which is why that date has often been quoted. An upgrade such as what NTL are doing cannot be done overnight and has to be spread over a period of time. Some have to be first and some have to be last. The start date of 8th March was possibly chosen because of the progress of infrastructure upgrades and the delivery dates from Samsung.