> That price is not £20 for the service and £5 for rental of the cable modem.
Years ago - when CMs cost more so did other things.
If you're going to hypothetically dissect the price, it's not enough to say "CMs are cheaper" - while ignoring changes in everything else that makes up the cost.
CMs being cheaper is the reason why the fiver is too much today, and is more of an argument against paying 25 quid today compared with years ago, not one for it
[The "rent v buy", you get a replacement and maintenance etc, are worthy debates, but this isn't that debate - there's no point having that debate because as you've read, NTL have removed the option entirely from their service now] Although the comments about what you get if you rent / what you get if you buy, do show an interest in both options - let's hope NTL reintroduce buying, so the debates are worth having]
The debate is about the lack of choice and the unjustified increase in price that removing the buy option from those that had it [and imo, to those that never had the choice - I certainly wouldn't have joined NTL had the rental been forced]
But as I said in my last post, if you've owned a CM for 5 years and it's going tickity boo tickity boo without problems then you're not about to buy the line that the 300 quid you'd have paid was to support that CM. [No doubt people have had problems, in fact I'm willing to bet there are threads with problems from NTL's provided modems - another reason to offer choice]
The speed increases don't make the service worth more imo, they merely make it remain competitive - NTL know that and that's why they haven't increased the prices. If they weren't increasing speeds to 2mb at the same cost I imagine you'd soon be talking about NTL's service to yourself
As for the subsidy thing - who are you kidding?
But yep, you make a good point - what the price of rental is, given an option to buy that would subtracts that amount, [which is, until 1st June, 5 pounds]
As you say, it might not be justified forever because CMs are cheaper. Since I'm going to be paying the fiver I'm with you on the idea to get it reduced in line with the price of CMs. Let's hope it's quick.