[Chrysalis]

I know enough about business thanks having got qualifications in business studies I also have experience in the internet industry.

1 - A company doesnt need to agressively acquire new customers to get profit growth.
2 - A company doesnt need to do incentives 365 days a year to gain customers.
and the big one
3 - A company doesnt need to have the incentive run through the ENTIRE length of the contract.

NTL seem to be very very desperate for customers, the fact that they have high customer turnover costs them money they make less ÃƒÆ’Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â£ÃƒÆ ’‚£ per customer. Customer installs cost money, Customer cancellations cost money, Giving customers discounts to stop them leaving costs money, Charging customers slightly above half price for an entire year costs money, Upgrading infrastructure which has to be done in response to growth costs money.

All this means NTL make less money per customer, fact is if the customer pays the full price from day 1 they are much less likely to leave at the end of their min contract period to jump ship to the next offer available, another fact is if there is no new customer offer then someone ringing retentions cant play on the fact that ntl can afford to price the service lower, fact is existing customers feel satisfied and are more likely to give good reccomendation to friends and family.

You never answered the question wether you think NTL make a profit at £9.99 if they dont you think it is good business practice to sell a service at a loss for the year with no garantuee of full turnover of that customer?

NTL need to stop comparing themselves to BT and look at the market as a whole, people WILL pay more for a better quality service and there is a type of customer who isnt looking for the best priced deal all the time, that is the type of customer that is profitable. This probably explains why telewest has been making more profit.

This is good for consumers in that they can take advantage of NTL but it makes current customers feel they been ripped of and want to leave and the customers that NTL attract will be low turnover.