[jonifen]

Looks to me that NTL are trying to avoid suspending the services of heavy users and are instead giving them a poor alternative to force them to get their broadband from elsewhere.

Nice idea... in theory. However, if these people have a fairly decent TV package, the phone line (which is used by a family - so is often quite big) and the 3mb internet package, they will lose a lot of custom not just from the heavy users but also friends and family of these users.

For example, a colleague of mine at work had problems with NTL trying to bill him for things he did not receive... channels, 3mb broadband when he was only on 2mb and things like that. He was on the full whammy TV package and between him and his 2 lads, they usually had a big phone bill. He dropped the lot as he was getting fed up spending all his free time on the phone to NTL trying to get his money back that they had taken for things he did not have.
He came in and told us about the problems... and 2 people have since moved away from NTL (not including myself, but I do plan to get Sky and ADSL when we move house anyway as NTL's tv service is shocking... 5 engineer visits over the last 6mths and the jerky picture continues - I have told friends and family about this aswell).

Word of mouth is a powerful advertising medium... much more powerful than companies could ever imagine it seems.