Quote:
|
Originally Posted by m419
BT Line rental: £11.50
SKY Subscription(Lowest pack): £19.50
BT Broadband 512K: £15.00
Total: £46.00
NTL Family pack and telephone line rental: £19.50
NTL Broadband 512K: £14.99
Total: £35.49
|
I'm afraid a lot of your information is either out of date or incorrect:
BT and ntl both charge £10.50 for line rental. BT charge an extra £1.00 per month is you don't pay via direct debit. ntl INSIST on you paying via direct debit according to their current info on their website.
Sky's lowest pack is £15 per month, not £19.50. The Family Pack on Sky is now £21 per month, against ntl's £19.50. FreeView, of course, remains free.
I can't understand why anyone would take broadband from BT, as they're rather expensive. There are great deals out there for 2mb internet from far better providers. You can expect to pay around the same for a 2mb connection as you would from ntl, with the same restrictions.
NTL's Family Pack DOES NOT include telephone line rental at £19.50 per month. Line rental is an additional £10.50 per month as described per month.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by m419
Teleport: A bright new service coming very soon, hopefully, this would wipe the smile of SKY's face!
|
"A bright new service" - do you work in marketing by any chance? Teleport is already operational, as is ntl's VOD service. As discussed previously, Sky is currently in the process of buying a telephone and internet provider. They are also looking at buying the rather sophisticated VOD system by acquiring HomeChoice in London. I don't know about "wiping the smile" from Sky's face - if their purchases come off they will have a rather neat system in place that will set them up for the next 15 years (according to industry analisyts).
Don't forget that also BT will be launching their own combined Freeview and VOD box early next year. Contrary to what you are telling us, it looks likely to be highly competetive couple of years for the cable ops.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by m419
BT Anonymous caller rejection: £4 per month
NTL Anonymous Caller rejection: £1.75 per month
Telewest Anonymous caller Reject: £1.50
Wight Cable Anonymous caller reject: £1.00
New BT line installation: £75 to £99.99
NTL: £50 to £74.99
Telewest: £10 to £50 (usually £25)
Wight Cable: £50
BT Together option 3: £29.99 (Including line rental)
Telewest Talk unlimited: £26.50 (Including line rental)
BT Line rental: £11.50
Telewest line rental: £10.50 together with free weekend calls.
Wight Cable standard: No line rental.
|
I don't see the point of discussing the minutae of every company's single line items. But whilst you've got your calculator out perhaps you should note that BT's Caller Display is free compared to ntl's £1.75. BT's full itemised billing is free compared to ntl's £1.00 per month.
Most people already have a BT line, so reconnection is free. Even so, the installation cost from BT is actually £74.99 is there is no existing line in the house. This is the same as ntl.
The Talk Together Option 3 from BT is £25.50 per month including line rental, not 29.99. NTL's is 50p cheaper, but doesn't include SMS messages like BT.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by m419
SKY Customer services 0870: 8p per minute
Telewest Customer service: Free
NTL Customer service: Free
Wight Cable: Free
BT Customer service: Free (Although a very long queue)
|
Ah now here you actually make a good point.
I think it's disgraceful that Sky operates an 0870 number for customer services. I would expect this to change once they roll-out their telephone providers, but I won't hold my breath.
You point out that BT has long call queues...well so does ntl. In fact I spent over two hours on the phone being passed along various ntl call queues on Monday.
Conversely I spent two minutes on hold to BT, used their call back service and was called back within 2 minutes. I have noticed that ntl seem to have dropped their callback service. To be honest I am not surprised - they promise a callback within an hour - mine arrived FOUR hours later.
Listen...the bottom line is that each and every company is going to be better at some things than others - ntl's forte is broadband - on the whole (until something goes wrong) their internet connection is pretty good. But their TV system is rubbish and the phone lines are (for an average user) more expensive now than BT's equivalent pay-as-you-go type of package (which the majority of us are on).
I'd say that cable has (and always did have) oodles more potential than BT and Sky and they had a head start of a couple of decades to really take advantage of it. But they didn't. They don't use the network to it full capability, they don't invest in systems or people. They wait to see what others are doing before half-heartedly tagging along (and putting other prices up to pay for it) rather than leading the field.
This is why 30% of the population get digital TV from Sky, 20% of the population from FreeView and 10% from cable companies. Cable's been around since the year dot. FreeView has been around for a couple of years - puts it into perspective doesn't it?