Finally someone who seems to be thinking what I am thinking.
From here it looks like ntl is in big trouble, they couldnt rollout 24mbit to compete with adsl2 without some kind of investment, 1 24mbit connection would rip apart the current technology used for the ubr's. Adsl has a good advantage for isp's in that distance will reduce speeds for most customers leaving them less of a problem with contention, but with cable if they rolled out 24meg anyone who buys it will have a line capable of the speeds.
Also like yourself I think the broadband market here has gone sour, its all focusing around cost now and everyone has gone to competing on price, we are going to be seeing near free services and anyone who tries to charge a suitable price is not going to get any market share. Bulldog who have spent large amounts in their network have not had their reward for it with a very low amount of customers yet isp's who just let their network congest more and more have users flocking to them.
Ntl appear to be out of cash, solution to full ubr's traffic shape, solution to analogue only area maybe pull out of area come analogue switch off day. solution to customers who notice how bad things are discount them. All these solutions avoid investment. I still dont understand the acquisition of telewest and the merger with virgin it appeared they had some cash available to them and they have wasted it on buying customers. They probably thought tightening things up by raising prices this year would sort out their profit, but almost at the same time the adsl market prices have plummeted which couldnt have been worse timing for them, this must have seriously lowered the value of the telewest acquisition since each customer is now worth less. Also tightening things up is useless if they continue to allow the rampant discounts been given out with no contracts whatsoever. Their earning potential is seriously hampered by having services not properly rolled out. I keep saying it again and again they should take the pain invest in their areas that need it and make all their services universal, so they have the same products available to every customer for the same price. If a customer doesnt want to pay that price then cut them loose. Only today their arrogance is evident in that the price change leaflet I got with my bill lists prices for digital tv with no mention of analogue anywhere (in an analogue only area). Ntl are behind on tv, behind on phone, and now falling behind on broadband. For a number of years they had a superior infrastructure for their broadband but due to lack of investment time has caught up with them and they have minimal upgrade potential left to give to customer.
The future? Ntl are limited by their coverage and the only way they are going to be able to compete in the future the way things are going is becoming the budget option for people because on a technical level and quality of service they are just in the slow lane.
---------- Post added at 16:25 ---------- Previous post was at 16:24 ----------
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Originally Posted by jtwn
Nice collection of figures there 
but
Whereas expansion of the opposition is threugh ADSL2+, ntl are 'set' to use DOCSIS 3.0 next year. The connections that could be offered vs ADSL/2+ will batter them into oblivion.
When people have the opportunity of 24mbit vs 100mbit, that is going to sway some. This is the inherrrent advantage that cable has above LLU, that it is one step ahead with its speeds. I'm not saying that its the breadwinner all round and everybody is going to convert to cable, I'm just saying the broadband product, hopefully, will be better. |
they not set to use anything, they trial alot of things including docsis3, but rolling it out is a different story and requires cash.