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Originally Posted by ian@huth
NTL really had to change their tier descriptions from the 1MB, 2Mb, etc and quote them all as "up to" because of the way the internet works and the expectations of some customers. The speed at which you can download something is governed by many factors, not just the limit set by the configuration file that your modem is using. How many times do you see "I pay for a 10Mb service but get nothing like that"? Whether you can get it depends on factors such as the speed at which the other party can upload to you, the contention on the various networks that the data has to pass through and what every other customer on your UBR is doing.
In the early days of cable broaband there were relatively few customers on fairly low speeds. In the main customers tended to get 100% of the advertised speed. As the number of broadband customers worldwide has increased rapidly and speeds have been substantially increased at the same time then the ability to sustain maximum speed has gone. In the future as speeds get faster still then it will become even less likely that anything like the maximum speeds will be attainable.
Using "up to" is not a cop out by NTL but more a true reflection of what speeds on high speed home broadband connections are achievable.
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While in principle you are probably right. Wouldn't it be better to give everyone as close a speed as possible? Even if this means artficially restricting speeds for some people?
If I buy food by the pound, I expect to get what I pay for. I don't expect to get 2 pounds of potatoes, while someone next to me gets 4 pounds but pays the same price.
I don't believe that NTL are incapable of knowing what the network can handle speed wise, versus the maximum number of people who might want it.
For me that is what is most annoying. Maybe a fairer system would be for them to monitor what speeds people get and charge them accordingly? It may be too complicated to implemnet - I have no idea - but it seems they can monitor gig usage per month so speed shouldn't be any different. Kind of like a gas or electricity meter I guess. But as an example you can build different Sky packages depending on what channels you require.
Maybe if speeds were tallied once a month and charge either at 5,6,7 up to 10meg and with maybe £1-2 difference between each tier.
Ok, probably a nightmare to control. But the alternative is that some here are getting as low as 3 meg on a 10 meg line. That's a huge discrepency between best and worst cases and indicates that NTL are overstretching themselves in some areas.
For the record these are merely some thoughts bobbing around my head and aren't in anyway me screaming that this is what NTL should be doing tomorrow as soon as they open the offices!!
But I do know that if NTL said to me, "we are sorry but because of contention etc. we can only guarantee 5 megs instead of the usual 10....BUT, we will charge you £30 per month instead of £35. I'd be more than happy doing that.
Oh and just to add. Someone said I never say anything positive about NTL. Well, for me, Tech support have been amazing on occasion. Twice they have needed to visit my house to check my modem in the past year or so. Both times they came within 2 hours of me making a phonecall. That's oustanding I have to say. I doubt many companies could beat that to be honest. Plus they followed up each visit with a phonecall the day after to see if I was happy with the service.