[Merged] NTL Increasing BB Speeds Late Summer 2004

[leeswin]

lol who else noticed they increased the price quick enough without increasing the service?

[Hell's Child]

Originally Posted by magpie

In fact, didn't someone mention July earlier?

I am told by marketing that July sort of time is the expected roll out date. Not definate but that's the ETA

[Ramrod]

As far as I am concerned the price increase is fine. The reason I took up the 1mb service was that it dropped down from £50ish to it's present level. Even after the increase, it will still be a lot cheaper than £50 and we get 1.5mb thrown in. I'm plenty happy still

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by Hell's Child

Also, why should ntl be worried about telewest having a 2mb line? They are not competition. They do not operate in the same areas and so in theory, do not need to compete. Takeup of a 2mb line would be fairly small, as the UK does lag behind europe/usa with regards internet takeup.

This is one of the main problems I think. They should be competition. Everyone goes on about BT holding the broadband market back in this country yet the cable operators don't have to compete against each other. That's just wrong. I think NTL would get a BIG shock if they had to go in direct competition with Telewest!

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by leeswin

lol who else noticed they increased the price quick enough without increasing the service?

Another reason why I think they had to rush this through to show they were not being left behind even more by Telewest. They normally have shown any speed increase's with this price rise

[Hell's Child]

Originally Posted by Defiant

This is one of the main problems I think. They should be competition. Everyone goes on about BT holding the broadband market back in this country yet the cable operators don't have to compete against each other. That's just wrong. I think NTL would get a BIG shock if they had to go in direct competition with Telewest!

Possibly yes. The reason they don't compete is due to the cable contracts. Ntl have manchester/london/teeside etc telewest have liverpool etc.

After a company installs cables, and puts themselves BILLIONS in debt because of it, to have someone come along and say ok you must let X cable company use your lines would be shocking.

And having just got out of/ to be just getting out of chapter 11 (both ntl and telewest) neither could afford to cable new areas en masse even if the goverment did open it up. So.... merger... means only one cable company effectivley which means bt vs ntl:telewest, in which case there is no chance of cable companies competing against each other.

[Charlie_Bubble]

Yes, if they opened up the cable networks and had to compete against each other it would be very interesting. How mant TW customers would go to NTL and how many the other way...?

Well thank you NTL!

Just as long as 'coming soon' doesn't translate into the usual 18 month wait.I remember waiting for free dial-up

[Mr_Burns]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Yes, if they opened up the cable networks and had to compete against each other it would be very interesting. How mant TW customers would go to NTL and how many the other way...?

But even if they did (and I don't think it will ever happen) you'd still be connecting to ntl's/TW's network so the only thing that would be different is the customer service number - why bother? Any service issues you had with ntl/telewest would still be present if you jumped ship to the other supplier.

[monkey2468]

I think the speed increase is an excelent idea.... especially for people on the 150k service

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by Charlie_Bubble

Yes, if they opened up the cable networks and had to compete against each other it would be very interesting. How mant TW customers would go to NTL and how many the other way...?

Yes the otherway thats what I would find interesting. Anyone want to start a poll on this. I know it wont happen but it would be interesting

[wheeliebin]

Originally Posted by Defiant

Another reason why I think they had to rush this through to show they were not being left behind even more by Telewest. They normally have shown any speed increase's with this price rise

Please show how it was rushed through?

Anyone who lives on this planet by now knows that the two are soon to become one. Is it not just possible to accept that such strategies may have been discussed by both companies and rolled out on very similar time scales.

What has Telewest got to gain by looking better than NTL if the two are to merge?

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by wheeliebin

Please show how it was rushed through?

Anyone who lives on this planet by now knows that the two are soon to become one. Is it not just possible to accept that such strategies may have been discussed by both companies and rolled out on very similar time scales.

What has Telewest got to gain by looking better than NTL if the two are to merge?

Oh that would explain why there TV packages are much better value. How they always give there customer's much better deals.

Oh and how Telewest had already updated there website in the early hours of last night with this information.

Seen anything on the NTL website yet ?

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by orangebird

Just to point out - Telewest 1meg is only cheaper if you have more than one service with them. Therefore if you have BB only with either Telewest OR ntl, you'll pay the same price (£37.99 pm).

Good point, but I've got two services with NTL but get no discount, so on comparison, Telewest is cheaper for the same packages.

Originally Posted by Hell's Child

5%, it's a very small %. And, tends to be gamers, people who download for profit (i.e download games/dvd's and sell them!!) and small buisnesses. I am not saying ALL 1mb users are the above but the majority are.

I'm only on 1Mbps because of the 256kbps upstream (makes my web server and remote VPN/ssh connections run faster). I'd much rather 256kbps upstream was offered on lower tier services though as I don't use even a fraction of the 1mbps download capacity.

Originally Posted by Incognitas

Well thank you NTL!

Just as long as 'coming soon' doesn't translate into the usual 18 month wait.I remember waiting for free dial-up

Or the years we had 'coming soon' for digital TV (so many that I gave up and went with Sky Digital instead).

And I'm still waiting for Caller Display

[th'engineer]

Our customers want more speed, better e-mail access and more newsgroups to enjoy, and that's what we're delivering," said NTL chief executive officer, Simon Duffy.
So all on the way good old NTL, Neil are you coming back
Might have to amend my sig soon