ntl Confirms 10Mb Broadband Speed Increase

[KyleMac]

Much like the 1.5mbit > 3mbit upgrade I don't know whether to be excited or worried. The extra speed would be nice, but the cap would be horrible (turned out it didn't exist on 3mbit after all). It will be nigh impossible to get the most out of 10mbit, especially since most http connections rarely surpass 1mbit. As people have said before, it's going to be the upstream that matters. It'd be so nice to have 1mbit up and be able to host games of my own/unpopular mods/games. "Hey guys, want to play Tribes?", "But there's no servers anymore", "No problem!".

The 75GB cap is a tad too low for me, it'd probably be alright for 9 out of 12 months a year. My (dodgy, probably inaccurate) mIRC script says this:
18463.46MB in/8657.65MB out (over 1wk 1day 9hrs 2mins 54secs)
Now I have no idea how I got that. 2x SG1 episodes, 2x Atlantis, 2x Galactica, all seeded to just over 1.0 would have given me about 2100MB/2100MB. What the hell is using the rest of the bandwidth? I've been syncing with my webhost several hours a day every day while doing PHP, my brother has been playing Diablo 2, NWN, Tribes Vengeance and more online all the time, and I imagine my dad has been getting his regular fix from theunderdogs. The rest is mostly movie trailers, demos, streaming video, etc. I know that no-one else in the house uses any P2P software since I would have had to sort out the ports. A 75GB cap is just too low for a house of nerds.

From what I can understand from ntl's press release is that £37/3mbit/no real cap will become £37/10mbit/75GB and so on with the other packages. Then we will also have the ability to change to something like £37/5mbit/no cap. Considering how easy it is to change your tariff at the ntl site then they should hopefully be able to offer enough services to suit everyone.

Those of you talking about watercooling your modems; I think your routers may need more of that attention, mine will.

[hjf288]

DOCSIS 3.0, which would likely require a silicon change at the modem and at the CMTS, could offer downstream bandwidth of 200 Mbps per channel, and 100 Mbps per channel upstream. Today, DOCSIS 2.0 delivers up to 40 Mbps down/30 Mbps up. The 3.0 version would give operators enough bandwidth to offer a wide range of IP-based, entertainment-quality media services.

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by kronas

well thats certainly disappointing, unlimited services will be below 10mbit

so i guess it means the caps will be hard ones instead of the current soft ones.

That really sucks doesn't it, ntl releasing unlimited services but not at 10Mbit, and offering 10Mbit for those who can handle a 'mere' 75GB/month

Originally Posted by Robc66

They have been expected to merge for years and nothing has happened....this is nothin different now and telewest and ntl always offer nearly the same services so they WILL upgrade and WILL beat what ntl offer......

You that good at picking lotto numbers as well if so can you pick me 6 winners for the weekend

Originally Posted by Robc66

They have been expected to merge for years and nothing has happened....this is nothin different now and telewest and ntl always offer nearly the same services so they WILL upgrade and WILL beat what ntl offer......

But like I said - they are not in direct competition with each other.

[mcmanic]

Originally Posted by Robc66

What about people who want unlimited 10mbit? or wont they offer that service?

if they offer a 2 meg unlimited i'll happly drop from 3 meg to 2 meg and save some money.

Speed isn't everything you know

Originally Posted by orangebird

?? You don't have to have DTV to get a phone line only...

I did when I started...Oh so long ago. I didn't really mind and I still don't.It's still a cheaper option than Sky and the phone bills are cheaper than with BT.

[jtwn]

Yes when you don't need it and don't value wasting your time downloading.

[Monster Jedi]

[QUOTE=mcmanic]if they offer a 2 meg unlimited i'll happly drop from 3 meg to 2 meg and save some money.

I allready download unlimited on the 2meg so why should you drop from the 3meg

[kronas]

[QUOTE=Monster Jedi]

Originally Posted by mcmanic

if they offer a 2 meg unlimited i'll happly drop from 3 meg to 2 meg and save some money.

I allready download unlimited on the 2meg so why should you drop from the 3meg

*waits for the cap letter to reach Monster Jedi

i have been reliably informed that its 'coming soon'

[eTa]

NTL have come along way from the early days of 512K broadband and I think this is a great step in the right direction, although I must admit that I am a little disappointed with the size of the cap... I guess the only thing to do is to wait and see what the options are.

[robtufts]

It has come on in leaps and bounds, was quite a sight to see "20x faster than dial-up" and now it's 20x more than 512k which was the norm mere months ago!

Originally Posted by NTL News

Some customers with older modems or hardware will need to purchase a replacement to experience the full benefit of the speed increase.

lol... we will need to "purchase" a replacement. errmm why ? its your equipment. Just how much will this replacement cost is what I want to know.

[slowcoach]

OK, latest from the †œBloke in the Pubââ‚Âà ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ÂÂ�.

ntl are planning on implementing the first wave 10Mb/s (3Mb customers) to undermine the BT 8Mb/s implementation in October, thereby negating the BT publicity.

The first phase will be to test the system suitability especially over the Christmas period when VOD is expected to add extra pressure to the system.

It may be decided to soft cap this first phase initially to provide better figures for judging requirements when other users are moved up to 10Mb/s.

If all goes well over Christmas lower tier customers will be switched over early in the New Year, it is expected that this will be spread over a couple of months with any fine tuning necessary being done area by area.

Finally, the unlimited range will be put on-line later in 2006, a range of speeds will be available uncapped with the top speed being 5Mb/s uncapped. Prices of uncapped 1Mb/s and 2Mb/s will remain as they are at present, the new 5Mb/s uncapped will probably be priced at £37.99 same as the top tier 10Mb/s 75Gig capped product.

The upgrade is being spread out to ensure that there is no degregation of service along the way, ntl are confident that recent upgrades to the system will be able to cope easily with only minor overnight work being required in the odd area.

To increase revenue ntl will be releasing a range of T-shirts and Sweat Shirts imprinted with †œKick @rse with ntl 10Mb/s Broadband" Sorry, made that last bit up

[Roy MM]

Originally Posted by slowcoach

To increase revenue ntl will be releasing a range of T-shirts and Sweat Shirts imprinted with †œKick @rse with ntl 10Mb/s Broadband" Sorry, made that last bit up

Like it tho