ntl Confirms 10Mb Broadband Speed Increase

[IvIaXiIvIuS]

So... NTL are planning yet another "free" upgrade with strings attached.Its just a shame that the new improved 10Mbps service will not be the fastest in the UK,BeUnlimited will be offering a 24Mbps service this autum NOT the end of year as NTL have planned.The new service offered by BeUnlimited is the first to use the trialed ADSL2+ and for under £30 for a unlimited service.this is not all they are going to offer to help you sign up.They are also offering a Thomson SpeedTouch 716g wireless router (which has two built in VoIP slots) free to customers. Normally RRP for the 716g is £116.99 including VAT.

read full story: http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1672

So we valued consumers at NTL get a 10Mbps connection capped at 75gig for roughly £40 and a probability that we have to BUY our new modem to cope with the speed increase and the competators get a unlimited 24Mbps service and a modem worth £116(fr ee) for £30 a month.Guess NTL have missed the boat again on such a prized PR coup.
Now if NTL offered a unlimited service for £40 a month at the proposed 10Mbps speed then i for one wouldn't be looking into changing from NTL to another provider as NTL offer a more stable connection.

[AndrewJ]

good point I for one would not be buying another modem from NTL nor will I pay out extra then I am paying.

My GF pays the bills regarding NTL and like she says we shall only be paying £24,99.

[Roy MM]

to cable forum IvIaXiIvIuS,

i've just registered to Be, just a wait and see when my area becomes enabled.

Originally Posted by Saxodriver

good point I for one would not be buying another modem from NTL nor will I pay out extra then I am paying.

My GF pays the bills regarding NTL and like she says we shall only be paying £24,99.

I am sure that the current modems are capable of 10mb and beyond, I guess some one like Ig will be along sonn to confirm this.

[AndrewJ]

I have heard the same, but with everything happening at once I do wonder when NTL will offer a free with contact STB/SACM and offer better ones which offer different features at extra cost.

[etccarmageddon]

Originally Posted by kronas

well lets see, streaming radio stations, streaming football, streaming music videos (launch.com)

just a few there, VOIP is coming along well, then there will be movie rentals to come.

no im not saying (it sucks), im merely pointing out that 75GB is a bit on the low side, ukonline has 300GB for 8mbit, i would prefer it to be about 150GB i think thats fair for both sides.

VOIP -

...A one-hour call contains 70 to 80 MB of data, with data transmissions typically approaching 70 Kb per second and per direction (upstream and downstream)...

so if you're on the phone 4 hours per day each month then you will use approx 10gig of your monthly allowance.


uk online - the monthly allowance is 500gig not 300! but they aren't as comparable to NTL as say Nildram as ukonline are currently available in 4 million uk home of which I wonder how many would be able to get 2mb let alone 8mb!

http://www.ukonline.net/broadband/exchangelist.php

nildram offer a 50gig monthly 'fair usage quota'. shocking as I believe 6 months ago this was 150gig! which suggests high allowances are not commercially viable.

and remember this - the adsl suppliers require a BT line - which forces a compulsory £10 monthly extra on your costs. and only a select number of BT lines will get 8mb.
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and it's worth reminding everyone that ukonline HAVE a 8mb service whereas NTL's 10mb service is currently unavailable.

Ukonline sucks big style Customer services worse than Ntl ever was .Im 2.8 km from exchange can only get 5 meg now and it drops continualy between 9pm and 4 am steady in the day though

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Salu

I would imagine this is a commercial decision to ensure that they can stay ahead in the game. With ADSL2 round the corner they need to be able to upgrade at short notice. Also they will have scored points by going to 10MB rather than ADSL's 8mb. They have probably announced the upgrade for the 3MB customers first to preserve the revenue stream until the upgrade. Otherwise people may downgrade first.

Of course, the speed of the connection and the price of it are the 2 main things people look at.
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Originally Posted by zinglebarb

Ok time for some serious cr*p cutting

Anyone wanting an unlimited account at 10 meg is a leech. Chances are they sell dvd's (I disclaim that im not refering to me) and chances are they dont sell them cheap so £70 plus say £15 for giganews so its £85 for something that will earn the pirates £100's is not a bad outlay

also those that are not pirates downloading say 100 gig of whatever can easily have £250 worth of dvds £1,000 + worth of music cds or rediculasly stupid amounts of software worth god knows

I do not condone this but lets be straight and not full of poop its why people want unlimited

True point for the bulk of people, there are exceptions. But I think everyone is off track the quote from NTL I read suggested there will be unlimited packages but not at 10mbit, the unlimited packages would be lower speeds.
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Originally Posted by Mick

The thing is though, ntl and Telewest are not in direct competition with each other, since you cannot get Telewest services in an ntl area and vice versa - Please also don't forget that there is an expected merger of the two cable giants, just around the corner.

Percieved competition but it makes telewest look better as they can point out to their customers they are receiving value for money by making comparisons to NTL.
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Originally Posted by slowcoach

OK, latest from the “Bloke in the Pub”.

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 “Kick @rse with ntl 10Mb/s Broadband" Sorry, made that last bit up

Thats a good product line up if true, caters for everyone.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by IvIaXiIvIuS

So... NTL are planning yet another "free" upgrade with strings attached.Its just a shame that the new improved 10Mbps service will not be the fastest in the UK,BeUnlimited will be offering a 24Mbps service this autum NOT the end of year as NTL have planned.The new service offered by BeUnlimited is the first to use the trialed ADSL2+ and for under £30 for a unlimited service.this is not all they are going to offer to help you sign up.They are also offering a Thomson SpeedTouch 716g wireless router (which has two built in VoIP slots) free to customers. Normally RRP for the 716g is £116.99 including VAT.

to CableForum.

A few questions:

First, does ADSL 2 suffer the same reliability problems ADSL can? I know people on Bulldog (for instance) who never get anywhere near their maximum quoted speed.

Second, How many exchanges are they launching in? According to the site (which, admittedly, may not be up to date), they are currently ready to launch in 50 exchanges. They will launch in Autumn (which could be as much as four months away). How many will they have ready then? I doubt it will be nationwide coverage. As I understand it, NTL will be upgrading the speeds in all areas by the end of the year (for 3 meg customers anyway).


Still, competition is good, and if anyone can pull it off, the guys behind Be can.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Tuftus

I am sure that the current modems are capable of 10mb and beyond, I guess some one like Ig will be along sonn to confirm this.

I believe so but if DOCSIS 3 gets rolled out I think new modems are needed. If they provided 10mbit on DOCSIS 2 then am I right 4 users at max burst will fill the download channel?

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by IvIaXiIvIuS

So... NTL are planning yet another "free" upgrade with strings attached.Its just a shame that the new improved 10Mbps service will not be the fastest in the UK,BeUnlimited will be offering a 24Mbps service this autum NOT the end of year as NTL have planned.The new service offered by BeUnlimited is the first to use the trialed ADSL2+ and for under £30 for a unlimited service.this is not all they are going to offer to help you sign up.They are also offering a Thomson SpeedTouch 716g wireless router (which has two built in VoIP slots) free to customers. Normally RRP for the 716g is £116.99 including VAT.

read full story: http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1672

So we valued consumers at NTL get a 10Mbps connection capped at 75gig for roughly £40 and a probability that we have to BUY our new modem to cope with the speed increase and the competators get a unlimited 24Mbps service and a modem worth £116(fr ee) for £30 a month.Guess NTL have missed the boat again on such a prized PR coup.
Now if NTL offered a unlimited service for £40 a month at the proposed 10Mbps speed then i for one wouldn't be looking into changing from NTL to another provider as NTL offer a more stable connection.

It sounds too good to be true and if you take heed of the old saying it probably is. I have far more faith in NTL delivering what they are promising than the claims of a new company that doesn't have a customer on the books. If Be Unlimited can deliver the service that they are claiming and at the suggested price then why aren't the established players in the ADSL market doing the same?

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Earwig

With BT insistant that they will be able to provide 8MB to most houses anyway sometime this year, it again makes you question NTL's strategy here.
I think NTL need to offer a Higher cap on a Par with ADSL suppliers......

I imagine that when BT, UKOnline and their ADSL competitors are nearer reality on these products (BT is still workign on 2Mb to most houses), LLU is still not widespread then NTL will respond to the competitive threat, at the moment, the threat is a future one, not a current one.

If I may add my £17.99 worth, this news is great, I'm quite happy to wait for 10 meg, I don't care about all the capping rubbish, there are more important things in life than getting stressed on caps. The service with NTL broadband has been a marvellous experience. NTL is at last beginning to move ahead.

[Hans Gruber]

Originally Posted by ian@huth

It sounds too good to be true and if you take heed of the old saying it probably is. I have far more faith in NTL delivering what they are promising than the claims of a new company that doesn't have a customer on the books. If Be Unlimited can deliver the service that they are claiming and at the suggested price then why aren't the established players in the ADSL market doing the same?

It may be a newly setup British company, but they're the people that gave Sweden 100mbit to the home.

And in answer to your question, British companies generally have the shareholders to answer to, who like to play things safe.

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by iron25

Downloading TV rips is no more illegal than recording a tv show onto video but hey let me guess...you've never done that before
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Only if you have a subscription to a channel that shows the show really. If you don't have a TV subscription to E4 (West Wing) then downloading a TV show is just as bad as downloading a Movie or Warez.

(Though as E4 is now Freeview that arguement may be a little spurious).