ntl Confirms 10Mb Broadband Speed Increase

[idi banashapan]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

called communication between departments, if its a say this might happen then yeah sure, but now its at the stage where its announced etc. and 'is' going to happen at this stage I would expect the engineers to know as then they can make sure equipment at the property is up to scratch to provide such a service they can also be on hand to answer customer's question whilst they there. If I was an engineer working for ntl and the customer knew more then me I would not be happy at all been put in an embarrasing situation.

spot on. let's face it, NTL is a communications company, so why does there appear to be an issue with it communicating within itself? as I said before - and engineer, regardless of the area he/she works in, is a customer facing company representative. NTL have announced that these changes will be going ahead. I mean, it's on web forums, and you're telling me that NTL should not expect it's own staff to be informed? there has been mention of the changes to limited customers before the end of the year, with others to follow in the new year. the engineer should, on all counts, be aware of the situation and be capable of answering questions regarding the subject posed to him by customers. I'm not saying the engineer should now EVERYTHING about it, but at least be aware of it and it's basic details. if he/she doesn't know the answer to a detailed question, then by all means, point the customer towards the call centre, who CERTAINLY should have access to more in-depth information at this stage in it's developement. a basic knowledge of a communication companies communications services is essential. perhaps it's just me who thinks this? and Chrysalis!

don't get me wrong - i'm not putting NTL down for releasing the service, etc, and well done to them for being competative and so on, but in my view, it IS a poor show on NTL's part if they don't ensure they make every effort to see that their own staff know what is going on.

If the dates are that uncertain, then the engineer / call centre - whoever - could at least say "we expect the service to be live by....". There is no obligation for them to give everyone who asks a definitive date for live service to their home. in fact, if the dates are that uncertain, perhaps the upgrade should not have been mentioned, otherwise it looks to obvious that it was just to scare the rivals, who will then ACTUALLY release a faster service sooner!!!

[Marge]

Originally Posted by Bender

I'm not saying the engineer should now EVERYTHING about it, but at least be aware of it and it's basic details. if he/she doesn't know the answer to a detailed question, then by all means, point the customer towards the call centre, who CERTAINLY should have access to more in-depth information at this stage in it's developement.

At this point in time no further details have been released to staff either in call centres, engineers, slowcoachs friend who routes in the bins or mrs mopp with the tea trolley. Until everything has been finalised, the crosses and dots put in place then we shall have to be patient. I have seen occasions in the past where things were due to go live but due to various reasons was postponed and customers come on the phone shouting and bawling because they see themselves as being entitled to X, Y or Z cos they were told it would happen today. As I said in my earlier post ntl are dammed if they do tell and dammed if they don't and there will always be folk who never have quite enough detail.

[Horace]

Nobody forced them to release the information. The only reason they did so was to keep customers from going elsewhere when it looked like BT and other DSL providers would be be releasing a higher speed product and grabbing all the headlines at the same time.

I pretty much expect this not to be rolled out till BT actually come close to catching up. Afterall, why stress the network until they need to. This will probably be good for NTL overall since they will have more capacity than needed and so hopefully mean happier customers and Marge gets to a have a slightly less stressful day :p . One day NTL will learn that quality > quantity.

[SmellyKipper]

Originally Posted by Horace

Nobody forced them to release the information. The only reason they did so was to keep customers from going elsewhere when it looked like BT and other DSL providers would be be releasing a higher speed product and grabbing all the headlines at the same time.

Yep that was my theory also.

Originally Posted by Horace

One day NTL will learn that quality > quantity.

I think thats a bit harsh, i`ve been with NTL broadband for 2 1/2 years and i`ve got to say their network is the dogs nuts.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Bender

spot on. let's face it, NTL is a communications company, so why does there appear to be an issue with it communicating within itself? as I said before - and engineer, regardless of the area he/she works in, is a customer facing company representative. NTL have announced that these changes will be going ahead. I mean, it's on web forums, and you're telling me that NTL should not expect it's own staff to be informed? there has been mention of the changes to limited customers before the end of the year, with others to follow in the new year. the engineer should, on all counts, be aware of the situation and be capable of answering questions regarding the subject posed to him by customers. I'm not saying the engineer should now EVERYTHING about it, but at least be aware of it and it's basic details. if he/she doesn't know the answer to a detailed question, then by all means, point the customer towards the call centre, who CERTAINLY should have access to more in-depth information at this stage in it's developement. a basic knowledge of a communication companies communications services is essential. perhaps it's just me who thinks this? and Chrysalis!

You expect the installers to know about services and products that haven't launched yet?

The problem with that is illustrated by the current problems with Channel launches. Look at the amount of complaints that failiure generated on this forum alone!

don't get me wrong - i'm not putting NTL down for releasing the service, etc, and well done to them for being competative and so on, but in my view, it IS a poor show on NTL's part if they don't ensure they make every effort to see that their own staff know what is going on.

If the dates are that uncertain, then the engineer / call centre - whoever - could at least say "we expect the service to be live by....". There is no obligation for them to give everyone who asks a definitive date for live service to their home. in fact, if the dates are that uncertain, perhaps the upgrade should not have been mentioned, otherwise it looks to obvious that it was just to scare the rivals, who will then ACTUALLY release a faster service sooner!!!

The problem with that is (and I speak from experience here), if you say "and we expect the service to go live by ..." and then say a date, people will ignore the "we expect the service to go live by..." bit and assume the date is final.

[Griffin]

Heres one for all to think about NTL & Telewest are supposed to be merging effectively creating one company. how are they going to get round offering some people 10mb unlimited for £35 pm while others will be paying up to £37.99 pm for 10mb with a 75gb cap.

[tomjleeds]

It's quite simple - while NTL and Telewest continue to exist as two brands, they'll market different products. Assuming that they will, at some point, re-launch under a unified brand, their products will become the same.

At least, that's the logical solution.

[SMHarman]

They are also not direct competitors (you can get NTL or Telewest) you cannot choose to switch between them unlike say Demon and Bulldog, so why do they need to compete, it is about as useful as comparing the prices Time Warner offer in the US to the prices Telewest offer in the UK, or UPC in France.

[idi banashapan]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

They are also not direct competitors (you can get NTL or Telewest) you cannot choose to switch between them unlike say Demon and Bulldog, so why do they need to compete, it is about as useful as comparing the prices Time Warner offer in the US to the prices Telewest offer in the UK, or UPC in France.

I'm not sure I understand exactly what you are saying, but it seems like you are saying that we can't say NTL are competitors to Bulldog, for example. If this is the case, of course they are competitors.

Just because the format for service delivery is slightly different, the end result is ultimately the same - high speed internet access. saying they are not competitors would be like saying buses and cars are nothing like each other in any way. on the surface it may seem that way, but indeed, they have more in common than not. they both have wheels, both use the roads, both get you from A to B. the list could go on, but in the end, you get to the destination, albeit one does it better than the other.

[SMHarman]

No, you can get NTL or Bulldog, you can get Telewest, or Bulldog, you cannot get NTL or Telewest.
So Telewest could lower its price for 20 MB BB to 1p, but if you were in a NTL cabled area it is of no use to you whatsoever, if Bulldog did the same you could of course switch to the competition. NTL and Telewest do not compete with oneanother, their product offerings are entirely complimentary (to use marketing speak).

To compare to a similar transport analagy, the London to Brighton railway line is not the same as the London to Glasgow line. Both use Steel rails, have trains running along them etc, but if you want to get to Brighton you can only use the Brighton line and the operator running the trains on that line.

[idi banashapan]

Originally Posted by SMHarman

No, you can get NTL or Bulldog, you can get Telewest, or Bulldog, you cannot get NTL or Telewest.
So Telewest could lower its price for 20 MB BB to 1p, but if you were in a NTL cabled area it is of no use to you whatsoever, if Bulldog did the same you could of course switch to the competition. NTL and Telewest do not compete with oneanother, their product offerings are entirely complimentary (to use marketing speak).

Oh, ok - see what you mean.

[Griffin]

Let me try putting it from a different angle if BT were to rename its self under two or more titles & charge different prices in the different regions it would cause an uproar. In the same instance when NTL & TW merge effectively they become one company, i think its wrong for the same packages not to be offered nationwide

[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by Griffin

Let me try putting it from a different angle if BT were to rename its self under two or more titles & charge different prices in the different regions it would cause an uproar. In the same instance when NTL & TW merge effectively they become one company, i think its wrong for the same packages not to be offered nationwide

Indeed, but at the moment NTL and Telewest are not the same company when (or indeed if) NTL & TW merge effectively they become one company, it is highly likely that UKCable will become one brand with one pricing structure and marketing initiative, however just like BT cannot offer 2Mb BB to all this will have a "subject to network capacity / ability caveat".

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Griffin

Let me try putting it from a different angle if BT were to rename its self under two or more titles & charge different prices in the different regions it would cause an uproar. In the same instance when NTL & TW merge effectively they become one company, i think its wrong for the same packages not to be offered nationwide

I have had the same view for a long time, I have never seen ofcom take action against a cable company in this country, they seem to be in place to make it as easy as possible for ntl and telewest. The fact both cable companies have monopolies on their networks is astounding, look at the usa and you can see the cable development their is far more progressed due to inter cable competition. Please dont mention AOL I know they provide over NTL but they are hardly doing any pushing.

When the 2 do merge and there is different products in different areas will ofcom do anything will anyone do anything, will the press pick up on it this remains to be seen.

[jtwn]

You seem to ignore that ntl was a private venture from building the network to now. Are you trying to tell us that there were areas that didn't even have landlines till ntl came along? Course not.

If BT haven't haven't made parts of their network ADSL ready, or Sky dishes are banned, thats tough luck laddy.