why people use ntl

[themelon]

Originally Posted by {FU}Fubar

just point out a small mistake for you , SKY bought out BSB so they did merge and have two sperate networks , the differance is that sky got there ***** together ntl havent and i doubt they would

They didnt really operate two networks, though, Remember a $ky engineer calling round soon after the 'merger' fitting a huge ugly monstrosty dish in the place of the small rhombus reciver provided by BSB. Its a lot easier to fit monstrosties to peoples homes than to relay miles of cable or reinstall headends and £ÃÆ ’‚£Ãà¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚£S of hardware as ntl would have to.

A merger is the technical term, but really $kys money played the major factor, forcing BSB on to its knees then taking over its customers at Knockdown prices in true murdoch monopolistic fashion.

At the end of the day ALL of the companies are as bad as each other, its pot luck. But $KY and BT are as bad as ntl if not worse......its a matter of choosing between the evils. I was a customer with $ky for years and they are a long long way from having their '****' together.

[Tristan]

Originally Posted by {FU}Fubar

just point out a small mistake for you , SKY bought out BSB so they did merge and have two sperate networks , the differance is that sky got there ***** together ntl havent and i doubt they would

The Sky/BSB 'merger' was completely different though. They both used the same analogue technology: all that was required was that the subbscriber could see all the necessary satellites.

If the two rival services had both gone on to develop different and incompatible digital TV system before the takeover, it would be a very different story. Likewise if NTL had gone for CWC's digital system, as Telewest did, rather than their own, things would be much better today.

[Chrysalis]

well BT are greedy as well no doubt about that, but at least they are doing some kind of rollout, which I am sorry to say unless someone can prove me wrong the cable companies are not doing that.

[dialanothernumb]

Ahhhh... UDT would have sooo loved this thread. Can't someone unban him?

[dialanothernumb]

Originally Posted by Tristan

The Sky/BSB 'merger' was completely different though. They both used the same analogue technology: all that was required was that the subbscriber could see all the necessary satellites.

??
[Pedant mode ON]
As I remember it (as a squarial owner myself) my BSB stuff was state of the art DMAC Digital and redundant. Sky suggested I put up an "Astra" dish instead

[Charlie_Bubble]

Well, the reason I got NTL in the first place was the lease on my building doesn't allow people to put up external aerials etc., but this week I found out a neighbour in the same building has a sky dish, so I'm no longer concerned about this and have seriously thought about dumping NTL at the end of this month and getting SKY, BT and an ADSL isp.

It took me over a year to get NTL to reconnect my flat after I moved in. They had a completely different postcode for my flat and to them my flat didn't exist, despite the cable points in the living room. I had to directly contact a director of the company to get that mess sorted out and got 6 months free cable.

I used to have On Digital before I got cable and kept the On Digital box in my bedroom for about half a year after I got analogue cable. Strange how On Digital had a much better interactive service 4 years ago than NTL does today. The only thing keeping me with NTL at the moment is the broadband and this attraction will diminish if the cost of the TV or BB goes up. I am annoyed every time I visit my parents and see their red button working on their Sky system. All I get, over 3 years after getting "digital" cable is a box that either freezes upon pressing the red button, very poor interactive that looks like it was put together by a 5 year old as a lunchtime activity or a white screen telling me I should move to Sky.

When BB first came out in my area I signed up for it and got a letter telling me they would let me know when I could be installed. 7 or 8 months later I had ADSL put in as I got tired of waiting. Strangely enough, the day before my ADSL install date, NTL emailed me to ask if I would like a free cable trial. I replied that I had wanted it before and they had missed the boat as I was having ADSL installed the next day. Boy, you should have seen the number of messages on my answer machine from the NTL sales team trying to get me to cancel my ADSL install and get cable instead.

Last year I almost left again after having the most horrendous packet loss on my BB. after 3 "engineer" visits it hadn't gotten any better, so again I had to contact a director and finally the problem was fixed within a couple of days.

I'm afraid the main problem with NTL is that they do have 'technology tamed', but it's several years after the competition have been there and done it, often much better. They are good at trying to put into action their customer service when they realise they might lose your custom, but overall they are an organisation which doesn't inform their customers about anything they are doing and takes years to achieve the slightest visible change in services to customers. For all I know there are millions of NTL bods trying to get interactive tv working, caller display on the phones, solve the email and news server crappiness, re-arrange the channels into a coherent order etc, but as a customer I don't hear jack about it. As a company working in the communications business, their own communication with their lifeblood, the customer, leaves a great deal to be desired!

[leeswin]

I use ntl for 2 reasons:
A) I cant offord sky (3 boxes and mutiple packages)
b) If anything goes wrong they replace the box. and do not screw me for the cost of another if i happen to be outside 12 months.

regards

[Rone]

One little point that i read on another "related" ex-site, is that most peeps using the net wouldnt know what a problem is as regards browsing etc.
If your mail works ok, and your web pages work, thats them satisfied, of course they wont complain. Even if its running slowly, they have no comparison or experience.
Lots of peeps here do, they spot a problem, and hopefully brings it to someones attention, and hopefully a fix.
We are not naturally a nation of complainers [but maybe we are getting better] the picture of the average British chap [or chappess]taking anything thats thrown at them, needs kicking in to touch imo.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by themelon

ntl have a lot of happy customers all in all. I fail to see how they are being left behind in any way, Catching up maybe.

That must be the quote of the century. If you think that they are not being left behind in any way just look at the past twelve months.

Sky have brought the cost of Sky+ down and introduced dual recording. Where is the NTL personal video recorder and the ability for NTL customers to record two different Sky channels using only the one box?

You can get 2Mb broadband on Telewest cable and DSL, but where is the NTL 2Mb service?

You can get caller display on BT lines but how about NTL?

You can get eight different European Championship games on one Sky channel but how many can you get on NTL?

You have a (theoretical) cap on NTL broadband services but none on most competitors service.

You have a company in NTL that doesn't listen to its customers and prefers to push things under the carpet or forget about them (power users group for example). Closing the dot com site can only be seen as progressive behaviour by the idiots that did it. Can you honestly say that the closure was in NTLs or their customers interests.

Most of NTLs competitors are reducing the price of their broadband services but NTL have increased the cost of their lowest broadband tier.

I am sure that other site members can add to this list of reasons why NTL are falling behind. Perhaps you can list the areas where NTL are catching up?

[Mr.Moony]

Yes they have more features. So why dont they have more customers?

Damn right

[themelon]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

That must be the quote of the century. If you think that they are not being left behind in any way just look at the past twelve months.

Sky have brought the cost of Sky+ down and introduced dual recording. Where is the NTL personal video recorder and the ability for NTL customers to record two different Sky channels using only the one box?

You can get 2Mb broadband on Telewest cable and DSL, but where is the NTL 2Mb service?

You can get caller display on BT lines but how about NTL?

You can get eight different European Championship games on one Sky channel but how many can you get on NTL?

You have a (theoretical) cap on NTL broadband services but none on most competitors service.

You have a company in NTL that doesn't listen to its customers and prefers to push things under the carpet or forget about them (power users group for example). Closing the dot com site can only be seen as progressive behaviour by the idiots that did it. Can you honestly say that the closure was in NTLs or their customers interests.

Most of NTLs competitors are reducing the price of their broadband services but NTL have increased the cost of their lowest broadband tier.

I am sure that other site members can add to this list of reasons why NTL are falling behind. Perhaps you can list the areas where NTL are catching up?

Sky+ is again a Niche market, it is still out of range of the majority of people of either have no need for it or cant afford it £199 is still a lot of money. Ntl are bringing out VOD (Video on Demand) which offers similar flexibility to PVR (Ordering a show when you want it) Sky are left behind in this?? no they just choose a different route which is fair enough, customer choice is a good thing!

How many DSL Providers have 2mb services?? About 3-4 maximum i can see currently, is their sufficient demand for such services currently??........probably not if you completely honest the majority of people arent on fast services, they are on low/mid tier packages, high speed is something of a Niche market. Most of ntls broadband customers are on 150k and are more than happy with this over dial up at £2 more than various dial up providers.

You can get caller display on parts of the ntl network perfectly fine.........I for one can, I dont have a great deal of use for it anyway most of the time. This is again down to different networks, BT had their network paid for by the tax payer.......yet they still cant provide me with a line free of crackles in 2004, my priorities lie with clear calls as opposed to caller id and such like...........get the basics right first!! My BT line was/probably still is practically useless for all services, it cant get ADSL because of the noise.

Sky Sports Extra has only just been added, Theoretically Sky Active can be added to Sky Sports on Cable should Sky desire to, they may not want to as its a selling point for them. Apparently Sky and ntl are talking of porting Sky Active to cable when cr3 is ompletely rolled out.

BT Are and ntl competitor and have a cap as do Virgin ADSL services, more will soon have to follow suit, the UKs archaic network isnt up to the task of everyone being on broadband and without serious investment by ntl and BT, we can never look beyond 8Mbs and services will become crippled once contention to exchanges is on maximum limit.

ntlworld shouldnt have been closed, but BT and Sky have actually forced legal action on various sites of a similar capacity, at least there are alternatives.

ntl have increased the cost of the lower broadband tier, firstly they have increased the speed by 22kbs which is the diference between a 14kbs modem and a 36kbs modem...........which was considered quite a major difference a few years back and can make a significant difference to surfing. Another reason for the increase could be to port customers from 150k to 600k services enabling them to phase out 150k.........and who knows bring in that illusive 2mb service that millions of screaming customers want!! A lot of ADSL prices remain static BT starts at £27.99 which has been at that level for some time for a 512k service, as is AOL and most of the big name companies. ntl isnt competeting with smaller ISPs like Pipex. Also lets not forget even with the cheapest ADSL Service of £18.50 a month, you have to pop the BT line rental of £9.50 on top, whether or not you use a telephone so the cheapest ADSL Service in my eyes is £28.

Originally Posted by ianathuth

You can get caller display on BT lines but how about NTL?

You can get eight different European Championship games on one Sky channel but how many can you get on NTL?

I have CLI on my NTL line - do all BT lines ? - they certainly didn't used to.

I don't understand the comment about eight matches on one channel - what do you mean ?

[DrAwesome]

Originally Posted by pem

I have CLI on my NTL line - do all BT lines ? - they certainly didn't used to.

I don't understand the comment about eight matches on one channel - what do you mean ?

I have been told that i can add & remove features and edit settings like my caller line ID number in real time via my account with my internet ADSL supplier can you do this online with your NTL account?

i think he is refering to Sky Sports inter-active

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by themelon

Sky+ is again a Niche market, it is still out of range of the majority of people of either have no need for it or cant afford it £199 is still a lot of money. Ntl are bringing out VOD (Video on Demand) which offers similar flexibility to PVR (Ordering a show when you want it) Sky are left behind in this?? no they just choose a different route which is fair enough, customer choice is a good thing!

snip

Also lets not forget even with the cheapest ADSL Service of £18.50 a month, you have to pop the BT line rental of £9.50 on top, whether or not you use a telephone so the cheapest ADSL Service in my eyes is £28.

LOL.

I don't appear to see the many areas that you say NTL are catching up with. There is VOD of course which you say is .... coming soon, maybe. We all know what NTL mean by that.

Quite a pathetic attempt to paint the NTL service as being so perfect and its competitors so inadequate. If you keep repeating along these lines you may even start to believe that NTL are as good as you say.

I don't know why you and others knock Sky so much. If it wasn't for Sky what choice of channels would you think there would be on NTL? Sky dishes I can put up with, I hardly ever notice them even though there are many about. What I do notice is the scarred roads and pavements where cable has been laid and the ugly black wiring running across many rendered house fronts where the cable installers haven't even tried to follow a less obtrusive path.

Originally Posted by ianathuth

LOL.

I don't appear to see the many areas that you say NTL are catching up with. There is VOD of course which you say is .... coming soon, maybe. We all know what NTL mean by that.

Quite a pathetic attempt to paint the NTL service as being so perfect and its competitors so inadequate. If you keep repeating along these lines you may even start to believe that NTL are as good as you say.

I don't know why you and others knock Sky so much. If it wasn't for Sky what choice of channels would you think there would be on NTL? Sky dishes I can put up with, I hardly ever notice them even though there are many about. What I do notice is the scarred roads and pavements where cable has been laid and the ugly black wiring running across many rendered house fronts where the cable installers haven't even tried to follow a less obtrusive path.

The fact is that NTL are good in some areas and poor in others, as are their competitors - all have their good and bad points. Also - you may not be aware, but many areas will not allow you to install a sky dish on the side of your house so they have no choice - cable, standard analogue, or nothing (or maybe freeview if they are lucky, but no sky channels).