A little inside information by an Employee.

[Chrysalis]

pharrell rubbish about BT 21cn you sound like a ntl salesmen.

21cn is to move bts network from atm over to ip, it also is a adsl2+ rollout offering upto 24mbit (realistically 16mbit) and possibly but unconfirmed fibre to the cabinet rollout.

Originally Posted by pharrell

Using the ARRIS' FlexPath 100Mb technology, mega quick broadband services "can be delivered over existing cable networks using readily available home networking devices"

Need conformation on it? http://www.hdtvuk.tv/2006/02/ntl_to_trial_10.html

ARRIS and ntl, last week, announced field trials of a 100 Megabits per second (Mb/s) ultra speed data service using the ARRIS FlexPath channel bonded solution incorporated in its Cadant C4 CMTS and Touchstone Wideband Modem. Following successful Lab trials, field trials are to commence in March. The announcement was closely followed by news that ntl and BitTorrent are to team up, to test a service that will legally let users buy movies and music video downloads. Getting back to the main news here about 100Mb speed trials. A press release states that, FlexPath uses the same bonding technique as that selected by CableLabs for its DOCSIS 3.0 standard.

(source:http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/...d-speed-trials)


As for this 21C BT are planning on launching (which supposidly will offer 100MB/s, but i'll believe it when I see it, because there is no information on their page about it), are you aware is is basically going to be one big WAN, which is essentially a national network before you even think about the internet, because it will be connected at BT's end - this would make it very easy for BT to control the information we can get from the internet, and also allow them to monitor the information we do get - This reminds me of China, who do the exact same, and I for one sure wouldn't appreciate that, would you?

As for the sales pitch, I wasn't trying to sell the products, it's not money in my pocket, I am just getting tired of people phoning up, saying they can get a better deal here, and a better deal there, when I know for a fact they are special offers which run out, which NTL.Telewest can offer you as well - I do believe people in the past have had bad Customer Services experince, but this is an issue that will be resolved before we re-brand to Virgin, and as we have just recently implemented a Quality Control system, so now no-one can get away with giving "bad" Customer Care to the people who make the business run - Without customers, there is no business, and this is currently NTL.Telewest's main priority at the moment.

Read the bit in Escapees post where he talks about how much ntl are spending on maintaining the local networks. Its no where near enough, and only a matter of time before theres more patching to be done to keep it working than house calls. A sh1tty network will not carry the modulation schemes needed for higher speed BB as they won't have the required SNR. A noisy network is a slow network.
Spend as much as you like on the backbone, if the local pipes won't work due to noise then its third world ntl.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

pharrell rubbish about BT 21cn you sound like a ntl salesmen.

21cn is to move bts network from atm over to ip, it also is a adsl2+ rollout offering upto 24mbit (realistically 16mbit) and possibly but unconfirmed fibre to the cabinet rollout.

I think the other ntl plan that I heard a few months ago also included moving ntl's digital TV platform over from atm to IP, I'm not sure if that is still on the cards?

It sounds a bit strange and extravagent though as the existing equipment is not really that old, and there is not exactly a problem with spare capacity as far as I'm aware.

Perhaps I'm wrong on that one, perhaps Womble can confirm if the digital platform is moving over or that is shelved as well.

Originally Posted by Escapee

I think the other ntl plan that I heard a few months ago also included moving ntl's digital TV platform over from atm to IP, I'm not sure if that is still on the cards?

It sounds a bit strange and extravagent though as the existing equipment is not really that old, and there is not exactly a problem with spare capacity as far as I'm aware.

Perhaps I'm wrong on that one, perhaps Womble can confirm if the digital platform is moving over or that is shelved as well.

ATM is long ago full Kev. The second supplier they used, used a system over SDH on the same layer as the ATM. But the Layer dedicated to cable is full or very close.

[pharrell]

Originally Posted by andygrif

So which town was your long career history in then? I am not aware of one town which has all those employers in one place - so how did you manage to commute between them all whilst being educated at, presumably, one single education location?

Glasgow - and all of them were for 1yr+ thank-you very much, enough to grasp the concept, prices, how the business is actually run, and most importantly how the staff and customers are treated.

As for my education, yes, it was in one location, Strathclyde University a BSc(HONS) for your information - and I plan on going back next year, whilst working part-time for NTL.Telewest.

One thing I would like to know, how can my opinions be "biased" when I have worked for all the major companies I listed?

[Shaun]

I do believe people in the past have had bad Customer Services experince, but this is an issue that will be resolved before we re-brand to Virgin

You're optomistic mate - personally I'd not trust Ntl with my communications needs again after last time, even if they have bought a new name off Dicky.

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by orangebird

Fair enough, but then please extend the same courtesy - not everyones experience of ntl has been as bad as yours -fact.

No. Many people's experiences have been even worse. Fact.

Originally Posted by pharrell

Glasgow - and all of them were for 1yr+ thank-you very much, enough to grasp the concept, prices, how the business is actually run, and most importantly how the staff and customers are treated.

Just to clarify... you are saying that you have spent over five years in Glasgow working for all of the aforementioned communications companies, whilst studying a BSc.

Originally Posted by pharrell

One thing I would like to know, how can my opinions be "biased" when I have worked for all the major companies I listed?

Becuase you work for the one that you're claiming to be so fantastic. If, when you've served your year+ at ntl and move on to one of the other 27 phone company call centres in Glasgow and still claim that ntl is brilliant, then your point becomes more valid.

Would you believe the used car dealer who said the cars he was selling were better than the dealer next door?

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by pharrell

As for this 21C BT are planning on launching (which supposidly will offer 100MB/s, but i'll believe it when I see it, because there is no information on their page about it), are you aware is is basically going to be one big WAN, which is essentially a national network before you even think about the internet, because it will be connected at BT's end - this would make it very easy for BT to control the information we can get from the internet, and also allow them to monitor the information we do get - This reminds me of China, who do the exact same, and I for one sure wouldn't appreciate that, would you?

And this is *exactly* how ALL ISPs operate. Unless you are seriously suggesting that NTL gives each and every one of us our own personal bandwidth on their uplinks to the net?

---------- Post added at 09:05 ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 ----------

Originally Posted by andygrif

No. Many people's experiences have been even worse. Fact.

And many people (remember, this forum is too small to be a representative sample of NTL's customers) have had better experiences. Fact.

[injuneer]

Pharrel, while I am heartened by your enthusiasm & faith in your new employer there are a quite a few on this forum who work or have previously worked for Ntl (myself included, in an engineering capacity, I left of my own accord, not through redundancy) who might not share your enthusiasm based on a legacy of missed opportunities, broken promises, mis-management, bad decisions, constant reorganisations and lack of investment. Don't get me wrong, there is a wealth of talent in Ntl but often it's not backed up by the finances or the management. I sincerely hope Ntl DO get it right this time for their customers and employees (sorry, associates) sake. But I, for one, am a bit sceptical. I've seen it all before, again & again ................

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

And many people (remember, this forum is too small to be a representative sample of NTL's customers) have had better experiences. Fact.

It was just a facetious comment in reply to another facetious comment! Although, actually to get a reasonably accurate sample in reseacrh terms, you only need about 5,000 responses. And there are about 20,000 members, so... perhaps not.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by andygrif

It was just a facetious comment in reply to another facetious comment! Although, actually to get a reasonably accurate sample in reseacrh terms, you only need about 5,000 responses. And there are about 20,000 members, so... perhaps not.

5,000 out of one million plus customers? That's (at most) 0.5%. I don't think that is a resonable sample (in fact, I am pretty sure most surveys have a margin of error considerably larger than that).

But, I don't want to go off topic.

Originally Posted by Stuart C

5,000 out of one million plus customers? That's (at most) 0.5%. I don't think that is a resonable sample (in fact, I am pretty sure most surveys have a margin of error considerably larger than that).

But, I don't want to go off topic.

Actually, election opinion polls are conducted on a far smaller sample of the electorate than that. A decent general election exit poll would query about 20,000 of the 25 million or so people who vote on the day and expect a margin of error of perhaps +/- 3%.

[hatedbythemail]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Actually, election opinion polls are conducted on a far smaller sample of the electorate than that. A decent general election exit poll would query about 20,000 of the 25 million or so people who vote on the day and expect a margin of error of perhaps +/- 3%.

indeed. but great care is taken to ensure the sample is representative otherwise your margin of error widens considerably.

[handyman]

Originally Posted by pharrell

and I plan on going back next year, whilst working part-time for NTL.Telewest.

I just heard some news yesterday that throws doubt on that job being there

Originally Posted by Escapee

I think the other ntl plan that I heard a few months ago also included moving ntl's digital TV platform over from atm to IP, I'm not sure if that is still on the cards?

I had an interview for a different cable company and they are migrating their digital tv platform to IPTV.
Funnily enough they are doing an anti ntl, setting up local based customer service with a focus on quality of service.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by hatedbythemail

indeed. but great care is taken to ensure the sample is representative otherwise your margin of error widens considerably.

And taking your 'sample' from a site that was set up originally 'I hate ntl' site, is not particularly representative, is it?

I'm beginning to wonder if andygrif and Neil are related.