[Merged] NTL Increasing BB Speeds Late Summer 2004

[Ramrod]

http://www.onlineblog.com/archives/2...89950109186218

Once again, Britain's two cable companies act as one. NTL Broadband has just announced a raft of changes similar to those unveiled by Telewest earlier today (below), although the fact NTL's website hasn't been updated, at the time of writing, suggests this was a hurried move. NTL's 150Kb product will now run at 300Kb, for £17.99 a month. Its 600Kb service will move up to 750Kb for £24.99, and the top-end 1Mb service will go at 1.5Mb, for £37.99. The company also says it has completed trials of a "turbo button" function - essentially, the ability to up your bandwidth for a specific (short) amount of time for an added fee. There's no news on when it'll be released into the wild.

Posted by Neil McIntosh at 10:56 AM | Comment | permalink

Telewest ups broadband speeds
Good news if you live in a Telewest area - the cable company is upgrading three of its four broadband products for nothing. The 512Kb product will now run at 750Kb, but still cost from £25 per month. The 1Mb service moves to 1.5Mb, for the current price of £35 per month, while the 2Mb service becomes what the company is claiming is "the UK's first residential 3Mb service" from £50 a month. [Update: Reader Nick Miners makes the very good point, in the comments below, that Bulldog has faster broadband services already available - just not at 3Mb.] The "entry-level" 256Kb service, costing £17.99, remains unchanged, making it look even worse value for money than before.

It's an interesting move from Telewest which - like fellow cable company NTL - needs to keep its revenues up. By increasing speeds, rather than lowering prices, it keeps everyone paying the same while sidestepping direct comparison with many of its ADSL-based rivals. That's likely why they've not improved the 256Kb service - for fear that too many customers, thinking they were previously quite happy at the 512Kb, might take the opportunity to save a few quid each month by "downgrading" to the product they were previously on.
Posted by Neil McIntosh at 8:56 AM

[Defiant]

although the fact NTL's website hasn't been updated, at the time of writing, suggests this was a hurried move.

Like I've said before I think there hand was forced by the Telewest move myself

[Mr_Burns]

I heard this rumour at least a month ago.

Originally Posted by Mr_Burns

I heard this rumour at least a month ago.

Then why didn't you share it ?

[leeswin]

LMFAO


"Our customers want more speed, better e-mail access and more newsgroups to enjoy, and that's what we're delivering," said NTL chief executive officer, Simon Duffy.

yh right well supply it then - also notice telewest is uncapped

[Emperordalek]

To be honest I'd rather have higher upstream and no/higher cap figure than an increase in speed.

I'll be down grading to 700 from 1m because I don't really see the point in the higher speed. There isn't much difference in 700k and 1m anyway. And the benefit of 1.5m is lost because of the cap.

[Mr_Burns]

Originally Posted by Pem

Then why didn't you share it ?

Because I was asked not to by the person who told me - and it would have looked very bad if I had decided to share it and was shelved for some reason or another.

[Cable Guy]

Keep the cap as it is, some fud in my street thought he was amazing by downloading films and music 24/7 and it made my 1mb connection as slow as dial up. Thankfully he got booted off the service and everyone in the neighbourhood is happy again. In all honesty 1gb is more than enough for the average punter.

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by Cable Guy

Keep the cap as it is, some fud in my street thought he was amazing by downloading films and music 24/7 and it made my 1mb connection as slow as dial up. Thankfully he got booted off the service and everyone in the neighbourhood is happy again. In all honesty 1gb is more than enough for the average punter.

Thats complete rubbish. Check out the ntlworld website again. NTL are enticing people to download and why not at the end of the day its what were paying for.

Download a few movie trailers a few game demo's and your already over the 1GB cap!

Originally Posted by Defiant

Thats complete rubbish. Check out the ntlworld website again. NTL are enticing people to download and why not at the end of the day its what were paying for.

It's not rubbish at all. 1Gb is more than enough for the average user.

"Power" users who spend their time downloading tons of stuff are not your typical user and a relativly rare overall.

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by Pem

It's not rubbish at all. 1Gb is more than enough for the average user.

"Power" users who spend their time downloading tons of stuff are not your typical user and a relativly rare overall.

Well Pem why do you think we have 1,2 & now 3MB service's for home users in this country. Do they have them just for the sake of it. Do people get broadband just to surf the net. I dont know anyone like that. I can surf the net on dialup just fine. We have broadband to download plain and simple

[leeswin]

well i dont agree with the cap but were not going there are weeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

ntl home lol - should be just ntl cant see them being aimed a home there gettign as bad as BT and that is saying something

Originally Posted by Defiant

Well Pem why do you think we have 1,2 & now 3MB service's for home users in this country. Do they have them just for the sake of it. Do people get broadband just to surf the net. I dont know anyone like that. I can surf the net on dialup just fine. We have broadband to download plain and simple

We have them because Telewest (& NTL) just gave us them. - as I recall the majority of TW & NTL customers are on the lowest speed (I think the report quoted 10% of TW on 1MB+ ?).

Most people do not have BB to download lots of "stuff" - they have it because it's a faster response time on the same web sites, because it is "always on" and because it doesn't interfere with the use of the phone.

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by Pem

We have them because Telewest (& NTL) just gave us them. - as I recall the majority of TW & NTL customers are on the lowest speed (I think the report quoted 10% of TW on 1MB+ ?).

Most people do not have BB to download lots of "stuff" - they have it because it's a faster response time on the same web sites, because it is "always on" and because it doesn't interfere with the use of the phone.

Well your going to have to get used to the fact that people like broadband to download. Check out the european speeds. They leave us standing. Its not a time to start going backwards but forwards

[paulyoung666]

Originally Posted by Defiant

Well Pem why do you think we have 1,2 & now 3MB service's for home users in this country. Do they have them just for the sake of it. Do people get broadband just to surf the net. I dont know anyone like that. I can surf the net on dialup just fine. We have broadband to download plain and simple

do we , i am on 600 k service , i went down to 150k service and it felt like being on a slower than dial up service , i guess i have just got used to being on 600k , and no i dont download a great deal of stuff , what i do download comes at a good enough rate though