ntl Confirms 10Mb Broadband Speed Increase

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by mcmanic

come on on stop defending NTL to the hilt all the time, you know as much as me is Good that we are getting this upgrade, but you also must agree we always seem to get a paper launch and then Telewest comes up with something better and actual goes through and says what they say there going to do within weeks rather than 16months as what NTL are saying, also with all the relevent info, pricing ect,ect- just seems NTL always do things half hearted and let everyone argue and speculate what and when its going to happen.

We are going to do this, we are the 1st to do so, but by the time you have it - everyone on other isps will have it also and much cheaper and no caps

Come On NTL get a grip and actual do something instantly, compulsive and make us all happy.

and we ain't talking about cornflakes, baked beans and toast either!

If you read my post correctly you would see that it wasn't actually defending NTL but pointing out that claims being made by ISP's can appear to mean one thing but reality can mean that they mean something completely different. An ADSL ISP may offer a 8Mb package but that doesn't mean you are going to get 8Mb all the time and you may never get anywhere close to 8Mb. A unlimited, uncapped service means that you can only get what your connection speed allows, what the systems that you are connecting to allow you to have and what other users sharing any part of your connection to those systems allow you to have.Think about putting a cake on the centre spot at Old Trafford on a match day when the ground is full to capacity. You could make a tannoy announcement that all spectators can have an unlimited amount of the cake but how much do you think each would get?

If NTL was to "get a grip and actual do something instantly, compulsive and make us all happy" they would hold back on the news until everything was ready and then you would be complaining that they could have let you know earlier what was being planned.

[Hans Gruber]

Originally Posted by Chris T

All that is irrelevant. Do you or do you not have a reasonably priced broadband connection that allows you to do what you want reasonably quickly?

Of course it is relevant. NTL need to announce this because by the time they've rolled it all out (by the end of 2006) ADSL2+ will be available. But they're obviously not ready to do it, but they need to show they can keep up with the competition.

I'm very happy with my connection, but i'd be much happier with 24mbit ADSL2+, and NTL know that. Joe Public doesn't realise that not everyone will get that speed, it's all marketing spin, but if NTL doesn't do anything to keep up, people will leave.

[Robc66]

I wonder if ntl will throw in a new 12 month contract with this upgrade to stop people going to adsl 2+?

Originally Posted by Hans Gruber

Of course it is relevant. NTL need to announce this because by the time they've rolled it all out (by the end of 2006) ADSL2+ will be available. But they're obviously not ready to do it, but they need to show they can keep up with the competition.

I'm very happy with my connection, but i'd be much happier with 24mbit ADSL2+, and NTL know that. Joe Public doesn't realise that not everyone will get that speed, it's all marketing spin, but if NTL doesn't do anything to keep up, people will leave.

Very true, ADSL 2+ only delivers that sort of speed if you live practically on top of the exchange. But I find it strange that you condemn NTL for marketing spin whilst glossing over it on the part of proponents of ADSL who don't exactly dwell on its limitations.

[Hans Gruber]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Very true, ADSL 2+ only delivers that sort of speed if you live practically on top of the exchange. But I find it strange that you condemn NTL for marketing spin whilst glossing over it on the part of proponents of ADSL who don't exactly dwell on its limitations.

I don't condemn NTL, I'm just fed up of hearing that arguement all the time

[bilal]

@Robc66 you keep complaining, when adsl 2+ is released a lot of ppl arent going to be able to get anywhere near full speed because they will be too far from the exchange. With ntl everyone always gets good speeds, im on 2mb and my internet has never been below that.

[Robc66]

Originally Posted by bilal

@Robc66 you keep complaining, when adsl 2+ is released a lot of ppl arent going to be able to get anywhere near full speed because they will be too far from the exchange. With ntl everyone always gets good speeds, im on 2mb and my internet has never been below that.

I am not complaining. I have good speed from ntl....but i am just looking at my options. If i can get a better deal then i will get it

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Hans Gruber

Of course it is relevant. NTL need to announce this because by the time they've rolled it all out (by the end of 2006) ADSL2+ will be available. But they're obviously not ready to do it, but they need to show they can keep up with the competition.

I'm very happy with my connection, but i'd be much happier with 24mbit ADSL2+, and NTL know that. Joe Public doesn't realise that not everyone will get that speed, it's all marketing spin, but if NTL doesn't do anything to keep up, people will leave.

People will leave, yes, but how many? Most people will be quite happy with the speed that they have now and as long as they can do what they want with their present connection they won't be bothered . ISP's have to think about the vast majority of their customers not a select few who are probably make the ISP the least profit.

24mbit ADSL2+ may be about but having the technology available doesn't mean that the ISP is geared up to provide a sustainable service with it. Don't forget that many ISP's only have a very small percentage of the broadband customer base of the UK.

Many people are looking at the timeframe that NTL have quoted in their press release and taken the furthest away time as being the important factor. It is obvious that anyone on any speed can move the end of 2006 time to the end of 2005 by simply upgrading their service to the top tier, if only for a month and then back down again.

If it goes the same as the last lot of upgrades then customers on any speed will be able to upgrade within days of the release by being proactive rather than waiting for their automatic turn. Anyone who still has broadband through a Pace STB who wants to ensure getting 10Mb asap would be advised to upgrade their package above 1Mb asap in order to ensure they are not left at the back of the queue waiting for new equipment to arrive from suppliers.

[Ignition]

Few facts about ADSL, reach, etc. Pls bear in mind that distances given are line length, not distance from exchange, and that 40 - 60% of lines in the UK are >3km long.

http://www.farina1.com/bookmark/0000...7/00020260.HTM

[etccarmageddon]

I remember paying £50 a month back only 3 years ago for 1mb!!!

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Ignition

Perhaps we should have been complaining that both cablecos were charging £25 for a product, but with ntl it got you 2Mbit and Telewest just 1?

Also to cross post ntl have 50% more on-net customers yet potentially over twice as much bandwidth and twice as many uBRs, a good proportion of which run EuroDOCSIS which delivers more bandwidth than the DOCSIS TW use.



Not quite sure what your obsession with which DOCSIS standard is deployed is, all the standards are backwards compatible and DOCSIS 2 doesn't offer any downstream increase over DOCSIS 1/1.1 anyway.

All modems can be portrayed as doing 38Mbps on the RF interface, the 120 can actually deal with 51Mbit/s channel, doesn't mean it wouldn't choke if you stuffed that much IP traffic at it, that's a lot of packets per second potentially.

Thanks for the info I'm not obessed but was curious because docsis3 got mentioned in the PR announcement.
__________________

Originally Posted by dr wadd

Do you not think that Telewest might have actually thought this through? Just because they are doing something different to NTL does not automatically mean that their plans are not viable. They aren't going to be throwing around something that will never live up to expectations, otherwise they'll be constantly dealing with bodies such as Trading Standards. Just because NTL do things one way does not mean that is the only way to do things. There are other ISPs that do not have download caps. Are we honestly to believe that NTL, given their sterling track record of getting things wrong, actually have this right? I certainly do not.

As far as getting through to technical support is concerned, getting through to NTL isn`t excactly an easy task, so that criticism of Telewest doesn`t have any relevance IMO.

To back that up I believe NTL announced a drop from somewhere around 260million loss to 60million loss whilst telewest are in the black, so their strategy is viable. Telewest announced around 1% of their customers leave a month, does anyone have the NTL figure?
__________________

Originally Posted by BBKing

A120s do DOCSIS and EuroDOCSIS, the first SACMs to do so (the 200 and 250 also do, plus allegedly having DOCSIS2 compliance). EuroDOCSIS has substantially higher downstream bandwidth at a given modulation than DOCSIS.



Why? ntl aren't a monopoly, after all. You might as well complain that BT don't have a 3Mb broadband service while ntl do.

The justification for any price charged is that it's what the market will bear - companies have a primary duty to maximise shareholder return, not to cut prices.

Dont worry BT get my fair share of critisicm on adslguide, but comparing NTL to BT is not apple to apple, the fairest comparison is to telewest.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Dont worry BT get my fair share of critisicm on adslguide, but comparing NTL to BT is not apple to apple, the fairest comparison is to telewest.

Most customers aren't too bothered about the technology involved in getting their BB connection. Their main concern is having a connection that does what they want it to do.

[DeadKenny]

Originally Posted by Chris T

Very true, ADSL 2+ only delivers that sort of speed if you live practically on top of the exchange.

Thing is though, this can be a bonus for NTL who can also offer ADSL2+ over their own copper phone wire with a short distance to the equipment (possibly in the street cabinets). Ultra short distance = max speed = max reliability (hopefully). Not to mention each line is dedicated.

So basically, ADSL isn't necessarily a competitor for NTL, it's another option.

I personally believe that some kind of DSL technology is where NTL should be going (and NTL know this otherwise they wouldn't have mentioned ADSL2+ or be trialling it at the moment). I've always felt cable is flawed for broadband. It's like the old thick Ethernet cable which had numerous problems.

I'd be interested in a decent DSL connection from NTL as I'm convinced it wouldn't be subject to the problematic signal issues that I had with cable. If they could deliver 24Mbps ADSL2+ with a rock solid connection for £39 a month, and at the same time produce a miracle in their CS department to pull it from being the worst in the world, then I'd be really interested.

Though if they stick expensive equipment in street cabinets they need to resolve the issue of Chavs kicking them in every few weeks

[Earwig]

And as I type this people on TW are already using 10Mbit!!!!

Sheffield area I beleive there are some that have been jumped up onto it. Not sure if it is just a testing phase but people ARE using it!!

NTL will hopefully be doing the same when they hear about this.....Well, my fingers are crossed anyway. I have always had their top tier as they have released them and this time will be no difference....Provided they drop that silly 75GB cap.

[Robc66]

Originally Posted by Earwig

And as I type this people on TW are already using 10Mbit!!!!

Sheffield area I beleive there are some that have been jumped up onto it. Not sure if it is just a testing phase but people ARE using it!!

NTL will hopefully be doing the same when they hear about this.....Well, my fingers are crossed anyway. I have always had their top tier as they have released them and this time will be no difference....Provided they drop that silly 75GB cap.

Nice.