[Merged] NTL Increasing BB Speeds Late Summer 2004

[abailey152]

Originally Posted by baldy

I can't really comment on this as I have no idea what area of the country you are in. As I stated earlier some areas require substantial investment, you may be in one. Personally I would move to ADSL if it was causing me so much grief. Not much interest in TV myself as it's mostly repeated junk, the wife would probably want SKY though

Ah! If only.... I'm in an area which couldn't receive ADSL, but now the BT site says, yes you can have ADSL but probably not the faster one. I wouldn't like to go back to 128k (or whatever it is). Unfortunately, if I wanted to try it to see what speed I could get, I'd have to have a BT phone line fitted first which they could test. Catch 22 it seems.

Read most of it a while back as well as others and as I previously stated needs to be rewritten as clearly it is causing grief. I download well in excess of the CAP and have not been bothered, neither has anyone that I know. Its primary purpose is to use against the *very limited* number of *heavy* users. To be honest it was fine the way it was originally worded.

I'd still like to see a tiered system. Much more fair IMHO.

Do you loose connection every Tuesday?

Okay, perhaps not every time NTL does load balancing, but it does seem to happen after a notice has appeared on the Status page saying that load balancing has/is being carried out in my area. Maybe a co-incidence, but it has happened quite often.

As with most products and services there are people who are happy and people who are not. Forums like this (no disrespect intended) generally give the impression that everything is bad with ntl. Just like working at any support centre they only here the bad side. What some fail to realise is that there are many many satisfied customers, myself included, I just thought I should put some balance into this debate . Yes I have the odd issue now and then but nothing is perfect in life and I accept that.

When everything is working, it works well, if you get my meaning. The phone has been okay since it was installed. The TV is okay (apart from the EPG as you say), and the BB is quick. Problem is when something goes down, NTL are slow to respond, do not release information, and some of their CS agents leave a lot to be desired. I've telephoned CS for a fault, gone through the normal reboot etc., been told an engineer will call, then later find out their has been a global fault. Why don't the CS agents know about this. They should have this information at hand. Similarly, when my STB died, an engineer couldn't come for a week. A couple of days, yes, but a week is ridiculous. The email problems are another example of no information. And the story of virus attacks and spam is stretching the truth methinks.

If I had the problems abailey152 refers to and it affected my enjoyment so much I would not hesitate in looking elsewhere for service.

Where? I can't get a guaranteed high-speed ADSL connection, and no other cable companies are around my area. NTL has the monopoly. As I've said before on this site, I'm keeping my fingers crossed hoping that the BB over the electricity supply is a technology which works and is introduced into my area. Now that would be nice.

Just like to add that my primary reason for selecting an ISP is to provide access. Services such as mail, usenet are secondary. I don't use ntl mail simply because I have my own domains and manage them myself and use Sendmail etc. as mentioned by others. It's a personal thing Many others have different views and I respect that. Perhaps ntl should do what many other ISPs do and offer a bare bones service with no additional services at a lower cost, it may benefit many users.

I'm already moving my email across to a mailbox on my web site, to overcome the spam issue. But I don't think we should have to do this. Afterall, NTL's prices aren't bargain-basement now. Okay, I don't mind paying, but I want good service in return.

[Jonboy]

all the upgrade is going to do is put more stress on a allready over subscribed service lets leave it as it is

[kendon]

Sorry for being an off-topic whore, I've just had 1mb (to be 1.5mb later this summer ) installed at my new home, given it a quick run looks good.

My bandwidth with work (I work from home) comes in at the moment around 35 gb - 40 gb a month. Just so I'm aware, what happens if I break this fabulous cap continually?

As for the upgrades, I was one of the first retail customers of the original NTL broadband service for the Stoke-on-Trent area, and experienced a lot of problems with it. Tech support were great then, and it's partially the support which made them my first choice for the new place (living outside their area right now).

The upgrade is good, very good. £3 for 500kb/s is great news. I'm paying £28 for 512kb/s ADSL right now, so an extra tenner for three times the speed looks good from where I'm standing. Add to that my three months half price and I'm having a giggle and a few extra nights down the local :P

As for announcing the speed changes before implementation, I think this is a wise move. It gives them time to examine their infrastructure in case of problems.

[fluds]

What do you do, run napster!
get a business line.

Originally Posted by kendon

Sorry for being an off-topic whore, I've just had 1mb (to be 1.5mb later this summer ) installed at my new home, given it a quick run looks good.

My bandwidth with work (I work from home) comes in at the moment around 35 gb - 40 gb a month. Just so I'm aware, what happens if I break this fabulous cap continually?

As for the upgrades, I was one of the first retail customers of the original NTL broadband service for the Stoke-on-Trent area, and experienced a lot of problems with it. Tech support were great then, and it's partially the support which made them my first choice for the new place (living outside their area right now).

The upgrade is good, very good. £3 for 500kb/s is great news. I'm paying £28 for 512kb/s ADSL right now, so an extra tenner for three times the speed looks good from where I'm standing. Add to that my three months half price and I'm having a giggle and a few extra nights down the local :P

As for announcing the speed changes before implementation, I think this is a wise move. It gives them time to examine their infrastructure in case of problems.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by kendon

Sorry for being an off-topic whore, I've just had 1mb (to be 1.5mb later this summer ) installed at my new home, given it a quick run looks good.

Good stuff.

Originally Posted by kendon

My bandwidth with work (I work from home) comes in at the moment around 35 gb - 40 gb a month.

I'll bet your neighbours who can't online game etc, love you.

Originally Posted by kendon

Just so I'm aware, what happens if I break this fabulous cap continually?

ntl will write to you (apparently)

Originally Posted by kendon

As for the upgrades, I was one of the first retail customers of the original NTL broadband service for the Stoke-on-Trent area, and experienced a lot of problems with it. Tech support were great then, and it's partially the support which made them my first choice for the new place (living outside their area right now).

That's good to hear.

Originally Posted by kendon

The upgrade is good, very good. £3 for 500kb/s is great news. I'm paying £28 for 512kb/s ADSL right now, so an extra tenner for three times the speed looks good from where I'm standing. Add to that my three months half price and I'm having a giggle and a few extra nights down the local :P

Not that great when you consider the cap/lousy mail servers etc, coupled with the fact that DSL is coming down in price-Pipex (for example) off a 1 meg (un capped) service for £33.00-now that's good.

Originally Posted by kendon

As for announcing the speed changes before implementation, I think this is a wise move. It gives them time to examine their infrastructure in case of problems.

How come Telewest have already finished theirs then (2 weeks ahead of schedule)?

[kendon]

No I run a web development consultancy, so I upload somewhat and download documental packages, game demos and watch music vids on dotmusic et al.

35 - 40 Gb per month isn't particularly excessive, I don't think.

Also, I see a loophole in the AUP. They state if you exceed 1Gb three days running you get a letter. What happens if I 24/7 max out for two days...I haven't exceeded three days running so can I tell them to go jump? That's hypothetical, incidentally, I couldn't max out that kind of connection for more than an hour, hehe.

[kendon]

Originally Posted by Neil

Good stuff.
I'll bet your neighbours who can't online game etc, love you.

Never affected them, I'm considerate enough to download much of it while I'm sleeping.

Not that great when you consider the cap/lousy mail servers etc, coupled with the fact that DSL is coming down in price-Pipex (for example) off a 1 meg (un capped) service for £33.00-now that's good.

Yeah, DSL prices are coming down. For me though the price is OK, I didn't hear alarm bells ringing when I compared it to what I'm getting now.

How come Telewest have already finished theirs then (2 weeks ahead of schedule)?

You tell me, then we both know? :P

:edit:

The bb was setup at install (my father oversaw) through a STB, I wasn't happy with this so called sales earlier who actually apologised and have arranged for a free switchover to a cable modem next Tuesday.

[Shaun]

Also bear in mind that the limit is on downloads and not uploads, so if your 40Gb/month is 50% uploading then it shouldn't affect you

[Neil]

Originally Posted by kendon

Never affected them, I'm considerate enough to download much of it while I'm sleeping.

Good call.

Originally Posted by kendon

Yeah, DSL prices are coming down. For me though the price is OK, I didn't hear alarm bells ringing when I compared it to what I'm getting now.

Wait until you can't get at your mail for days on end, & your browsing is pi$$ poor due to pathetic caches.

Originally Posted by kendon

You tell me, then we both know? :P

Because TW are an organised customer focused company (the total opposite of ntl IMHO)

God help the TW customers when the 2 merge-they won't know what's hit them.

It will be just like when C&W sold out to ntl a few years ago.....

to the site BTW.

[etccarmageddon]

hasnt this topic now died a death considering no-one has anything on-topic to say anymore?

Originally Posted by kendon

Never affected them, I'm considerate enough to download much of it while I'm sleeping.

Who says they sleep at the same time as you ?

[kendon]

Haha, that's a good point actually.

[iffy]

my m8 has told me that if u have a set top box u will not get ur free upgrade too 1.5mb from 1mb..cause the box only does 1mb max,,,is this true,..im a bit annoyed if it is,,,as im on a setbox and want the modem,,,but will i have too pay for this too be put in..cheers

[Florence]

I would think those on 1mb STB would receive aSACM to allow the upgrade.


IMPO that is what will happen

[Tezcatlipoca]

*Moved to BB Support & Discussion, & merged with the Speed Increase thread*

Originally Posted by iffy

my m8 has told me that if u have a set top box u will not get ur free upgrade too 1.5mb from 1mb..cause the box only does 1mb max,,,is this true,..im a bit annoyed if it is,,,as im on a setbox and want the modem,,,but will i have too pay for this too be put in..cheers

From what I have read here at CF, NTL's 1Mb to 1.5Mb increase *will* also happen for Broadband via Set Top Box (STB) users, as well as for Standalone Cable Modem (SACM) users (unlike Telewest's 1 to 1.5Mb increase).

But, there are apparently "issues" for some people with the current 1Mb STB BB service, so I assume they would also occur for some (upcoming) 1.5Mb STB BB users too. I can't think of any recent threads offhand, but I have seen posts saying that 1Mb BB via a STB is "flaky" etc.

I think NTL give people SACMs if they have a problem with BB using an STB.

See this:

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...5&postcount=84

Originally Posted by Hell's Child

I've had a chat with my marketing dept.


In answer to a few questions.

This will be releases "late summer" which is expected to be around July.

This should, unlike telewest, work on STB customers. If not, customers have the option to switch to SACM, although this would tie them into the broadband contract for 12 months.

(snip)