1GB Cap Letter!!!!

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Are they Mystic Meg? Forward planning is sometimes limited by human frailties. Who'd heard of mass-market high speed internet access in 1990?

The network had to be upgraded for DOCSIS to work, in many places. And of course ntl didn't build very much of it in the first place, so I don't think there can be much blame apportioned to people working for a different company seven years beforehand.

While we're at it why didn't they plan for the rise of Napster and peer to peer traffic which eventually forced the development of the DOCSIS2.0 protocol? Did they honestly think people would just be downloading the odd bit here and there and web browsing 5 years ago, rather than the multi-GB/day usage that a minority use and others promote?

Should've followed the US system of constantly cutting customer's bandwidths and making usage restrictions stricter, and/or contended to death, as the US is a bastion of how to do high speed access.

</sarcasm, but some of this was silly :p >

[th'engineer]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

Should've followed the US system of constantly cutting customer's bandwidths and making usage restrictions stricter, and/or contended to death, as the US is a bastion of how to do high speed access.

</sarcasm, but some of this was silly :p >

I thought that was the model NTL followed hence the CAP / Bandwidth restriction

[punky]

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

Should've followed the US system of constantly cutting customer's bandwidths and making usage restrictions stricter, and/or contended to death, as the US is a bastion of how to do high speed access.

</sarcasm, but some of this was silly :p >

Do be so sure. My dads BB line is 2.5-5m down, and 400k up. The price if you have the broadband alone is cheaper than the price of my 1meg line. If you pay for TV packages, you get a discount pushing it down to $30/month. There are no bandwidth restrictions and e-mail/newsgroups work fine. That said, it does seem to go down a lot more than my NTL line (normally from like 10 mins to a few hours), although I think he has a signal strength problem. I know it isn't representative of the whole country, but he has it pretty good. Also you can have as many separate lines as you want in the same house. I don't think you can do that with NTL...

[ian@huth]

I believe that many posters on here have false impressions on the speed and price of services in other countries. Yes there are very fast services and very cheap prices, but how many users can get them and how long do the low introductory prices last. I talk to many people in the States and most of them would love to be able to get a connection faster than 384k down.

[Earwig]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

I talk to many people in the States and most of them would love to be able to get a connection faster than 384k down.

Show me a connection in this country where you can get this speed please. I see none!!

You are talking KB/s and not kb/s right? On my 1 MB I get 120KB/s Max so on your assumption that must be like a 4-5MB line?? Far better than us me thinks ??


And on the subject of "HOW CAN YOU GUYS DOWNLOAD 1 GB A DAY?? IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!!"

There are now many movie sites on the web now where you pay a monthly rate and can download films instead of buying/renting them. Divx is just one example. These films are often over 700MB. So you pay your £35 for 1MB broadband and your membership to download these films (LEGALLY)............But oh wait........you already downloaded a film earlier and downloading another would violate the 1GB a day so you are not getting the most from your membership, so why have it?? And if you cannot have that membership there is no need for a 1MB line.........So in that case NTL's 150K option looks good coz all you can do is read emails and browse the web........And while you are there you had better stop your mates from sending you funny pics and video clips coz hey.....remember the CAP!!!

" By sending the letter, I beleive that is sufficient to trigger the significant change in service provisions of the contract giving you the ability to cancel it with due notice (30 days). As ntl seem not to wish to loose customers and to date nobody has publicly admitted to being cut off (and ntl deny that they have cut anyone off), 30 days notice on both sides is reasonable. "



I have yet to look, but I dont know if you can give 30 days notice because you have received a letter from them asking you to curb your usage.
I think somewhere I read something along the lines of " if we significantly reduce our service " or words to that effect, you can give 30 days notice.
Maybe going from an " unlimited " service to a " capped " service, is a significant change ?.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Originally Posted by arcamalpha2004

I have yet to look, but I dont know if you can give 30 days notice because you have received a letter from them asking you to curb your usage.
I think somewhere I read something along the lines of " if we significantly reduce our service " or words to that effect, you can give 30 days notice.
Maybe going from an " unlimited " service to a " capped " service, is a significant change ?.

Arguably, only the courts could decide if applying a cap on an unlimited service is a significant change in service. It woudl porbably come down to how much the cap could affect use. For the faster bb services I think a cap is a significant service level change, if implemented at the ntl stated 1GB levels.

However, the unlimited use stuff is very much now a red herring. Everyone on ntl bb, pre cap has had it more than 12 months so the minimum contract terms have expired. NTL can change the service terms. Each user has the right anyway, regardless of a change in service level, to give 30 days notice. So if anyone does get a letter, they should just give notice to go, if tthey have an alternative, otherwise they are stuffed.

Of course post cap signups, didn't have unlimited use, they agreed to that limit on signup, so they don't have a leg to stand on if they get a letter.

That's harsh I know. As an anticapper, I don't like it, but that I think is the way the contract between customer and ntl would operate. But hey, I'm no lawyer/. But it seems lawyer's dont' give advice for free on forums, despite our asking for their interpretation or this scenario many times.

[Earwig]

With Broadband finaaly beginning to grow in the UK.....well errm sort of anyway. I think this capping issue will become less likely. Many i.s.p's now offer an uncapped option to one of there packeges......sure on most you have to bend over and take it like a man .....but hey...this is rip off britain you know!! And it is cheaper than a tank of petrol anyway!!

It will not be long before most i.s.p's have this option and I think NTL will follow. The trouble is we are playing catch up to every other country in this area and it just takes time and investment which in time will come. With so many incapped I.S.P's out there NTL cannot afford NOT to do the same.

Just boils down to how patient we are and how long we want to wait??

[~$t&lKer~]

Originally Posted by Earwig

It will not be long before most i.s.p's have this option and I think NTL will follow. The trouble is we are playing catch up to every other country in this area and it just takes time and investment which in time will come. With so many incapped I.S.P's out there NTL cannot afford NOT to do the same.

Just boils down to how patient we are and how long we want to wait??

if they decide to cap my service i will leave, a capped service is useless to me. pluss 1mb isent exactly fast as it is, so capped and a slow speed? ooohh what a great service

[leeswin]

[QUOTE=scastle]I don't agree that Broadband medic should be manditory. I agree with BBKing that they should provide some sort of online monitoring, but this should be relatively easy for them to implement over the web (as the usage is tracked for the cap anyway, it should be relatively easy to put that info on the web).

i would like to agree with this, howeever i have had ntohign but probs with it and sp2! i am holding iff to see what the outcome will be

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by leeswin

i would like to agree with this, howeever i have had ntohign but probs with it and sp2! i am holding iff to see what the outcome will be

Erm, I am confused. Are you agreeing that Broadband Medic shouldn't be compulsory? Or are you saying you have had nothing but problems with it?

[Paul K]

[QUOTE=leeswin]

Originally Posted by scastle

I don't agree that Broadband medic should be manditory. I agree with BBKing that they should provide some sort of online monitoring, but this should be relatively easy for them to implement over the web (as the usage is tracked for the cap anyway, it should be relatively easy to put that info on the web).

i would like to agree with this, howeever i have had ntohign but probs with it and sp2! i am holding iff to see what the outcome will be

Am I wrong in thinking that SP2 is still not released to the general public and that people are warned that they are installing it at their own risk as it has been known to break applications Can't blame NTL if you are using SP2 already and broadband medic doesn't play nicely with it.
Broadband medic is a bit like Correct Connect, useful to some (even been known to work properly for a few LOL) but a pain in the butt for others

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Paul

Am I wrong in thinking that SP2 is still not released to the general public and that people are warned that they are installing it at their own risk as it has been known to break applications Can't blame NTL if you are using SP2 already and broadband medic doesn't play nicely with it.
Broadband medic is a bit like Correct Connect, useful to some (even been known to work properly for a few LOL) but a pain in the butt for others

No, you are not wrong.. Microsoft do warn people it may break installations (and it does, nero 6.3 being one, Premiere Pro being another). Can't blame NTL for that.

[stuey82]

Originally Posted by Acathla

Ill let yo kow that my usage over the last few days has been:

13th 0.6G
14th 0.3G
15th 1.2G
16th 2.8G
17th 2.0G

Now I know that somedays im double 1G but the above averages at about 1.3G so thats not really far over is it?

I don't understand why you would need to download so much everyday. Oh well. lol

[Earwig]

Originally Posted by stuey82

I don't understand why you would need to download so much everyday. Oh well. lol

It is very easily done.

A dvd-r is 4.37GB it takes me about 15-20 hours to do that at about 80-90KB/s

If I was to get my full connection speed (Supposedly 120KB/s) then it would take this down to about 10-15 hours.

So I could download nearly 2 dvd's per day at a cost of about 9GB.

Like I said.....EASY!!