[Now Official] More ntl speed changes

[Ignition]

Originally Posted by Various

As for the cap levels, they are EXTREMELY low.

I like the speed increase however having to pay £25 to get it seems unfair, also the cap levels are really low.

Any change to the upstream? I would imagine 3Mb could do with a higher upstream to effectivly support the increased ACK packets.

Am sure I remember saying like a year or two ago that the download all you want train of thought was an endangered one.

*Looks at BT, Wanadoo, A+A et al </I told you so type smug>

40GB is extremely low?

You'd love Cogeco.ca, 10Mbit/1Mbit, only 30GB/month total transfer limit. A mere 6 full length DVDs.

Last I checked contention on BT's Office products was 20:1. 20:1 share of a 2Mbit circuit is ~30GB, 20:1 of 3Mbit is 45. Hardly mean doing a 20 - 25:1 contention and it's well above what vast majority use.

3Mbit doesn't require anywhere near 256kbit of upstream to support ACKs generated, 256kbit is good for 10Mbit or more, depending on number of sources for a download that are being used simultaneously.

To be honest, I am pleased at the news - My once 512K priced at £24.99 some 3/4 years ago went from 512K to 600K at no cost - then it went from 600K to 750K at no cost and now with this news its being significantly increased (More than doubled) to 2MB and still for £24.99 per month. I will happily pay £25 admin fee for this. Small price to pay for such a huge difference IMHO.

[orangebird]

Originally Posted by Mick

To be honest, I am pleased at the news - My once 512K priced at £24.99 some 3/4 years ago went from 512K to 600K at no cost - then it went from 600K to 750K at no cost and now with this news its being significantly increased (More than doubled) to 2MB and still for £24.99 per month. I will happily pay £25 admin fee for this. Small price to pay for such a huge difference IMHO.

You could possibly on of the very few on this board that doesn't squeak when he walks...

[MetaWraith]

NTL's entry level 300k service will be supercharged to 1Mb while still costing £17.99 a month. Its new 2Mb service will cost £24.99 while 3Mb will cost £37.99.

The speed increases will be rolled out to new customers during the first three months of next year, although existing customers must cough up a £25 "administration fee" to make the switch.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/03/ntl_q3_04/

[zovat]

I have to say the timing is great on a personal level...

We are looking at cutting costs, as we are expecting our first child in May/June next year..
One contention was the £38 for BB - I felt I needed the higher B/W for when I work from home (although I could go BT and get it paid for, that would mean new phone lines etc ) so I can now save money and get even more speed (2M for less than 1.5M )

- cheers NTLb-

as to the £25 to get the new speeds, if they do enforce it, I think it's a bit cheeky - making existing customers pay for something new customers get by default, but if they are going to start charging installation again to new customers, then its still cheaper...

[berwhale]

I too would be prepared to pay the £25, however this doesn't mean I won't play the "25 pounds! This is proposterous! Please cancel my telephone, TV and broadband packages immediately, etc." game with customer services first.

It would be rather shortsighted of them to loose nearly £100 of guaranteed revenue a month over one £25 payment.

BTW, I live in central London and do have plenty of alternatives, even if it would cause me some inconvenience.

[MovedGoalPosts]

Hmm, most interesting. Any speed increase for next to nothing, has to be welcomed. A one off £25.00 admin fee could be well worth it, assuming that you knew you would get close to the new service speed. However this admin fee, from the 300 to 1 meg service speed effectively is a payment upfront of say 3 months value.

I wonder if the upstream speeds will be increased proportionately as well as downstream. I also wonder where all this network capacity is springing from given ntl's previous concerns about "caps" (not to be another capping thread please)

[zovat]

Originally Posted by Mick

To be honest, I am pleased at the news - My once 512K priced at £24.99 some 3/4 years ago went from 512K to 600K at no cost - then it went from 600K to 750K at no cost and now with this news its being significantly increased (More than doubled) to 2MB and still for £24.99 per month. I will happily pay £25 admin fee for this. Small price to pay for such a huge difference IMHO.

I agree - NTL have been slowly but surely improving their service and their pricing.

3-4 years ago we were paying £25 for a 600k service that was less than 100% reliable, and when it went wrong, took a long time to fix.

Next year we could be paying the same money for a 2M service that (if the support does not suddenly go back to its old self) is reliable, and when it breaks, gets fixed in good time.

(I never thought I would say such a nice thing about NTL's BB service )

[ian@huth]

A few thoughts on the subject:

Is the £25 admin fee just a way of jumping the queue and getting the upgrade faster than waiting for it to be applied across the board? With 2Mb and 3Mb speeds being available will STBs be able to handle those speeds? There must be a lot of customers on the 750k tier who have a Pace STB and all those will have to be supplied with a cable modem or Samsung STB, that is if the Samsung can handle 2Mb. My bet would be on moving everyone to SACM which would take a long time to do.

If NTL cap its customers as suggested it will mean a significant lowering of what you are able to download in a month taking into account that you can download as much as you want for a few days a month under the current advisory levels. My own view is that the new "cap" will largely affect the 24/7 warez merchants until such time as very high bandwidth streaming media is available. I hope that if NTL are considering more strictly applying this "cap" that they provide some means of checking your usage and document the consequences of exceeding.

Excellent news from NTL that can only be seen as positive, but as usual some will find something to complain about.

[Ignition]

Samsung comfortably does 2Mbit, and just to point out no-one has to upgrade. Note the charge BT apply and ISPs' customers pay to regrade their bandwidth...

[Nor]

Not that impressed with the news. I currently have 750k and a 1gb a day cap. Thats fine for me, I go over it now and then but overall I'm fine.

When these changes come into force, will I still have a 1gb a day cap ? or will I jump to the 5gb a month cap. Cos 5gb a month really isn't very much.

Oh you doubters and complainers, some people are just never happy

Me - I will be happily parting with my £25 - to double my speed from 1.5mbps to 3mbps.

[Nor]

What benefit is there in having download speed which is twice as fast if you can only download the same amount mate. Its like racing in between red traffic lights.

Like the majority of people - I never get even close to 1GB a day, so the benefit is obvious - twice the speed.

Originally Posted by DarthYoda

I like the speed increase however having to pay £25 to get it seems unfair, also the cap levels are really low.

You are joking i hope. Whats wrong with a one of payment of £25.00 But you dont have to pay it. Just dont have the upgrade. Next you will want blood from a stone and expect ntl to pay for it.