Merged: London Broadband.

[Undisputedtruth]

Originally posted by rippedoff
If ntl staff came on here with anything useful to say about the London issue, then fair enough. But if they come on (like you) and say absolutely nothing helpful, then they should just shut up and stay out of the thread if they do not like it. The same applies to anyone else... if you do not want to hear or read any more about the London issue then do not read the thread
- it is that simple. Nobody forces you to read this thread, but of course some of you wouldn't be happy unless you made your negative comments.

I fully agree. One of the main problems about the London broadband thread on on nthw.com were people from NTL with their negative comments and the abusive anti-London brigade. The anti-London brigade had no interest in London whatsoever.

Admin Edit:-No personal attacks please.

[Edit typo]

[Russ]

Enough - I know the rules on here are more relaxed than on .com but that does NOT mean we're going to allow this name-calling to continue. Any further insults from anyone will lead to posts being edited.

[Dazz285]

OK guys and gals... How about this then....
Can anyone give us any information on BB roll outs in the london area over the next 12 months??

I bet you can't......

I got this from Chris Collinson the other day and it seems to me that he contradicks (excuse the spelling) himself????

"We had hoped to be able to launch the broadband service in your area sometime ago. We have completed exhaustive tests on the network within the Harrow area and I can confirm that at the moment we have no plans to launch Broadband in your area. ntl:home will continue to invest in the network to enable us to provide more homes with a broadband service across London and I will be in touch with you as soon as there is any positive news."
I'm still waiting for an answer to a few questions and as soon as he replies I'll post them...

Originally posted by Dazz285
OK guys and gals... How about this then....
Can anyone give us any information on BB roll outs in the london area over the next 12 months??.... We have completed exhaustive tests on the network within the Harrow area and I can confirm that at the moment we have no plans to launch Broadband in your area. ntl:home will continue to invest in the network to enable us to provide more homes with a broadband service across London and I will be in touch with you as soon as there is any positive news."
I'm still waiting for an answer to a few questions and as soon as he replies I'll post them...

At last away from all those silly, negative bickering postings by udt & ro. At least you have reminded everyone what this is about.

The words "ntl:home will continue to invest in the network to enable us to provide more homes with a broadband service across London" seems to contradict the belief that ntl is not contributing funds to upgrade the network in London. So are we to believe now that funds for development are being used and that the money is there after all! Comments from ntl contacts please.

[Undisputedtruth]

Originally posted by Andre
Why doesn't everyone who this affects just contact him and ask him then?

chris.slattery@ntl.com

I think it has something to do with receiving BS answer. Straight question - BS reply.

[binary]

Originally posted by bigitup_j
well seeing that last week the grove park area (south london, by lewisham) has started offering bb, i can see more areas gaining this service.

This sums up why I'm still interested in the NTL London broadband issue- areas that you think may never get broadband and are ready to give up on are suddenly live for broadband service! From what I've read before, I'm led to believe much of the Videotron network is a patchwork quilt of good and bad, some of it capable of supporting broadband, some of it not (at least without an expensive upgrade/ rewiring).

At least NTL are gradually rolling out broadband where it'll work on the pre-existing Videotron network. As far as I can work out though, upgrades/ rewiring of bad pathes in the network is not happening at the moment, nor are there imminent plans for it to happen.

Originally posted by Escapee
...
I would of thought someone with knowledge of the London HFC network would be able to explain why some areas can and some can't get the service, I know from speaking to some of the tech's up there that the infrastructure was very strange in some areas.
I know that analogue TV for some areas were injected from hubsites in another area etc, I think it was a bit of a mish mash.

It'd be great if someone with knowledge of the London network could post some technical information here.

(As an aside, what does HFC stand for?)

What I'd really like (and many others would too) is to be told of whether the network in their area is any good. However I'm somewhat resigned to the fact that I'll only find this out if NTL ever offer broadband locally. (I'm sure they will eventually, but I'm not waiting 10 years!)

[Mr_Burns]

Originally posted by binary

(As an aside, what does HFC stand for?)

[/i]

Hybrid Fibre-Coax

[bigitup_j]

ntl are probably working on the 'easy' bits of the london network, the bits that need minimal money spent on. then they will move on to more expensive and involved parts of london.
well that's my theory, and seems quite probable.

[Dazz285]

Wouldn't it be nice though to know what areas they are working on...
How about a list of London areas that have bb and those that don't...
That way we can all weigh up the pro's and con's

[hawkmoon]

Originally posted by Gogogo
At last away from all those silly, negative bickering postings by udt & ro. At least you have reminded everyone what this is about.

The words "ntl:home will continue to invest in the network to enable us to provide more homes with a broadband service across London" seems to contradict the belief that ntl is not contributing funds to upgrade the network in London. So are we to believe now that funds for development are being used and that the money is there after all! Comments from ntl contacts please.

Unfortunately Chris Collinson made roughly the same statement 6 months ago.

Half a year later and he is still making the same statement whilst there is no clear evidence that the parts that really need the upgrading are getting it. In fact according to that statement - some of the areas won't be getting any investment for a while.

[hawkmoon]

Originally posted by Andre
Why doesn't everyone who this affects just contact him and ask him then?

chris.slattery@ntl.com

Been there done that - e-mailed aizad hussain who copied Slattery into the reply asking him to personally respond to me, Mr Slattery completely failed to do this.

Have tried to e-mail him on numerous occassions before and never once got a reply.

I only got a letter out of Chris Collinson because I got my MP involved. Mr Slattery promised then that the much needed upgrades to the Harrow area would happen before the end of the year - now in his latest statement it appears that this might not happen after all.

[Undisputedtruth]

Originally posted by Escapee
I sometimes think the customer facing employees get upset when they find people outside the company know whats going on before they do

this is so true. Erm, let me count the number of times an NTL has helped me. None. They are not very useful at all.

I can remember when I read an article in the FT about job losses in NTL. The girl on customer services said to me that I should not believe everything in the newspapers and that their jobs are perfectly secure. Four weeks later, NTL announced large job losses. With NTL, anything negative about NTL is more than likely to be true.

Undisputedtruth

[bomber]

Right......!!!

I might get booted off for this but I think it has to be said! I am an SE24 (South London) NTL'er that has been fobbed off with this lame 'lack of BB' excuse for nearly 2 years.

Late May this year I had had enough, and I bit the bullet and decided to go for Sky/BT/ADSL as when you price it all up, it all comes to the same cost, give or take few quid. Also I have issues with Universal Remote Controls and the Pace STB that NTL use, that are not a problem with the Sky STB...... but thats another issue.....

Saturday (late May), I call NTL CS to cancel my NTL TV/Phone account before I order BT line and Sky and....... they're not open! (Only Mon-Fri to close an account). What the hell, I think, I will order my BT line anyway, I do this and I ask for my NTL tel number to be ported to my new BT line..... "not a problem!" BT say. Great! Tuesday I will call NTL and cancel my account.

Tuesday comes, I call NTL CS to cancel my account (30 mins on hold - I'm cynically inclined to believe this is a tactical ploy) and CS tell me that they can see my tel number has been earmarked for going over to BT and "why do you want to leave NTL Mr Brown?" I tell them the truth, I'm fed up with no broadband, and it is not viable to have a BT line installed (at my cost of installation and monthly rent) for ADSL when I have perfectly good NTL phone line that I sadly cannot ADSL on. Therefore I will get Sky and BT, discard NTL.

"OK Mr Brown, perhaps we can come to some arrangement if you would like to continue your NTL account?" came the response from CS.

I took them up on the offer and effectively now I do not pay for the rent on this BT line (of which I have ADSL now with www.zen.co.uk) and I am no worst off if I had NTL TV/BB or Sky/BT/ADSL finacially. I would rather not go into details of what discounts I have as they might not apply globally.....needless to say I have been a loyal NTL customer at 2 addresses, paid my bills on time and I have a average TV package....

Go figure? Its worked for me... perhaps other South Londoners might be able to benefit?

Bomber

[orangebird]

Originally posted by bomber
Right......!!!

I might get booted off for this but I think it has to be said! I am an SE24 (South London) NTL'er that

has been fobbed off with this lame 'lack of BB' excuse for nearly 2 years.

Late May this year I had had enough, and I bit the bullet and decided to go for Sky/BT/ADSL as when you

price it all up, it all comes to the same cost, give or take few quid. Also I have issues with Universal

Remote Controls and the Pace STB that NTL use, that are not a problem with the Sky STB...... but thats

another issue.....

Saturday (late May), I call NTL CS to cancel my NTL TV/Phone account before I order BT line and Sky

and....... they're not open! (Only Mon-Fri to close an account).

What the hell, I think, I will order my BT line anyway, I do this and I ask for my NTL tel number to be

ported to my new BT line..... "not a problem!" BT say. Great! Tuesday I will call NTL and cancel my

account.

Tuesday comes, I call NTL CS to cancel my account (30 mins on hold - I'm cynically inclined to believe

this is a tactical ploy) and CS tell me that they can see my tel number has been earmarked for going over

to BT and "why do you want to leave NTL Mr Brown?" I tell them the truth, I'm fed up with no broadband,

and it is not viable to have a BT line installed (at my cost of installation and monthly rent) for ADSL

when I have perfectly good NTL phone line that I sadly cannot ADSL on. Therefore I will get Sky and BT,

discard NTL.

"OK Mr Brown, perhaps we can come to some arrangement if you would like to continue your NTL account?"

came the response from CS.

I took them up on the offer and effectively now I do not pay for the rent on this BT line (of which I

have ADSL now with www.zen.co.uk) and I am no worst off if I had NTL TV/BB or Sky/BT/ADSL finacially. I

would rather not go into details of what discounts I have as they might not apply globally.....needless

to say I have been a loyal NTL customer at 2 addresses, paid my bills on time and I have a average TV

package....

Go figure? Its worked for me... perhaps other South Londoners might be able to benefit?

Bomber

Yeah, great - makes good sense that.....screw ntl for more discounts so they can earn even less money to be able to invest in making london bb & interactive able...... foot/shoot etc.....and even if ntl do manage to enable the area, if you're already happy with other provider services plus a freebie/discounted line, you won't want to change to ntl anyway!!!!!!

[bomber]

Originally posted by orangebird
Yeah, great - makes good sense that.....screw ntl for more discounts so they can earn even less money to be able to invest in making london bb & interactive able...... foot/shoot etc.....

I see your point OB, but!!!!!.... do NTL want to get £20 odd quid (less the discount) from me a month via the TV/Tel package?....... for, lets face it, absolutely FA!! (infrastructure is already in place).... or lose a customer and have £20 less a month and have the hassle of collecting the STB?

The TV infrastructure is there aleady so NTL aren't (IMHO) bothered about potential BB users in South London.... and cynically I reckon that NTL are resting on their laurels in that South Londoners are too apethetic to switch to Sky/BT/ADSL

I ask you?

Bomber