[Merged] Telewest Broadband to increase speeds

[Graham M]

Originally Posted by bigitup_j

i definately hope so!!
those speed increases are great news for tw customers though!

Not with a 1Gb cap and planned metered Internet

[magpie]

Originally Posted by Defiant

A small percentage. If this board is anything to go by then I'd say its a large amount

But this board is not anything to go by.

If you mean that most posters here have a problem with ntl, then you have to understand that this is an incredibly biased sample of people. This site is here for people to get help with problems or rant about problems (and, to a much lesser extent, discuss technical stuff). There is usually very little cause for people with a trouble free service to sign up and post. By excluding such people, a large bias is introduced into the sample. A fair survey of customer satisfaction would have to be made by random selection across all of ntl's user base.

Assuming ntl have about 1 million broadband customers, and assuming that 90% of posts here are nagative problems or rants, then can you honestly say that this implies ntl have 900,000 very dissatisfied customers?


If, on the other hand, you just meant that there seem to be a lot of unhappy customers on this board, then look at this thread - at the time of writing, 7 different people have responed to the original post with negative comments - that is approx. 0.000007% of ntl's broadband user base. I'd call that a small percentage.

I'm not having a go at anyone in particular here - more the culture of some to rant and post negativly regardless of the actual facts.


HOWEVER

Having seemed rather pro-ntl above, I do actually agree with most of the negative posts. Whether this telewest rumour turns out to be true or not, there is a definite sense that ntl have hit a brick wall in terms of technological expansion.

Telewest have brought out faster speeds than ntl with a network that seems to be able to cope (even ignoring this new rumour). They are also now cheeper than ntl.

Some ADSL companies now offer much faster speeds than ntl, and are in lots of cases cheaper. Again, there is a feeling that the ADSL market is moving forward.

ntl, however, have done nothing to their network recently, other than introduce "usage guidelines" and increase the price (I consider broadband plus to be a different product altogether to broadband).

It is this lack of progress that I feel is causing most frustration - it shows the company up to be unwilling or unable to advance forward. And remember, most cable customers are pro-active types of people who originally left BT in search of better deals and technology - they are now starting to be let down in these respects.


(apologies to anyone who read all that for it being so long winded - I think I made a point somewhere )

[Defiant]

I was waiting for that response Magpie. I think myself however it doe's give some indication as do other boards like this. I also go off friends and family who have or had NTL service's. I must admit mind I'm the only one in the family with NTL now and that's gone down to BB only. They would have had my phone and TV business still but there just not competitive enough. I said this last year and pointed out then it would happen again this. If its the same management then next year too!

[Chrysalis]

Remember this Aizad Hussain is the one who labled the 1mbit customers as leechers who drain the network, yet somehow kept his job, telewest and ntl get further apart every month that goes by, making this merger more and more remarkable, I think it would be safe to say a low proportion of ntl customers are probably not that disgruntled but the main reason for this is quite simply lack of knowledge of whats going on.

[icanadvise]

Its already common knowledge inside NTL that speeds will increase!

Its clear even from the original post on DigitalSPYs that the thread starter knew about the NTL changes and was catually posting about TW responding to NTL

Note the bits

Like NTL...
......
I presume this would be for the same reason NTL did this.

Strange that this Forum wasn't aware of this happening!

[BBKing]

Of course ntl's 600k has always been faster than TW's 512k and BT's 512k, however that doesn't often get a mention.

Also ntl do invest in the network, to sink that myth again. I don't think that cable customers are necessarily in search of better technology - better deals possibly, which is probably why 150k is so popular. No tech-freak would be seen dead with a slow connection like that, unless totally brassic, yet it is so popular that TW and the ADSL providers are only now cottoning on that there is a big market for low-speed broadband. Whether this is a good thing or not in the context of wiring the whole country is a different issue, you can hardly blame companies for going after the market, that's how things work.

[ian@huth]

BBKing has some very valid points there. NTL are often criticised for having nothing faster than 1 Mb, but do the majority of customers want or need anything faster? Quite often you see Blueyonder 2 Mb customers say they are going to drop back to 1 Mb because there is nothing that warrants 2 Mb. I know that some members will be immediately responding to this giving many examples of why you need more than 1 Mb but in reality what percentage of an ISPs customers do these things? You have to market a product that is likely to be taken up by the average user, not the few users with a need for speed.

None of us know what NTL are doing to upgrade their networks or how much money they are spending on them (maybe a few higher up NTL bods may know). NTL are not the best in keeping their customers informed, but yet again, do the majority of their customers care?

If NTL and Telewest are to merge in the near future, as many are saying is very likely, would either party be stupid enough to increase the gap between the two on pricing? Logic seems to dictate that either the rumours are incorrect or that the two will not merge.

[Florence]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

BBKing has some very valid points there. NTL are often criticised for having nothing faster than 1 Mb, but do the majority of customers want or need anything faster? Quite often you see Blueyonder 2 Mb customers say they are going to drop back to 1 Mb because there is nothing that warrants 2 Mb. I know that some members will be immediately responding to this giving many examples of why you need more than 1 Mb but in reality what percentage of an ISPs customers do these things? You have to market a product that is likely to be taken up by the average user, not the few users with a need for speed.

None of us know what NTL are doing to upgrade their networks or how much money they are spending on them (maybe a few higher up NTL bods may know). NTL are not the best in keeping their customers informed, but yet again, do the majority of their customers care?

If NTL and Telewest are to merge in the near future, as many are saying is very likely, would either party be stupid enough to increase the gap between the two on pricing? Logic seems to dictate that either the rumours are incorrect or that the two will not merge.

There is always some who will use the 2mb + it would seem only Telewest and BT are addressing this. Regardless of how many customers want the 2mb+ if its offered then some will always take it.

As for the 150K speed this is sometimes due to customers not being able to afford more money also recently many have dropped down from 1MB to 600K due to the price increase which at the time looked like they was matching up the packages to merge. With this latest if it happens then the packages are further apart then ever. Another fact that showed Telewest still gave their customers a good deal is the price of their 1mb if you have the telephone or tv package with the internet you get 1mb for £34.99. . I would still be on 1mb now if that was the case with NTL.. How many other customers would still be paying NTL the extra £10 a month had they adopted the same deal.

Telewest also have all their call centers in the UK so keeping the money here.
In the end what customers are looking for in an ISP is the chance to change packages and to have the ability to take the faster packages. If the company fails to offer them when Telewest/BT do then it is going to look like the company is falling behind them.

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Of course ntl's 600k has always been faster than TW's 512k and BT's 512k, however that doesn't often get a mention.

Why is it when ever someone mentions NTL's 600 service is faster than the 512 they forget to mention we only have 128 upload

[Chris W]

Originally Posted by Defiant

Why is it when ever someone mentions NTL's 600 service is faster than the 512 they forget to mention we only have 128 upload

On TW 512k isn't the upload 128k as well

Dunno, I just hunted all over thier site to find the upload speeds & I cannot find them mentioned anywhere ....

[BBKing]

512/128 at my Mum's place last time I looked...

ADSL is 256k upload of course, but this thread is about TW reportedly increasing the *download* speed, with no mention of upload.

As for the 150K speed this is sometimes due to customers not being able to afford more money

Quite. That's the same reason I don't drive an Aston Martin. Evidently a lot of people feel that 512k/600k is too expensive for what they need, hence a lot of companies coming out with 256k services and BT trying to persuade everyone that only they offer 'full speed broadband', another interesting marketing concept.

[Defiant]

Originally Posted by monkeybreath

On TW 512k isn't the upload 128k as well

Well if it is there doing something different to NTL because my mate who's on there 2MB connection gets 1MB download and 515 upload. Didn't believe him at first till I went around and seen it for myself

[ian@huth]

Telewest 2 Mb has a 256 kbps upload.

http://www.telewest.co.uk/html/inter...eyonder2mb.htm

Just noticed the 1mb says "Surf super fast and get faster upload speeds of 256kbps" which would seem to imply the 512k service has a slower upload (of 128k).