I thought I would make a new post not looking for advice and so forth but just to give a ground zero view point on my many years with NTL, seen as Ive been with them so long like.
At the Start
I could not wait long enough until NTL finally enabled Broadband in my street, when the salesperson came to the house, he had the easiest sale in the history of time. I got my Motorola SB4100 Modem and was on if I remember correctly 512K but I also recall this soon going up to 600K not long after. This was the Top Speed at the time. I was happy they provided Email and also NewsGroups and mainly the IP was sort of Fixed (even though it is dynamic but hardly ever changed).
Through the Years
I expereinced I Suppose not that many problems in total but was annoyed when for example a Area Wide Outage and Support (before India) could not tell me at the start there was such a problem, trying to get me to format my computers and silly things like that - only after speaking for ages that they finally said "Oh there is a fault in you area - we know about this" - Grr.
Getting faster and faster
512K to 600 to 1mnit to 2mbit then 4mnit and finally 10mbit all for free was a welcome change, I often tried the top tier and until the 10mbit speed came in, it coped no problem. We had the Cap debate and many others in that time, funny that it all went by the by and now we have (I think) Traffic Shaping instead.
Reliability
I must say that Cable has been on the whole pretty Solid, the speeds are constant (apart from 10mbit - more later) and as long as you don't need to call support then everything is rosy. Like any Consumer product or service, you expect to buy what is offered and get that but its seems in the world of ISP's generally from what I have heard, you *might* get the speeds quoted and you might be online for the entire month.
If my BT Line for example fails, I get money back but with Consumer Broadband this is expected and no money would come forth unless you complain a lot really.
10mbit - the thorn in the side
Having tried 10mbit countless times from when it first came in onwards and dropping down to 4mbit more often then not - I can safely say that there seems to be a problem somewhere. People on Here (BillC for example) has shown how he gets 10mbit all the time, this is not the case with the rest of the UK though.
On 4mbit you pretty much get that all the time, if the speeds are slow then it is the other end that has crap bandwidth, Newsgroups for example hit 4mbit any time night or day. Once you jump onto the 10mbit bandwagon - this is when it gets really strange.
From 6pm to 10pm I noticed I only pull in 3-5mbit or slower (jumps all over the place basically), this is from UK Sites with lots of bandwidth - the test here was grabbing Fedora Core 6 from a UK Mirror Site. Amazingly after 10pm (on the day I tired it), it shot up to 10Mbit all the time and kept this speed onwards for a good hour.
Now if 4mbit can stabilise on full speed, surely 10mbit should have the lower settings of at least that yes? I would say, even if people deny this is happening that Traffic Shaping is indeed well in place. For example now I am grabbing from NTL Newsgroups and only getting 1mbit Max
The Competition
Not everyone is so bothered about a Cap in place on the other ADSL Providers out there such as myself, 40 GIG a month is well plenty for what I do. TalkTalk can do Upto 8mbit & Phone line for £20.90 a month, SkyBB can do upto 8mbit for £5 a month and Upto 16mbit for £10 a month (if you already have services with them.
You may say that the speeds on there are crap but how does this compare to 10mbit on Virgin, what is going to change when 20mbit comes along?
Personally I think Virgin need to revise there pricing as many regardless of Service will Migrate anyhow.
The 3 Monthly Phone Call
I am not too happy that if you ring up to disconnect, they offer you Half Price for 3 month, maybe hoping that you wont ring back and stay with them afterwards? How many are (as I was) paying the full price while others are happy to be paying half for the same, in fact paying Less for 10mbit then I was paying for 4mbit for example.
Conclusion
To end this damm long post, I am currently on 3 months Half Price 10mbit, which by then will take me to June 2007, by which time TT & SkyBB will have unbundled my Exchange. Unless something radical Happens like more for less etc then no matter how much they try and tempt - i can see myself moving providors.
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