NTL IRELAND - €100m Broadband rollout

crawler

http://www.rte.ie/business/2004/0603/ntl.html?ST=wbua.dhvaa@agy.pbzRTEMAIL

MDR

I welcome the expenditure, I just wonder if it makes business sense for them,
I suppose to spend this money they must have written of the €635 million they
spent buying CableLink ...

eth0_

*THUMP*


Sorry, I just fainted. Wow. Excellent news!

spongebob

Ohhhhhhhh Nice

Look at this bit of Rat Poison

"Customers who sign up for NTL Ireland's broadband package from August will be able to choose from a 300kbps service from €25 a month, a 750kbps service for €35 a month or a 1.5mb service for €50 a month. Subscribers will also get free installation and free first three months subscription."

Just think of all the people who will cancel their €24 a month line rental in favour of what is essentially a free upgrade to BB.

M

SkepticOne

Good news if they actually go through with it. The 100m figure seems a little low though considering they will need re-lay a vast amount of cable. It had been estimated in the past that it would cost around 300m to upgrade the entire system over 3 years. It is possible that they only intend to upgrade a subset of the cable subscribers. This is still good news though.

Scottish

Any news on what locations will be done first?

SkepticOne

Originally posted by Scottish
Any news on what locations will be done first?

They need to complete South Dublin first.

bk

As I said in the other thread, all we need now is for NTL to offer phone services (VoIP perhaps) and you can kiss the Rat good bye.

If NTL really do roll this out, then at last we will have BB that really matches the rest of the developed world (and some of the not so developed).

BTW remember all NTL's products include a 30GB cap

I can imagine the panic occuring in Eircom upper management this morning They are probably having an emergency meeting as we speak.

Expect Eircom to respond with multi-tiered products similar to NTL and higher caps.

tman

1.5mb for €50 a month:eek:
1gb daily cap as well, should suit me nicely:)

hopefully Galway sees some of this action, i'm presuming that they will, seeing as NTL are the main supplier of cable here...

crawler

Bk you are assuming that eircom can actually do this

spongebob

No wonder you were quiet .

Does the 100,000 home initial rollout this year include any of Waterford and Galway or do they fall within the extended 450,000 home target.

450,000 homes is one third of all homes in the state.....and there is something in the pipeline from the new Chorus owners which will be rolled out in Limerick and Cork but it will not be announced formally until August/September I hear.

M

bk

Originally posted by crawler
Bk you are assuming that eircom can actually do this

They would need to

Reduce contention to 17:1
Have a cap GUIDE of 30Gb per month
Have a Max speed on the home product of 1.5Mbps

Lots of network re-engineering involved there!

Actually it won't be that hard for them.

I don't expect they will directly match or undercut NTL, they won't have to because of NTL's much more limited customer base.

- Reduce contention to 17:1

They won't need to do this, we have all seen that there is no difference between 48:1 and 24:1 and anyway 24:1 is close enough to NTL's stated 20:1

- Have a cap GUIDE of 30Gb per month

This one is very easy for Eircom, Eircom have more bandwidth then just about any other company in Ireland, they can do this with just a flick of a switch.

Anyway they more or less have this at the moment as they have never actually enforced the cap (and now it looks like they never will) and I know lots of people who download well over 30Gb per month with them.

- Have a Max speed on the home product of 1.5Mbps

This is the only one that might be difficult for Eircom.
Firstly Eircoms DSLAM's are easily capable of this, in fact tey are capable of speeds much higher then this and it can be turned on at just a flick of a switch.

Actually I expected Eircom where going to launch a 1M consumer DSL service in the next 6 months and that they where probably gearing up for it already.

However you are right a 1 - 1.5M DSL service won't be available to everyone who can get 512k, but it would be available to many, that is the beauty of RADSL.

So really not much network re-engineering involved, at least nothing that Eircom isn't capable of and was probably preparing to do anyway.

crawler

BK on VOIP

http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9414408

Scottish

Originally posted by SkepticOne
They need to complete South Dublin first.

Couldn't agree more, it's where all the PC's are

bk

Hi Crawler.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to see what NTL are doing and it will really put the frighteners on Eircom.

As soon as it is available to me I will jump from DSL to NTL, even if Eircom match you, just because I hate Eircom.

However it would be foolish to ignore Eircom, Eircom are very frightened of you guys in NTL, you are the only company who can really break their monopoly and create real competition. That scares them and NTL's announcement is almost prefectly timed to screw up Eircoms share price just after their financil announcement yesterday

However it would be a mistake to ignore Eircom, Eircom can be extremely competitive when threatened and NTL is the biggest threat they have ever faced. They will fight you like a trapped animal.

Remember NTL was the reason why Eircom started working on DSL in the first palce, with a DSL service capable of transmitting TV over it (so that it could directly compete with NTL, however the technology was unlikely to work).

If NTL really wants to put the boot in, then they need to start offering a phone service again. A combined phone, bb, TV service from NTL would really kill Eircom, people love single bills and if you undercut Eircom, then NTL will be on a winner.

Good luck NTL and keep up the good work.

bk

Originally posted by crawler
BK on VOIP

http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9414408

ww) I love everone in NTL, all is forgiven.

BTW forget about the southside, they already have DSL AND wireless, you need to come to D9. I'll even be happy to test it for you

spongebob

Will ye cross the river this year so ?

M

SkepticOne

Originally posted by bk
ww) I love everone in NTL, all is forgiven.

BTW forget about the southside, they already have DSL AND wireless, you need to come to D9. I'll even be happy to test it for you

The southside has more experience of testing broadband being the location of the first DSL enabled exchanges.

spongebob

Crossing the river is the next best thing to "Available Nationwide" in BB terms. It is a true sign of commitment .

I'm sure that Ray agrees with me

M

bk

Originally posted by SkepticOne
The southside has more experience of testing broadband being the location of the first DSL enabled exchanges.

Yes, and that is why most people on the Southside are already signed up to 12 month contracts for DSL.

Much better chance of getting more people on the northside as fewer have signed up for it yet

shinzon

Well my initial enthusiasm has washed off me like a wave, just saw completion of the upgrade for 2006

Can just see the headlines now

"Waterford the last City to be completed in 100 Million Euro investment by NTL, will be online hopefully sometime in December 2006"

Oh well

Shin

uteotw

I'm curious to see if it will still be capped at 1GB per day... especially the 1.5mb

nahdoic

I want to know how many ADSL customers eircom has in the small areas where NTL has its upgraded network already.

They better come to Dublin 15 first - it's crying out for it!

Brilliant news.

LFCFan

Originally posted by nahdoic
They better come to Dublin 15 first - it's crying out for it!

Oh God Yeah! It's probably the most starved area population wise in Dublin. If NTL upgrade my estate I will never say a bad thing about them again!

spongebob

Why dont the people in D15 go door to door with a petition to NTL ?

I have seen so many complaints about the eircom copper in that area that it is probably the single greatest BB happy hunting ground in Dublin, and the NTL cable is new or pretty new ?

The weather is great , just what ya need for a door to door campaign

M

Venom

Originally posted by shinzon
Well my initial enthusiasm has washed off me like a wave, just saw completion of the upgrade for 2006

Can just see the headlines now

"Waterford the last City to be completed in 100 Million Euro investment by NTL, will be online hopefully sometime in December 2006"

Oh well

Shin

Shin you are just not ment to get broadband

You sure must of pissed off someone important in a previous lifetime lol

jmcc

NTL did a lot of upgrading on the Waterford net over the last few years. I remember attending Cablelink's broadband launch in July 1998. I tend to be cynical about these broadband claims from NTL. The whole broadband scene is beginning to be a heavily contested one. The biggest threat to Eircom dominance is Wireless since it does not completely rely on Eircom's aging infrastructure.

The Irishwan groups around the country may just morph into viable community operations but some of the WANs are evolutionary dead-ends.

The terrifying thing in all this for Eircom is that NTL has no dependence on Eircom for the last mile. But as has been said elsewhere in the thread, Eircom only competes when its monopoly is under threat.

I would love to see NTL offer broadband on the Waterford net but it may be that there is a vision-free zone in NTL's strategy for outside of Dublin.

Regards...jmcc

shinzon

Originally posted by Venom
Shin you are just not ment to get broadband

You sure must of pissed off someone important in a previous lifetime lol

i know wish i knew who i pissed off so i could apologise

shin

Scruff

Originally posted by shinzon
i know wish i knew who i pissed off so i could apologise

shin

It was me. Apologise profusely and in a groveling manner and i will have a 10mb fiber connection laid to your house by the end of the week.

dlofnep

It's about time.

Since cablesurf doesn't plan on expanding throughout Waterford, I guess this is an acceptable alternative.

Urban Weigl

Originally posted by uteotw
I'm curious to see if it will still be capped at 1GB per day... especially the 1.5mb

It's not a "cap" in the normal way, more a guide. Unless you max it out 24/7, they won't have a problem. I know of a lot of people who definitely go way over the 1GB/day (30GB/month) guide, and have never had a problem with NTL. I did read that a handful of users who were using more than 100-150 gigs a month did get warned, in areas that were already congested and where it was causing issues for other customers (I think I read that on The Register).