NTL v UTV Better or Worse ?

Irish Gunner

Currently with Utv on their 3 mb package and only signed up to new contract in April

Also have utv talk so free calls to Ireland & Uk after 6 and free all weekend. Also have to pay Line rental on this

Chorus UPC NTL whatever they are called now are now available to me. Don't use the phone much just local calls and calls to Sis in UK that are free which is great

UPC dont offer free calls to UK only reduced rates.

Looking at UPC and their Broadband ultra and their phone service currently have TV with them not digital just the usual channels

So looking for views to switch or not ? I know I have to pay utv a cancellation fee should I change

I do download a lot and use to**ents a fair bit so do they throttle them?

Also seen some bad comments on here about Upc are they that bad ?

Any views appreciated

delllat

theres a few threads about upc throttling torrents if u search back a few pages,theyre famous for it

IsThatSo?

I changed over from UTV to UPC at the end of March.

OMG did UTV make it hard to leave, they still owe me money!! The cancellation fee is €30 and if you are in a contract with them then there may be other charges, best to read your T&C to be sure. Other than this though I had negligible down time with them over the years and only changed to save money.

On the other hand the installation of NTL BB went very smoothly and I have not had any problems at all. Have called their CS line twice, once was dreadful and the second time was fine, so it can be hit and miss.

TBH I really don't see much to choose between these two providers with regards to customer service. I had been with UTV for about 4 years and the CS grew steadily worse, I guess as their customer numbers grew. They did have Tech Support on at the weekends though, not sure if NTL do this (then again, I haven't needed it either!!)

The line rental for NTL phone is €4 and I get the all included calls package for another €10. All in all my phone, tv and BB cost me what my phone/bb was costing with UTV.

The problems with NTL posted in this forum did make me stop and think but I decided to take a chance on it as I wanted the speeds. It was a nervy time waiting to see if it would work out though.

I personally don't miss the UK calls, never used the service. An option, if you went ahead with the change, would be to use Skype? or a similiar service.

I suppose the bottome line................am I glad I changed? YES

IsThatSo?

Irish Gunner

So are you saving much and what package are you/ were you on ?

CS with Utv have been ok and I know from my tv bill UPC are not that great. They rang me saying that BB is now available and when I asked about limits and if I went over them told me to hang on and check with supervisor.

Did not ask them about throttling torrents

What about Newsgroups do upc they offer this?

So in summary why are you glad you changed ?

paulm17781

Get NTL and have a look at http://www.blueface.ie you'll definitely save money over what you're paying now.

Irish Gunner

Blueface change your number want to keep my own number

Use Skype over the web so that saves some money

Whats the throttling like of to**ents on the Northside of Dublin ?

Have to check with Utv as to what I would be charged should I move and how smooth it would be

Will also have to check my last few statements to compare costs

Irish Gunner

Just checked my bill over the last 3 months and for the 3mb line and including phone rental and free calls its averaging about €51 a month and not sure what NTL can offer. Higher speeds yeah. Will see what packages they do with TV and see if I save anything

paulm17781

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Blueface change your number want to keep my own number

Not necessarily. I ported my number from Eircom to Blueface.

AntiVirus

delllat wrote: »

theres a few threads about upc throttling torrents if u search back a few pages,theyre famous for it

Looks fine to me!

Irish Gunner

paulm17781 wrote: »

Not necessarily. I ported my number from Eircom to Blueface.

So take their phone offer and do the above ?

Is it easy to do for a noobie ?

Irish Gunner

Rang Upc

Can get Digital Tv and BB with phone for €70 month and thats on the 12mb line and they told me that they are increasing this to 20mb

Told me that there are no caps on downloading This True ?

For €80 a month get free local and country calls all day & no time limit. No free calls to UK

Currently on the old Analog tv & paying €27 a month so saving a few bob if I do switch

Is it easy to port to Blueface if I go down that route ?

So now to ring Utv and see how much to cancel

Irish Gunner

Rang UTV

Only went on new tariff back in April so would have to pay a bloody rip of cancellation of €60!!!

If I stay on for 6months it goes down to €30 euros

So dont think I will be cancelling just yet

Mind you if they increase their speeds in the summer I may have to sign another contract

IsThatSo?

Irish Gunner wrote: »

So are you saving much and what package are you/ were you on ?

CS with Utv have been ok and I know from my tv bill UPC are not that great. They rang me saying that BB is now available and when I asked about limits and if I went over them told me to hang on and check with supervisor.

Did not ask them about throttling torrents

What about Newsgroups do upc they offer this?

So in summary why are you glad you changed ?

In summary, I am glad I changed because I am getting my phone, TV and BB for the same price that I was paying for just my phone & BB with UTV. I also get 6 meg for that and all my local and national calls free, all day. This package costs me €70 pm.

Rumour has it that there is no problem with newsgroups

The cancellation fee of €60 is still only €30 more than the out of contract cancellation fee, not that bad when you think they would lose a few months of earnings.

IsThatSo?

paulm17781

Changing to Blueface will be slightly more complex but not a lot. Their support is excellent.

Irish Gunner

Dont want to give them €60 or even €30 just to cancel???

Least the option there think 6 months ends in Sept so will think about it more then

Dont do gaming online so dont need the speeds just good to have for the download and uploads

Looking more into Newsgroups as another option

Will also check out Blueface

Thanks

Irish Gunner

Still in 2 minds over this ?

30 Day notice period for cancellation of Utv so would want the UPC to start on the first day after utv disconnect me or can they be run together ?

Utv said they are waiting for Eircom to come back re speed increases up to 7mb, I am currently on 3mb

Although the 12-20 on Upc looks tempting just have to query re phone calls

Has anyone else got experience of their phone tv and BB package using the 12mb speeds etc

Still in 2 minds

peejay1986

I was having the same dilemma about UTV and calling the UK. Really thats the only reason I stayed with them until.....

BT Ireland's Broadband and Total Talk plan. €55.95 a month for;

3mb Broadband
Line rental included
FREE anytime UK calls
FREE anytime Local/National calls
Reduced Mobile Rates
FREE installation

and if you pay €1.95 a month extra you get 1/3 off all mobile costs on your bill.


I bit their arms off for this

Plus, BT are apparantely upgrading their lines over the summer so that should mean inreased speeds for their existing/new customers. Happy days.

AntiVirus

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Has anyone else got experience of their phone tv and BB package using the 12mb speeds etc

Still in 2 minds

I have the 12MB ultra (now 20MB ) package. I use blueface for my phone and the quality is excellent. I also like the fact that it emails my voice mail messages to me.

rc28

peejay1986 wrote: »

I was having the same dilemma about UTV and calling the UK. Really thats the only reason I stayed with them until.....

BT Ireland's Broadband and Total Talk plan. €55.95 a month for;

3mb Broadband
Line rental included
FREE anytime UK calls
FREE anytime Local/National calls
Reduced Mobile Rates
FREE installation

and if you pay €1.95 a month extra you get 1/3 off all mobile costs on your bill.

I bit their arms off for this

Plus, BT are apparantely upgrading their lines over the summer so that should mean inreased speeds for their existing/new customers. Happy days.

This has got me interested as we're currently stuck with Eircom and paying far more than 55euro per month but where on their site does it say free national calls?
How exactly would we go about disconnecting from Eircom and ordering that 3mb package you detailed? I checked our number and they said we could get it. Has anyone here got any experience of doing this- how long is the wait for bt to connect you?

paulm17781

Irish Gunner wrote: »

30 Day notice period for cancellation of Utv so would want the UPC to start on the first day after utv disconnect me or can they be run together ?

UPC is over cable, it won't affect your existing service. Call UPC now and order and once the order is accepted, cancel the UTV. You can use the Utv and then swap to UPC when ready.

Irish Gunner

paulm17781 wrote: »

UPC is over cable, it won't affect your existing service. Call UPC now and order and once the order is accepted, cancel the UTV. You can use the Utv and then swap to UPC when ready.

So I order goes through then cancel Utv but will that mean I will get 2 bills for the month from both UPC & UTV ?

peejay1986

rc28 wrote: »

This has got me interested as we're currently stuck with Eircom and paying far more than 55euro per month but where on their site does it say free national calls?
How exactly would we go about disconnecting from Eircom and ordering that 3mb package you detailed? I checked our number and they said we could get it. Has anyone here got any experience of doing this- how long is the wait for bt to connect you?

Read the Value Bundle on this page:

http://btireland.ie/AtHome_bb_totaltalk.shtml

It lists all the details there apart from the upgrade from 2mb to 3mb - I was told that when I called them.

All you need is a UAN number from Eircom and BT can do that rest. I was told it'll take 2-3 weeks to change from UTV to BT. They told me not to cancel with UTV though as it would result in me losing my phone service completely until BT took over (and maybe add another charge to get the phone line reactivated). BT said that they will deal with everything for me. Brilliant customer service from my experience so far.

paulm17781

Irish Gunner wrote: »

So I order goes through then cancel Utv but will that mean I will get 2 bills for the month from both UPC & UTV ?

You'll get billed for both. They are totally separate services. The other option is ensure[b/] you can get UPC broadband, set a date (+30 days) for installation and ask UPC to install that day, ie. same day UTV / phoneline will be inactive.

rc28

peejay1986 wrote: »

Read the Value Bundle on this page:

http://btireland.ie/AtHome_bb_totaltalk.shtml

It lists all the details there apart from the upgrade from 2mb to 3mb - I was told that when I called them.

All you need is a UAN number from Eircom and BT can do that rest. I was told it'll take 2-3 weeks to change from UTV to BT. They told me not to cancel with UTV though as it would result in me losing my phone service completely until BT took over (and maybe add another charge to get the phone line reactivated). BT said that they will deal with everything for me. Brilliant customer service from my experience so far.

Anyone here with experiences of porting from Eircom to BT? How does BT compare in service?

Irish Gunner

took the plunge and ordered phone / Digital tv & BB coming out to house next week to connect

Have not cancelled Utv yet. When they connect they said I will be instantly on their service and can make free calls and use their BB

Is it just a standard connection they give me the router plug into my phone line and same with digital tv

Also what router to they supply as want to open up ports on them

optiplexgx270

paulm17781 wrote: »

Changing to Blueface will be slightly more complex but not a lot. Their support is excellent.

Why use blueface? You can port you number with NTL/UPC unless this is only a new thing thay allow.

Irish Gunner

Dont think I will port over to Blueface. Getting free calls as it is but not to UK so dont ring sis that much and they have free calls with Sky

dont want to go into what Sky can give them