NTL news

Celt

Well looks like im getting the cable internet next Friday. Im in Knocklyon btw. This shows that NTL are still upgrading and havent stopped.

Skeptic1

Were you already partly upgraded?

Snaga

It may be good news for you, but out my way (leixlip) its not so good despite recent rumours.

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Hi Eric,
The cable modem service will not be available in your area for another 12
months, if it comes on line beforethen we will let you know.

Regards nichola.

Nicola Laffan
Sales Advisor
ntl:
Cork Road

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*sniff*

guess ill be hanging onto my esat nolimits account for a while yet

Snaga

SantaHoe

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Sales Advisor
ntl:
Cork Road
</font>

You're probably getting third-hand info there... see if you can get a hold of someone who is actually involved in the network rebuild. (Tough job I'd say )

Yeah, I'd agree there - NTL seem to be still at work in some areas (at a guess: finishing the upgrades they started before the plans to hold back)
They've been digging up the duel-carriage-way at the end of my road for weeks now, so... fingers crossed.
All I've gotten from the sales people is the rough estimates that (I assume) they are told to give out as a rule of thumb, so it's hard to know where you stand.

Blade

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
Nicola Laffan
Sales Advisor
</font>

Shes Laffan alright, Laffan at all us cause we're never going to get cable modems!

Gunn4r

Whitelancer is there a limit? Eg 3 gigs a month etc.?

SantaHoe

AFAIK NTL don't have a download restriction (maybe not yet anyway), where as Chorus apparently have a 3gig limit.

[This message has been edited by Dead{o}Santa (edited 08-02-2001).]

Lenny

NTL have to have so much done within the next few months, or they will loose their contract with the goverment/council so thats why they are still workin

Skeptic1

They are supposed to upgrade 110,000 homes by (I think) 1 April 2001, however I read somewhere that they may have a grace period of 6 months. They are currently coducting a "review" in which they will decide the level of their commitment to the upgrade process.

In relation to the Internet, there are two reasons to want the upgrade.

1. For £20, you get two phone lines w
ith reduced call charges. On these phone lines you can make completely unrestricted internet calls. No charges, no cutoff. From what I've heard, these are very high quality lines with connection at >=51kbs. Oh, and you also get digital TV in this package.

By comparison £20 gets you 2 eircom phone lines period. £20 also buys you the IOL "nolimits" package. So for £40 you get a lesser service than NTL and this is without the TV.

2. For an additional £50, you get unmetered 512kbs cable modem internet, again with no restrictions, no download limit etc.

Unfortunately, NTL don't have as much money as they thought they had, as so they have chosen to postpone their upgrading in Ireland. In the UK the process continues. The UK is their home market, lots of their shareholders live there and it would look very bad if they stalled there.

Many people have seen NTL digging in roads around their house. This does not mean that they will shortly be upgrading the domestic cable in that area. Remember NTL is a telco and a lot of their revenue comes from carrier preselect telephone services. This requires they laying of trunk broadband cable. They also lay leased lines for businesses.

What NTL would like to do is no upgrading - just receive revenue from their basic tv package. Unfortunately, in order to get the monopoly licence, they made a commitment to upgrade the homes. They also received government money.

At the end of January, shortly after their stalling announcement, they had a meeting with the ODTR. After the review process they will have another meeting where they will communicate their revised plans. I think the first meeting was the ODTR informing them of the fines/penalties they will face if they don't meet their commitments. They are now considering these.

I hope the ODTR is tough with them. NTL have a privilaged monopoly position, and with this privilage comes a duty to customers.

I'm sure the ODTR would love to hear yuor opinions on this. Why not give them a call!

[This message has been edited by Skeptic1 (edited 08-02-2001).]

Celt

bad news for me is that they send a bill showing every site you visit, or so i here.
btw its £250 for install incl. a cable modem.

Skeptic1

Oh I forgot. If they say you'll be upgraded by the end of the week, it often means that they have finished the _physical_ work. They still have to "launch" the service. This may happen some weeks/months later. The reason for this, I've been told (by NTL), is that they have such demand for their services that they don't have enough sales people to sell the service. The upgrade quite a large area and then they "launch" the services within this area on a phased basis.



[This message has been edited by Skeptic1 (edited 08-02-2001).]

Skeptic1

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by WhiteLancer:
bad news for me is that they send a bill showing every site you visit, or so i here.
btw its £250 for install incl. a cable modem.</font>

The will need to cut down a lot of trees You could write a script that visits all the sites in the .com domain and then build a house from the bill.

SantaHoe

Hmmm, I hope that's just hearsay - all my visits to wet-d0nkey.com... I mean, what would people think?!

Skeptic1

Just write a little script that randomly accesses "normal" websites while you are out. Then those busybodies will have to go through thousands of pages to find your little secret Actually I think the reason they are pulling out is due to some perv in Tallaght and NTL can't afford the paper for the bill any more.

[This message has been edited by Skeptic1 (edited 09-02-2001).]

WhiteWashMan

i'll have to find out who installed that annoying little skript that makes explorer jump to dwarf-on-d0nkey.com and upskirt-down-wellie.net and sex.ie sites. and it does this every 2 seconds to random porn sites.
how would i explain this to the missus?

Fidelis

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Dead{o}Santa:
what would people think?!</font>

Nothing much, sure don't we already know

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Nil Desperandum

El_Presidente

Snaga
, not only is cable a long way off in Leixlip (I'd say 12 months is VERY optomistic) but you will be very lucky if you can even get an ISDN line this side of summer.

Lenny

well on my bill it NEVER showed what sites I visited and as for you Skeptic saying that the service is good
you DO get cut off every two hours
and the service is sh|t.
its very very hard to get an online game going without freezing all the time.

Skeptic1

OJ

The bill thing was just a joke. I mean why would you want to see a bill on paper of all the thousands of sites you might have visited! Theres no way they would spend a fortune on something nobody would want.

BTW, is the service charged per minute outside of the weekends? Or is it pure flat-rate?