Remind me why NTl planned on splashing out 100m into their network

dlofnep

Surely from what I gathered; it was nationwide and not solely for that place that gets that little bit more than the rest of this poxy country - Dublin. With that being said, here:

I am writing to you regarding your email received recently. I have been contacted by our sales department and they have advised that there is no plan to rollout our cable modem broadband service in Waterford. Currently ntl will be concentrating on Dublin only for the next year at least.

I assumed that NTL would put some of these funds into both waterford & galway - expand their horizons and give us the option to have an affordable hi-speed connection.

I guess I'm stuck with Eircom for the next year or so.

zoro

pfft... bloody boggers. It's all "Me Me Me" with you lot

Batbat

look I live smack bang in the center of Dublin, and I have been calling NTL on and off for 2 years, they dont have coverage and have no idea when they will..

In my view they should have their license revoked, its a disgrace

dlofnep

Originally posted by zoro
pfft... bloody boggers. It's all "Me Me Me" with you lot

Earth to ignorance, waterford is a city

zoro

Originally posted by dlofnep
Earth to ignorance, waterford is a city

Ha! Look everybody! The farmer spoke!

Originally posted by Batbat
In my view they should have their license revoked, its a disgrace

But there'd be no real reason for that to happen - they don't claim to offer broadband to everyone, just to select areas in Dublin. And the service they do provide for the lucky few is impeccable!

Ripwave

Originally posted by dlofnep
I assumed that NTL would put some of these funds into both waterford & galway - expand their horizons and give us the option to have an affordable hi-speed connection.

S'funny, I assumed that they'd put all of those funds in the place where they felt they could make the best return on their investment.

What makes you think that they'd make more money by rolling out broadband in Waterford or Galway than they will in Dublin?

Tony

I think the real problem is the whole cable franchise system, if NTL will not invest in the network they should re advertise the franchise.

Tony

dlofnep

Originally posted by zoro
Ha! Look everybody! The farmer spoke!

Gosh, a dub with humour. You sure are a rarity, aint ya sparticus.

dlofnep

Originally posted by Ripwave
S'funny, I assumed that they'd put all of those funds in the place where they felt they could make the best return on their investment.

What makes you think that they'd make more money by rolling out broadband in Waterford or Galway than they will in Dublin?

One would assume that rolling out broadband nationwide would be more profitable than selling broadband in selected areas of "Dublin".

zoro

Originally posted by dlofnep
Gosh, a dub with humour. You sure are a rarity, aint ya sparticus.

it was an attempt at some light hearted humour. I'll refrain from it in future.

@Tony:
Well they're not _actually_ over advertising what they're doing ... they're delivering exactly what they say they are ... although we'd all like it if they delivered broadband to the rest of us

dlofnep

Originally posted by zoro
it was an attempt at some light hearted humour. I'll refrain from it in future.

Aye captain.

MarVeL

Originally posted by dlofnep
One would assume that rolling out broadband nationwide would be more profitable than selling broadband in selected areas of "Dublin".

If they were in a position to roll out everywhere at once then yes it would probably be more profitable to go nationwide, as it is they don't have the resources (manpower or money) to do everywhere so they are going to hit wherever gives them the highest return on investment first.

In general it will probably be cheaper rolling out in the new estates where a lot of the cabling is done therefore Dublin city centre will probably be a while away. Equally the odds are that they can get more people for a similar level of investment in the Dublin area.

Anecdotal evidence does seem to suggest that the rollout is ramping up but, unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to get any firm evidence of this from NTL. They do have a strong incentive to speed up though as Sky seem to be eating them alive on the TV front and if they can tie users in with the broadband it is a powerful weapon in their arsenal

dlofnep

Originally posted by MarVeL
If they were in a position to roll out everywhere at once then yes it would probably be more profitable to go nationwide, as it is they don't have the resources (manpower or money) to do everywhere so they are going to hit wherever gives them the highest return on investment first.

Resources, money? Surely €100m is more than adaquete to roll out in it's three major cities? And I believe the initial statement was to the statement made by a mass amount of news sources, and I quote:

Last month ntl Ireland announced that it is investing over €100m to extend the reach of ntl broadband.

That doesn't sound like the sort of funds needed to make baggot street bridge broadband enabled, that pretty much spells out nationwide to me.

jesus_thats_gre

When xDSL was first proposed by Telecom Eireann they wanted to pipe television down the line so they could make some money.. But NTL and Chorus done the nut and TE were told to get stuffed.. So they refused to role out DSL

AdMMM

I was almost certain that they said that they'yre rolling it out to Galway and Waterford, Waterford supposedly has the best cable network in Ireland (got that from a contact at NTL) so I reckon we'd be a good place to start rolling it out to!

dlofnep

Originally posted by |.Murderer.|
I was almost certain that they said that they'yre rolling it out to Galway and Waterford, Waterford supposedly has the best cable network in Ireland (got that from a contact at NTL) so I reckon we'd be a good place to start rolling it out to!

I was under that impression too but NTL customer service know nothing of it.

Ripwave

Originally posted by dlofnep
One would assume that rolling out broadband nationwide would be more profitable than selling broadband in selected areas of "Dublin".

On what basis? Because that's the way you'd like it to be?

NTL have to spend money to deply broadband. They can't just enable it all over their network next tuesday morning. So they have a rollout plan, (that they haven't disclosed) that should be designed to maximise their return.

If you have any evidence that they'd make more money by rolling it out in your neck of the woods first, post it, rather than whinging about the fact that they are deploying it in the largest network first.

dlofnep

Originally posted by Ripwave
On what basis? Because that's the way you'd like it to be?

Oh Jesus. Shut up Ripwave. You are a typical example of a troll. All you do is enforce your supposed correctness.

It would be more profitable because there would be more clients in city that the company has already established their dominance. I believe that was obvious.

Third_Echelon

Originally posted by dlofnep
I was under that impression too but NTL customer service know nothing of it.

well thats nothing new....

they dont know much in there... one of the worst companies to call about any issue....

AdMMM

My contact works in sales and they know nothing about it, however, NTL execs are famous for keeping everything under wraps for as long as possible so that other companies won't steal their thunder!

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

Ripwave

Originally posted by dlofnep
It would be more profitable because there would be more clients in city that the company has already established their dominance. I believe that was obvious.

If someone can translate this paragraph into English, please do.

dlofnep

Translated: You are a troll.

zoro

Ripwave is actually one of the more respected members on boards.ie - I wouldn't class him as a troll ... but your replies are.

"It would be more profitable because there would be more clients in a city that the company has already established their dominance. I believe that was obvious"

I assume that it's missing an "a" (as bolded) but I can't be certain.

Moriarty

dlofnep, here is the line ..........|

You are here ........x.|


That is all.

Mutant_Fruit

The way i look at it, any broadband companies should really be looking outside the dublin area, simply because there are already so many companies vying for the customers in the dublin area.

While this may be good for prices, it isn;t great for their profits.

There is:
NTL
Eircom
Chorus
Esat/IOL
Irish Broadband
(leap?)
Netsource
The other netsource
and possibly others i cant think of.

Surely going to other cities would be more profitable. Then again, dublin does have about 1m inhabitants i believe, so thats about 1/5 of the population...

Ripwave

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
The way i look at it, any broadband companies should really be looking outside the dublin area, simply because there are already so many companies vying for the customers in the dublin area.

Actually, the more people that have broadband in an area, the more likely the people they deal with every day are to hear about it, and want to get it themselves. So in some ways it's easier for a minority player to get started in Dublin, precisely because they aren't "oustanding in their own field", to use a propbably inappropriate metaphor!

andrew163

*sigh*

broadband in dublin...oh how i hate that phrase...

i can't get NTL. I can't get IBB because the nearest transmittor is aligned about 4 degrees out of my way. I can't get leap, and I wouldnt have been able to get and of the DSL providers if i hadn't had a 4-month long angry exchange of emails with eircom last year to remove an unused pairgain...I also know of 3 other people living nearby who also can't get *any* form of broadband...

This is all in dublin 15, the one place you'd think would have really good broadband (the blanchardstown centre and several industrial estates would create alot of business users, and there's thousands of houses in a small area for residential customers)......

so it's not just people in the countryside (and the other cities) who are deprived of broadband...

I'm VERY lucky to have *finally* been able to get UTV clicksilver in this area, unfortunatly alot of people i know in this area won't be so lucky. (for example, one person with a pairgain, one person who's line just can't take it despite being literally no more then 100m from the exchange)

jmcc

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
When xDSL was first proposed by Telecom Eireann they wanted to pipe television down the line so they could make some money.. But NTL and Chorus done the nut and TE were told to get stuffed.. So they refused to role out DSL

It was a bit more complex than that. But those noted experts on Conditional Access Systems [1] in Rondomondo went ahead and got all the studios ready anyway. The movie/tv services from TE would have been in contravention of the cable franchises which gave exclusive access to the cable companies.

There is a certain Dublin ghetto mentality about NTL where it thinks that Dublin is the extent of Ireland. It was always there but the cable broadband seems to be the action of a company struggling for relevance.

The biggest threat that Cablink had was that it could take on TE in the home telephone market. However the scum in TE management did not like that and a process of under-investment reduced Cablelink's ability to do so - after all, Cablelink was owned by Telecom Eireann and RTE. The purchase of NTL at the height of the dot.bomb market for stupid money meant that when the bubble burst, the new owners were left with a vastly overrated and still over priced business. It was as if they bought a Rolls Royce (or more aptly a Honda 50) and could not afford the tax and insurance.

I think that the real reason that NTL is concentrating on Dublin is because it is where its market is dense and there is the highest chance of a return. The NTL Dublin net is one of the biggest in Europe and it is obvious that NTL would give certain areas (tied in to PC usage per household) priority. For the money/resources it would spend on providing cable internet in Waterford or Galway, it could have the potential of getting probably twice the number of customers for the same money in Dublin. It is an economy of scale. And with these MANs potentially facilitating cheaper internet access in Waterford and, I think, Galway, it would be financially dangerous for NTL to offer cable internet outside of Dublin. At best, NTL is on course to be just another Dublin company with little relevance to Ireland. But waiting for all these new broadband sources/providers to come online in Waterford is frustrating. However as soon as the MAN goes active, all these problems with getting ADSL may disappear as Eircom fights to maintain its dominance.

Regards...jmcc
[1] They hadn't clue zero about CAS and I do know a few things about it.

dlofnep

Originally posted by Moriarty
dlofnep, here is the line ..........|

You are here ........x.|


That is all.

If you want to butter up to him, go ahead. Look through any of his threads or posts, his always finds a way to argue with someone. If you want to abuse your privileges, be my guest buddy.

And Mr. Ripwave, if you want to be such a grammar nazi. Explain to me what the word "probpably" is and what dictionary you found it in. Two can play that "cyber status points" game.

I started this thread to talk about why NTL announced a 100m rollout and expanding their broadband network, to then turn around and say that they had no future plans for waterford. I didn't start this thread to argue but surely some of the board's troll team managed to worm their way in.

I am done with this thread. It's going to go nowhere but lead to an internet debate - Which is something that I don't care to join in on. I don't have the time.

Slan.

seamus

Originally posted by dlofnep
If you want to butter up to him, go ahead. Look through any of his threads or posts, his always finds a way to argue with someone. If you want to abuse your privileges, be my guest buddy.

He may seem to always disagree with people, but you can't question the integrity of his arguments.

I started this thread to talk about why NTL announced a 100m rollout and expanding their broadband network, to then turn around and say that they had no future plans for waterford. I didn't start this thread to argue but surely some of the board's troll team managed to worm their way in.

You started this thread for a discussion. That's what you've been getting.

It makes sense for NTL to roll out in Dublin first, as horrible as it sounds to everyone else. Dublin has a large population, the majority of whom are plugged into NTL already, and who are all in close proximity to eachother - making it easier and cheapier to make large rollouts. €100m in today's Ireland doesn't get you that much. Well, ok, it gets you a lot, but certainly nothing approaching countrywide rollout. Dublin is a good start-off point also because of the power of word-of-mouth advertising. In Ireland, it's generally accepted that because someone can get something in Dublin is no gaurantee that you can get it in Waterford, Cork, Limerick, etc, and vice-versa. So word-of-mouth between Dublin and Waterford customers won't be as effective as between Dublin customers - and there are a hell of a lot more of them.

It is biased, and it is unfair, but that's the way it is. Unfortunately because everyone has the same attitude, all the companies are clamouring to try secure broadband customers in Dublin, in case someone else gets there first, when there's a whole other country of people just waiting to be secured.

AdMMM

Its a sad truth that NTL won't expand any further to existing towns and will only continue to connect new estates.

If they had gone and expanded a few years a go (before everyone got Sky) then NTL would be rolling around in the money and could afford to deliver BB to areas apart from Dublin.

However, a cash-strapped NTL of a few years a go could not afford that, so now they're biding their time, earning money from their current subscribers and then... BAM! They'll deliver BB to other cities...

Thats what I hope anyway!

Moriarty

Bye then dlofnep. Take care. Have a nice life.

Ripwave

Originally posted by dlofnep
I started this thread to talk about why NTL announced a 100m rollout and expanding their broadband network, to then turn around and say that they had no future plans for waterford.

The person you spoke to didn't know of any plans for Waterford. But they also didn't know of any plans for Blanchardstown, Santry, Ballinteer, Rathmines or Phibsboro.

NTL announced a €100 million, multi-year program. That will be broken down into phases. Waterford isn't in the current phase (the next 6-9 months). It might be in the next phase. It might not. I've seen nothing in this thread to suggest that it should be in the next phase.

For example, someone has pointed out that NTL need broadband as a way to keep people from defecting to Sky. How prevalent is Sky in Waterford? If every 2nd house in Waterford sported a Sky dish, NTL might well want to get BB in there as fast as possible. If Sky dishes are few and far between, though, the NTL aren't under quite as much pressure there. But so far, nobody from Waterford has suggested what's so special about Waterford that would make NTL consider upgrading Waterford sooner. (Apart from the state of the cable infrastructure in Waterford - can anyone who actually knows in Waterford tell us whether the infrastructure is sufficiently better in Waterford that rolling out broadband would be easier/quicker than it is in Dublin? Or was someone getting mixed up with a Casey Cablevision area?).

Mutant_Fruit

For those of you thinking we get the raw deal, check this out: http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?p=2396163#post2396163

segadreamcast

100m rollout sounds about right.

That's 100metres they meant, not 100million - those clever NTL goons!

halenger

Without trying to dredge up a fight here I think one of the big factors for NTL is that they have already laid down a lot of the wiring the needed and upgraded etc so that Dublin could get cable internet.

I know that my street was torn up so they could upgrade the lines to suit it all. This was of course back in the day when they'd say yeah it'll be available in 6 months (same story every 6 months). Then of course everything stopped. NTL began teetering every closer to that bankruptcy edge or well the edge of not enough funds to be bothered rolling out this new fangled technology. This would be before DSL was even available iirc.