NTL Suspends Telephone Service

damien

http://www.rte.ie/news/2004/1009/NTL.html

NTL has announced it has decided to suspend its domestic direct telephone service in Dublin. The company said it had identified a safety issue associated with its domestic direct telephone equipment.

All 2,000 customers are being informed and NTL is recommending each customer contact an alternative telephone provider. NTL says none of its other services are affected.

However, some customers have expressed their concerns about the equipment and the lack of information on the safety issue. Customers said they were alarmed when they were contacted by NTL today and told to unplug the equipment immediately.

NTL said customers could use the equipment for emergency calls but has not clarified exactly what the safety issue is.

machalla

cableguy wrote:

The only(major) problem I heard about was overheating units. I think one unit went on fire. Thats going back some time now so why they're going on about safety issues now is a bit strange. More then likely an excuse just to shut down a dodgey phone service. The norm would be to replace units known to have faults not tell customers to go elsewherefor a phone service. If they were serious about the phone service they'd have more then 2000 customers by now.DTV and broadband took won their interest instead.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

I don't think it was that dodgy at all. I know of someone who has it and they get their phone line for a rental charge of about €11 a month plus an extra phoneline for internet use which iused to be completely free and as of last year was about €15 for the year if I remember rightly. Completely free dialup access which isn't as appealing as it used to be but its grand for anyone whos not bothered about broadband.

Its a shame one more option has disappeared off the market and left it to the likes of Eircon..

carrotcake

dodgy? you're obviously not one of the 2000 then. the only bad thing about it is that it goes down in a local power cut!

Lenny

hmm,
I'm on the ntl's 2 way system
I haven't heard anything about this, is it *all* customers using the 2way telephone system?

celticfc

Lenny wrote:

hmm,
I'm on the ntl's 2 way system
I haven't heard anything about this, is it *all* customers using the 2way telephone system?

Yes everyone, I'm on the the 2-way network too & I got a phonecall about it from them about an hour or two ago, they will be sending out letters during the week so they said.

Lenny

Are you positive?
I'm in Tallaght
does this mean their BB service will stop aswell?
Also, there was a fella from Esat BT called to my house there on Friday trying to get me signed up to Esat BT's telephone i think..
are they giving people any credit for us having to pay the charge to get conneted back to eircom now?

celticfc

Lenny wrote:

Are you positive?
I'm in Tallaght
does this mean their BB service will stop aswell?

cableguy wrote:

Lenny>No the BB service wont stop.

Yea, I'm in Tallaght too & THANKFULLY there is no issue with the Broadband service.

KdjaCL

celticfc wrote:

I got a phonecall about it from them

NTL said customers could use the equipment for emergency calls but has not clarified exactly what the safety issue is.

LOL

kdjac

carrotcake

cableguy wrote:

It may not have been dodgy on the customer end of things but it was a pain in the arse for ntl when first set up and all that on a brand new network. They eventually sorted the bugs but proved it didin't stand a chance on any other parts of the network.Before the service was rolled out two plastic cups and a length of string were more reliable.
And no I'm not one of the 2,000. Major pain in the arse for all what with changing phone numbers again.
Lenny>No the BB service wont stop.

ah, i see! the 'safety issue' claim does sound a bit suspect. i presume there is something, given that we've got such short notice. but is it the case that they're just not bothered fixing it, given the small customer base?

Moriarty

They'll probably wait until voip matures a tad more then go that route.

Lenny

I ain't gotten a phone call, but I honestly see more than 2,000 people having ntl as their telephone service.. so it has to be only a minority that will be cut off?

spanner_head

haven't heard anything about this yet.
I'm on the 2 way network in Kingswood, Tallaght.

Lenny

IM in Kingswood meself
ain't goten any phonecall, but surely there're more than 2,000 people who have ntl as their telephone service..

spanner_head

I would love to know the 'real' reason why they are suspending it.

It would be a real pity to loose this service. Its excellent.
Two telephone lines at a very good rate and also cheap calls too - you can't beat that!

I'd hate to go back to Eircom.

Still haven't heard anything from NTL, until I do I'm none the wiser.

Lenny

I don't even have my old eircom telephone connecters in my gaff I got ntl to rip them up and get rid of them, and also my eircom line was bollaxed because water got into the wires that are burried under the garden years ago.
So I don't think I can even go back to eircom
also don't want to pay that reconnection charge, and whatever fee's for them to re-wire the house..

carrotcake

yeah, when my ntl phone points were installed, they took out the main eircom point and put a shiny new ntl one there instead. so i'm assuming the basic re-activation is out of the question, unless a diy job is possible before ringing eircom. i'm hoping to sign up straight away with this crowd. julian simmons and gerry kelly seem happy enough with it anyway

spongebob

You can run your own cable Lenny ! Costs about €0.30c a metre for good shielded phone wire 2 or 4 pair. You sort out the burial or stringing up and bring it into the house anywhere u want. It could go in the garage and you could run DECT phones from there.

M

Lenny

we've always had a bad eircom phone line for years, they could never fix the problem(crackling) they dug up the garden and could never fix it so when we got ntl we told them to rip up the eircom lines and all the points are removed
am just gona wait till i get the phonecall from ntl to see what the jizz is

carrotcake

Lenny wrote:

am just gona wait till i get the phonecall from ntl to see what the jizz is

typo of the year!

scojones

Taken from http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/4195807?view=Eircomnet
NTL has recalled domestic direct telephone equipment services in Dublin after the company said it had identified a "safety issue".
Fine Gael Senator Mr Brian Hayes today called on the communications regulator, ComReg, to compel NTL to explain the nature of the security risk.
"NTL ordered customers to disconnect their phones at the weekend with very little advance notice.

"With reports that some customers have refused to disconnect their NTL telephone lines, it is imperative that all the facts are made known," he said.

NTL has said it will pay the reconnection fee for its affected customers, but the company has not yet provided further details of the safety issue.

It will be very interesting to see what the saftey issue is.

Lenny

Because I said the word jizz?

carrotcake

...yes

carrotcake

Moriarty wrote:

They'll probably wait until voip matures a tad more then go that route.

and on that note... from http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?uid=sighte&sid=8oFjC9Gu&storyid=single3903

NTL to offer 1GB Ethernet services to Irish firms

07.10.2004 - NTL has signed a deal with Level 3 Communications, which earlier this week launched its fibre carrier services in Dublin and Manchester, to provide enterprise and wholesale communications to companies across Ireland with 1GB Ethernet services.

Specifically, the deal will see Level 3 provide its (3)CrossRoads service in Ireland. (3)CrossRoads is an internet protocol (IP) service that includes 1GB Ethernet options and covers a range of interface types and access locations. As part of the same deal Level 3 will provide NTL with 2.5GB ports in Manchester and 10GB ports in London.

“We have now significantly enhanced the resilience of our internet access services by providing more localised points for the collection of regional IP traffic” said Steve Upton, managing director of NTL’s networks division. “Level 3 has demonstrated its continued strong commitment to customers by investing in its backbone and we are delighted to be working with them on this important initiative.”

Earlier this week, Level 3’s entered into Ireland’s fibre communications market that was enabled by its acquisition of virtual private network (VPN) carrier Genuity, which established offices in Dublin in 2000. Genuity was acquired by Level 3 for US$242m after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US. Level 3’s international fibre-optic network spans 23,000 route miles and serves 21 of the largest markets in Europe, as well as 77 markets across North America. Level 3 also has network capacity on high-speed transatlantic cable systems.

“With more than three million customers throughout Ireland and the UK, NTL has clearly established itself as a leading provider of broadband services,” said Brady Rafuse, president of Level 3's European operations.

“We believe NTL’s ability to deliver high-quality voice(!), video and internet access over a single network connection offers a powerful value proposition to both businesses and consumers, evidenced by IP traffic growth over its network and need to upgrade capacity with Level 3,” he added.

By John Kennedy

Lenny

Ahh I got the letter today..
gave them a call, they said they will pay for every cost to get me back onto another provider....
I don't actualy think the girl on the phone understood what I ment.. but we'll see what happens

Ave

Got a phonecall today too, no letter yet.

The_B_Man

im in kilnamanagh and we were told a while back. me da told me that two houses went on fire coz of the NTL equipment.
pity bout the phones goin. no more free dial up for me.

carrotcake

The_B_Man wrote:

im in kilnamanagh and we were told a while back. me da told me that two houses went on fire coz of the NTL equipment.
pity bout the phones goin. no more free dial up for me.

2 houses goin on fire? uh-oh. we've got a pretty hefty box up in the attic with the internet and 2 phone cables coming out of it. so since we're supposed to 'disconnect ntl equipment', if we are to disconnect the box then our internet connection is lost as well!

ScorpioXdi

What I'd be interested in is what do they use on their UK network for the telephony service, and what's so different about it that they can't use similar consumer units as replacements here?

Lenny

I think the fault is in the box that about 1foot x 1foot, and you plug it in.. thats the danger equipment.
over in uk they don't have these bozxes in their houses because they already have decent lines afaik and didn't need to go around cleaning up another telecoms lazyness mess

illumin

So what phone company would anyone reccomend switching over to now?

Blaster99

Those boxes have nothing to do with the quality of the network. They basically convert the phone calls to digital radio over the cable.

Lenny

illumin wrote:

So what phone company would anyone reccomend switching over to now?

I think its bakc to eircom anyways..
because I have to get the house re-wired... and this is gona be misrable

eircomtribunal

sjones wrote:

It will be very interesting to see what the saftey issue is.

Overheating of the power supply.

P.

spanner_head

Hope its ok to post up this article in today Irish Times.
I still haven't heard anything from NTL about it. Great customer service ;-)

We maybe be able to some money back.......

NTL may pay customers' phone fees
By Jamie Smyth, Technology Reporter *
*
*NTL Ireland could face a bill of more than €50,000 following its decision to stop offering customers a direct telephone service to their homes.
The cable firm, which provides direct telephone services to 2,000 customers in Tallaght and Rathfarnham, Dublin, said at the weekend that it was stopping its telephone service due to safety concerns with its equipment.
The decision sparked outrage among consumers yesterday, many of whom are now without a telephone service after being told by NTL to unplug their phones.
Reacting to NTL's decision, the Commission for Communication Regulation (ComReg) ordered the telecoms firm to pay the reconnection fees for its consumers to move to alternative operators.
"NTL is required to protect its consumers and the company must must offer an alternative provider without delay and without exposing them to additional costs associated with the transfer," said Mr John Doherty, chairman of ComReg.
Some of NTL Ireland's customers have already asked Eircom for reconnection and have been charged a fee of €24.99 if their homes already have an existing Eircom line.
The reconnection fee for consumers without an existing line is €129. Mr Mark Mohan, NTL Ireland's director of marketing, said the firm had acted as soon as it had been informed of the potential dangers.
He rejected that NTL was ceasing the service for commercial rather than safety reasons.
The cable firm's equipment supplier Tellabs, last night insisted that it did not believe that its telephone product was faulty.
Tellabs makes the cablespan unit which connects to NTL's cable and the telephone to enable them to make and receive calls over the firm's cable network.
It is understood that NTL believes that the cablespan units are faulty and may overheat and cause a fire risk. There have been at least two reported incidents in Ireland since the products were installed in homes from 2000.
In a statement, Tellabs said: "Tellabs rigorously tests all products prior to deployment. We are aware of two isolated incidents that have raised this concern. We do not believe that Tellabs' product is faulty."
A Tellabs spokesman said it had not yet reached a conclusion as to what had caused the overheating and was working with NTL on the matter.
Last year NTL stopped taking orders for another type of telephone service it offered because the service was not profitable.



© The Irish Times

scojones

do you have a link to the finding?

seamus

Moved. Moriarty, do you want to merge the two threads and/or move them to Nets/Comms?

eircomtribunal

sjones wrote:

do you have a link to the finding?

No, but I read it or heard it with the additional information, that this is why customers have been advised to unplug the devices.

P.

Lenny

sjones, check the oter topic about the ntl phone service, someone has posted an article aswell

ScorpioXdi

Lenny wrote:

I think the fault is in the box that about 1foot x 1foot, and you plug it in.. thats the danger equipment.
over in uk they don't have these bozxes in their houses because they already have decent lines afaik and didn't need to go around cleaning up another telecoms lazyness mess

Yeah, that's the box I'm talking about. Do they use the existing BT lines for the UK telephony service? I wonder if ntl have left themselves open to a defamation lawsuit from Tellabs? A quick search hasn't really revealed any public safety recommendations about their equipment, and if the equipment is OK, then the only other variable would be the people who did the installation.

Moriarty

Threads merged and moved over to Nets/Comms.

Lenny

Lad is here taking out the ntl box now,
I thought it would be awhile before they do it.. now I have the long await for eircom to come out and have to reqire the house again and the garden
Yer man is saying a house went on fire and the start of the fire or start of heatsource came from a wall which was around the location of the ntl box was the only known source near it, but he is saying it could have been anything around it, ie old wiring through the house

NeVeR

any idea what part of tallaght is efected?


I'm in tallaght and i didnt hear anything,,

Lenny

A lot of poeple haven't heard anything
Its *everyone* that has the 2 way network phone line installed

NeVeR

i have 2 phone lines,,,, ahh , 1 in my room and 1 down stairs,


I thought there would have been more then 2000 people in tallaght with this.

theres over 100,000 people in tallaght, i know they dont all have NTL but there has to be more then 2000

ScorpioXdi

Just thought I'd post a couple of links to show what a can of worms ntl seem to have opened.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/12/ntl_phone_comreg/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/13/ntl_tellabs/

http://www.tellabs.com/news/2004/nr101204.shtml

Tellabs seem to be fairly adamant that there's no problem with the cablespan boxes, and given the installed user base, and the assumption that they're not covering anything up (which I'm sure they're not - if there was a fire hazard present in the boxes, they would have been hit with class action lawsuits before the flames were out), I'd be inclined to believe them.

seamus

It's a blatant excuse to ditch the telephone business for the time being.

There's no reason to shut down a service because the hardware doesn't work.

Whether they'll try to relaunch in a few years with VOIP is another story. They certainly have the capability.

tck

ScorpioXdi wrote:

Just thought I'd post a couple of links to show what a can of worms ntl seem to have opened.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/12/ntl_phone_comreg/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/13/ntl_tellabs/

http://www.tellabs.com/news/2004/nr101204.shtml

Tellabs seem to be fairly adamant that there's no problem with the cablespan boxes, and given the installed user base, and the assumption that they're not covering anything up (which I'm sure they're not - if there was a fire hazard present in the boxes, they would have been hit with class action lawsuits before the flames were out), I'd be inclined to believe them.

2 cases (of which are in eire) out of 600,000

probably was a bad installation, which someone had mentioned happened quite some time ago, maybe they are doing it for other reasons..

VoIP is cheaper and easier these days.

Ripwave

tck wrote:

probably was a bad installation, which someone had mentioned happened quite some time ago, maybe they are doing it for other reasons.

The apparent lack of joined up thinking on NTLs behalf is scarey. VoIP has the potential to be a significant earner for them. Or it did before they associated the name "NTL telephony" with "house set on fire" in the public mind.

If the problem was that NTL swapped whatever US transformer Telllabs provided with some dodgy POS that overheated, then the sensble thing to have done was to simply replace the powersupplies. At the very least, by sending an engineer to each users house, they could have checked if any of them are overheating.

Ripwave

cableguy wrote:

Ntl don't make any modification to equipment supplied. Tellabs will design equipment to suit the different voltages in the countries they supply. Same as any company that supplies equipment worldwide.

According to Tellabs, IF there was a problem, it was because NTL didn't install the devices properly. And swapping the power supplies because they couldn't get ones from Tellabs with 3 pin plugs is the sort of "not installed properly" situation that seems most likely to me.