NTL to up speeds from Mid-march in UK...

Infini

Found this article on the register relating to the NTL upgrade...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/16/ntl_bt_assault/

I'm not sure if Ireland will get the upgrade but i'll post anymore infomation if I find anything.

MartMax

:eek: yummmyy... 1.5mpbs... becoming 3mpbs.... so much speed... :eek:

Gone West

oh i know its double, but still 3mbit is hardly newsworthy, is it?

Drapper

I doubt it when they are up for sale !!

Infini

FuzzyLogic wrote:

oh i know its double, but still 3mbit is hardly newsworthy, is it?

Well considering that eircom is dragging it's ass on LLU and is keeping Ireland in the broadband stoneage, somebody offering 3mb/s download and 512kb/s upload in this country would be news.

Drapper

Infini wrote:

Well considering that eircom is dragging it's ass on LLU and is keeping Ireland in the broadband stoneage, somebody offering 3mb/s download and 512kb/s upload in this country would be news.

I'll put €50 on them not upping the load !

Infini

Drapper wrote:

I'll put €50 on them not upping the load !

I've heard that the last time they did an upgrade of the network that Ireland was done at the same time. As far as I know NTL ireland is part of the whole NTL system including the UK so dont give up hope yet.

Sponge Bob

Eircom are due an announcement (ADSL2 ) in the next fortnight so don't think NTL couldn't spoil that a day or two beforehand. NTL are (possibly) really up against Smart in the big cities and are about to launch Galway and Waterford in the next fortnight as well. I'd expect a smack in the gob for Eircom and Smart in the one announcement .....soon.

They should also bribe DeVore wth some banners about a week before all this as he has caught them pimping and fairs fair .

Therefore! Expect NTL banners as a precursor to an announcement .

Raskolnikov

Sponge Bob wrote:

Eircom are due an announcement (ADSL2 ) in the next fortnight so don't think NTL couldn't spoil that a day or two beforehand. NTL are (possibly) really up against Smart in the big cities and are about to launch Galway and Waterford in the next fortnight as well. I'd expect a smack in the gob for Eircom and Smart in the one announcement .....soon.

They should also bribe DeVore wth some banners about a week before all this as he has caught them pimping and fairs fair .

Therefore! Expect NTL banners as a precursor to an announcement .

*gasp*

Could this mean that we might actually see some . . . . . . . . competition? Wow, that would be something.

Creamy Goodness

spongebob, how do you know about these "annoucements"?

Sponge Bob

Cremo wrote:

spongebob, how do you know about these "annoucements"?

They have been well flagged .

ESAT are mailing persons who ask about Smart announcing that an 'announcement' will be made in the next few weeks, thats after an Eircom announcement of course . UTV , Digiweb and Netsource will also make an 'announcement'

NTL will time their announcement for maximum impact, they are not fools. 3Mbits at the 1.5Mbit price would be a maximum impact, non ?

The geezers in the NTL vans in Galway have been quite forthcoming about their activities .

None of these will impact on a Dungarvan person where 9Mbits is the norm

Creamy Goodness

yeh ntl better come to bray soon, i'm trying to hold off for a decent broadband deal

Infini

Raskolnikov wrote:

*gasp*

Could this mean that we might actually see some . . . . . . . . competition? Wow, that would be something.

Oh thank merciful God if its true!

kin9pin

Apparently (from www.ntlhell.co.uk) upload speed for the 3Mb will be a measly 300kbps, increased from the current 256.
There is also talk that they will be scrapping the proposed 40GB cap for the 3Mb line in favour of............ a daily allowance. I don't know if this will be 1GB or whatever, but apart from the speed it will actually be more restrictive than the 1.5Mb line

Infini

Well they haven't enforced any kind of download cap here so far, so what's to say they'll start enforcing it now. In anycase there hasn't been any finalised plans yet so lets hope they don't bring in a stupid daily allowance. Also that article on ntlhell says that they wont be monitoring them til later in the year.

kin9pin

For those that can't be bothered to read the ntlhell thread. This seems to be from an internal memo in NTL:

This is all the info the Tech department has been given hope this helps.

p.s. the 56k downgrade for going over the cap is rubbish

What is the activity or change?

 All new customers will be offered the three new speeds from mid March
 Current 750K and 1.5Mb customers will be automatically upgraded to the new 2Mb and 3Mb tiers of service at no extra cost (excl. 750K Pace STB customers)
 300K & 750K Pace STB customers can upgrade to new services at no extra cost
 No active marketing of new services to these customers, but those who call will be able to arrange a free upgrade

How much will the new services cost?

 1Mb - £17.99 (3GB monthly usage allowance)
 2Mb - £24.99 (1GB daily usage allowance)
 3Mb - £37.99 (1GB daily usage allowance)

Prices are highly competitive and in line with our existing price points.

How will we compare to the competition?

 From mid March ntl match or beat ALL BT Broadband products on price, speed & usage allowance
 We have free email, security & personal webspace as standard (only available on the BT Yahoo!)
 Our speed upgrades will ensure we keep a speed advantage over AOL:






 Our new 3Mb Broadband service will be up to 60 times faster than dial-up services. Competitors including BT and Wanadoo do not offer a service at the 2Mb or 3Mb speeds

What are the Features and Benefits?
 An enhanced broadband experience – faster music downloads, faster emailing of digital pictures and an instant delivery of high quality digital video performance
 All customers on these speeds benefit from access to Broadband Plus for £3.99/m

When can we sell these speeds to our customers?
 These speeds will be available for Acquisition from mid March 2005.

How will we be communicating this to our customers?
 We will be using this messaging on acquisition pieces mid March 2005
 We will not be actively marketing this to existing 300K & 750K Pace STB customers – however they can upgrade to the new speeds at no extra cost

Q and As

Q. Can existing customers upgrade to the new speeds?
Yes. Existing 300K & 750K Pace STB customers can upgrade to the new acquisition offers at no extra cost.

Q. Can existing customers upgrade to the new speeds and then move back to an old speed?
No. Once a customer has upgraded to a new offer they cannot move back to an old speed. (i.e. 300K, 750K or 1.5Mb services)

Q. Can existing customers transfer between the old speeds?
No. Existing customers cannot upgrade or downgrade between old speeds.
 No movement between 300K, 750K, or 1.5Mb
 Alternatively, the customer can upgrade to a new speed (1Mb, 2Mb or 3Mb)
 Any further tier migration should only be a re-grade between 1Mb, 2Mb or 3Mb

Q. Will there be usage allowances on the new services?
Yes, this is standard across the broadband sector.

 1Mb - £17.99 – 3GB per month
 2Mb - £24.99 – 1GB per day
 3Mb - £37.99 – 1GB per day

Q. What will we do if a customer reaches their usage allowance?
We will not be checking usage allowances until later this year. We will get in touch with customers directly when we start to check their usage - information and alternative options will be provided to customers when usage allowances are exceeded. In the meantime we will continue to run campaigns with heavy users.

Q. What are the upstream speeds for the new services?
 1Mb - 100K upstream
 2Mb - 200K upstream
 3Mb - 300K upstream

Q. Why are 750K Pace STB customers not included in the automatic upgrade?
Unfortunately technical issues prevent us from offering the automatic 2Mb speed upgrade for 750K Pace STB customers. The Pace STB is not capable of supporting download speeds over 1Mb. Therefore, we need to arrange for a technician to visit the customers house and swap the Pace STB for a Samsung STB. All customers that call ntl can receive a free upgrade once the STB has been exchanged.


That 1GB a day doesn't seem too good. Probably more worthwhile to "downgrade" to the 2MB with the same cap!

thebigdude

Sponge Bob wrote:

Eircom are due an announcement (ADSL2 ) in the next fortnight so don't think NTL couldn't spoil that a day or two beforehand. NTL are (possibly) really up against Smart in the big cities and are about to launch Galway and Waterford in the next fortnight as well. I'd expect a smack in the gob for Eircom and Smart in the one announcement .....soon.

They should also bribe DeVore wth some banners about a week before all this as he has caught them pimping and fairs fair .

Therefore! Expect NTL banners as a precursor to an announcement .

Sponge Bob, it's really not fair that you're bringing people's hopes up when you know VERY WELL eircon aren't going to upgrade anytime soon. I happen to know this because I SPOKE TO A TECHNICIAN and he said ADSL2 is MONTHS AWAY. They did acknowledge ADSL2 is in the works, but as i said, it'll be a looong time before they announce it and an even longer time before it's available in more than a couple of exchanges.

I want faster speeds more than all of ye and was pissed Smart decided to skip on my exchange... NTL has always been retarded by still not covering the city centre (i live 500 metres from St. Stephens green)... but EVERYONE knows that if you can't count on anyone, it's eircon.

This isn't the first time you make this announcement about eircon offering ADSL2 in a "fortnight"... I was the first to announce Smart would offer 2mbps a month later back in January and they announced it *a month later*. Try to get your facts straight too...

Sponge Bob

thebigdude wrote:

Sponge Bob, it's really not fair that you're bringing people's hopes up when you know VERY WELL eircon aren't going to upgrade anytime soon.

Eirccom will not OFFER anythng in a fortnight . I said they would ANNOUNCE stuff in a fortnight . Thats unless they are appealing Comreg Retail Minus Bitstream Pricing and Wholesale pricing pre approval as well as LLU and as well as foot dragging on VoIP and God knows what they will do when the Narrowband Access Consultation is publshed pretty damn soon and maybe with a definition of Functional Internet Access in it.

Into that Broth goes an ANNOUNCEMENT

It will be on OFFER as you put it some 21 days after it appears here

http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/pending.pdf

AND

http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/regulatory/

I trust thats clear.

thebigdude

Sponge Bob wrote:

Eirccom will not OFFER anythng in a fortnight . I said they would ANNOUNCE stuff in a fortnight . Thats unless they are appealing Comreg Retail Minus Bitstream Pricing and Wholesale pricing pre approval as well as LLU and as well as foot dragging on VoIP and God knows what they will do when the Narrowband Access Consultation is publshed pretty damn soon and maybe with a definition of Functional Internet Access in it.

Into that Broth goes an ANNOUNCEMENT

It will be on OFFER as you put it some 21 days after it appears here

http://www.eircom.ie/About/Activities/pending.pdf

AND

http://www.eircomwholesale.ie/regulatory/

I trust thats clear.

Well, maybe you can explain this post you made 1 month ago when your username was "alkjdflkajf": http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=220934&highlight=ADSL2 where you said

The launch may be held over until Eircom make an expected series of announcements in the next 2 weeks (about new rollouts towns and possibly ADSL2)

Ok, so it's been a month and no one but smart made announcements... hmmm... looks like another month will go by, and another, and another, and the only one who'll be making "announcements" is you...

Sorry if i sound skeptical/pissed, but an "NTL geezer" technician surely doesn't know exactly when eircon will be announcing ADSL2... hell the geezer doesn't even know when his own company will cover dublin city centre yet.

Moriarty

Uhrm, eircom made an announcement about a week ago stating their intent to upgrade ~180 more exchanges for DSL by this time next year. That's a fairly substantial announcement in my books.

thebigdude

Moriarty wrote:

Uhrm, eircom made an announcement about a week ago stating their intent to upgrade ~180 more exchanges for DSL by this time next year. That's a fairly substantial announcement in my books.

That announcement just proves my point - it will be many many months before they *actually* upgrade those exchanges which don't even have DSL yet... so when will they *actually* upgrade to ADSL2? I don't know if those new exchanges are being upgraded to ADSL2 directly to allow for the extra distance... would be nice to confirm that if someone could... then it will be the same story all over again... the "Dungarvan" towns will get true broadband, while us city folk will be left waiting... who knows for how long...

To be fair, i do believe that if Comreg is pressured by other telcos, then they might, probably, maybe, somehow, find it necessary to whisper that fact to eircon which might, probably, maybe, somehow, make ADSL2 this year a reality.

It all depends on whether they actually have any competition. They might make an announcement if Smart actually have physical 2mbps broadband residential customers. But we all heard that eircon will try to delay the LLU process so even Smart will have to push things back, which will piss a whole lot more people....

Moriarty

You know that upgrading the dslam for adsl2 is effectively just a firmware upgrade, right? There's no need for them to go around digging up the country to do this.

Blaster99

And if Smart's offering is the benchmark, they obviously don't need ADSL2+ to match it or even exceed it.

thebigdude

Moriarty wrote:

You know that upgrading the dslam for adsl2 is effectively just a firmware upgrade, right? There's no need for them to go around digging up the country to do this.

Didn't know that... thought they had to install new equipment in every exchange... by firmware, do you mean software? If it was that simple, why not do it from the start? Even if eircon didn't want to offer higher speeds, at least they would've been able to reach more customers... but maybe they benefit somehow by delaying things as they did....

Moriarty

Yeah, it's a software upgrade. Eircom are having to be dragged kicking and screaming into providing broadband. Once they've exchausted their last battle in providing it, you'll see a sudden change of attitude where they'll start agressively fighting for customers while continuing to try to disrupt LLU and keep pricing high.

Infini

thebigdude wrote:

Even if eircon didn't want to offer higher speeds, at least they would've been able to reach more customers... but maybe they benefit somehow by delaying things as they did....

I don't see how they would though. As it stands the longer they hold things up the more likely the competition like smart will introduce offers that'll run rings around eircom and cause them to lose a significant amount of customers. If NTL do upgrade the speeds in Ireland as well then that would put them pretty much at the top of the list for speed, and with smart introducing a 2MB offer on their package, that would be more than enough of a reason for those on Eircom's package to give them the two fingers and jump ship. Eircom should just stop shooting themselves in the foot and start providing a real service otherwise this will come back and royally bite them in the ass later on.

Sponge Bob

<Sigh>

The launch may be held over until Eircom make an expected series of announcements in the next 2 weeks (about new rollouts towns and possibly ADSL2) .

We got the First of the SERIES within 2 weeks, as predicted, namely the further 180 odd rollout towns .

Lots of announcements are due from ISPs Eircom, Smart NTL (maybe Chorus ) and Comreg and must be viewed as a whole. The BB situation is currently extremely fluid by Irish standards after many years of falling behind the global market and the global regulatory environment .

The Narrowband Market Review from Comreg could send Eircom into a Glacial Sulk and stop them from making any more announcements for months, who knows.

Also DO remember that each Telco has good visibility of the other media spends.

If Smart are due to stop their (currently) very extensive advertising on the 2nd of March then it would be wise for a competitor to time a media campaign and an announcment for the 3rd of March . I do not have that kind of info but you may be sure that ISPs Eircom, Smart NTL Chorus do have it and will plan accordingly as they are sizeable media buyers .

I hope that explains matters to your satisfaction .

Jorinn

thebigdude wrote:

Sponge Bob, it's really not fair that you're bringing people's hopes up when you know VERY WELL eircon aren't going to upgrade anytime soon. I happen to know this because I SPOKE TO A TECHNICIAN and he said ADSL2 is MONTHS AWAY. They did acknowledge ADSL2 is in the works, but as i said, it'll be a looong time before they announce it and an even longer time before it's available in more than a couple of exchanges.

That means nothing tbh to anyone within currently able to get DSL. Current tech installed can provide up to 8Mbit/s. ADSL2 is only relevent from eircom's point in regards to extending the range, unless they got their finger out and decided to give us speeds of over 8Mbit/s but I think we all know they're not the nicest people about.

Jorinn

Also the fact that the current promotions end next month means their's probably more coming. Below is from an eircom wholesale pdf.

Change Matrix for Wholesale Bitstream Services Price List Version 1.9
Price List
Section
Change
1.8
Revised Bitstream Price Promotion end date to 31st March 2005.