NTL speed increase news?

robbie1876

Does anyone have any definite word yet on an increase in NTL speeds? The closest thing I've had to confirmation is in the response to the mail to NTL asking if we will be upgraded. They replied, in perfect Queen's English:

*****
Dear Robbie,

Thank you for your email. Recently ntl increase there speeds and the maximum speed is now 1500kbps. Their is no further information available at this time regarding further increases in speed.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 1800 321 321 or once again e-mail us on customer.support@ntl.ie

Kind regards,

Ann Rogers,
NTL Customer Support
*****

Any thoughts on this? I'm still running at 750Kbps today anyway, so no speed increase here in Dublin 8.

Robbie

seamus

They're going to have to make some response to the DSL speed increases. They may not want to make any changes before selling, but the potential to lose a huge chunk of customers is sure to cause some devaluing of the sale price that they're going for.

Even a simple doubling of speeds would ensure they retain their "best value" title.

Pharcyde

I just rang them to ask; I'm on the 1.5mb line - I was told quite bluntly, by the salesperson, btw, that there are no plans to do anything as yet; however "they could announce something next week, as we are always the last to know!"

Why doesn't someone ring up as an interested customer considering all available options on the market and ask why should they sign up with NTL for a higher price and a slower connection; see what they say!?

dub45

Pharcyde wrote:

I just rang them to ask; I'm on the 1.5mb line - I was told quite bluntly, by the salesperson, btw, that there are no plans to do anything as yet; however "they could announce something next week, as we are always the last to know!"

Why doesn't someone ring up as an interested customer considering all available options on the market and ask why should they sign up with NTL for a higher price and a slower connection; see what they say!?

Because as the CSR person said they are most unlikely to know! And given the likely sale shortly there is proably nobody prepared to make any signficant decision at the moment.

Drapper

I think they should make a move or risk loosing thier biz...........

NTL have had been warned ................. everyone should e-mail the number given. customer.support@ntl.ie

put done in the thread to says you sent a mail....... ;-)

Drapper

http://www.rte.ie/business/2005/0315/ntl.html

Cable television operator NTL Ireland recorded revenue of £19.3m (€27.7m) in the final quarter of 2004, up 3.2% on the same period last year.

NTL's parent company is currently considering offers for the Irish business, with Chorus owner UGC said to be among the bidders.

A statement from the parent company NTL said the rise was due mainly to greater take-up of digital television services and higher prices.
Click here to find out more!

Customer numbers rose by 4,100 to 347,800, while the company now has 76,200 digital television and 7,500 broadband customers. The company no longer breaks down its Irish profits figure.

Parent company NTL said its 2004 revenues grew by 5.7% to £2 billion. Net losses were reduced from £583.7m in 2003 to £484.2m.

oceanclub

Mail I got:

Eircom announced today they will move all current 512Kbps broadband
customers to 1Mbps for free. Can you tell me if NTL are planning any
similar upgrades to match that offer? I know for example that NTL UK are
planning to move all 764Kbps customers to 2Mbps?

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your email. At the moment there are no plans to upgrade the Cable Modem Speeds like that of Ntl UK, however our Marketing Department are continuously working on all different avenues regarding the Cable Modem Service and ways to bring more services to our customers.

Should there be a change to the Cable Modem Service we will notify all customers immediately of this.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 1800 321 321 or once again e-mail us on customer.support@ntl.ie

Kind regards

Nicola Reid,
NTL Customer Support

Sponge Bob

Lots of NTL customers have no phone line.

Therefore line rental €24 a month and 2mbit from Eircom €55 a month or €79 a month the lot.

Its hardly worth the cost is it unless Smart show up in the hood big time . ?

seamus

oceanclub wrote:

Mail I got:
....

That's a little more upbeat than previous ones, but that could be down to the CSR.
TBH, knowing service companies like I do, the CSRs and salespeople will be the last to know. If NTL announce a speed increase on Monday morning, its staff will probably only hear about it when they come into work.

Infini

seamus wrote:

TBH, knowing service companies like I do, the CSRs and salespeople will be the last to know. If NTL announce a speed increase on Monday morning, its staff will probably only hear about it when they come into work.

Thats true. I heard the same thing from the CSR myself when I contacted them before. I doubt NTL will sit around on this with the vast majority of customers now getting upgraded on the DSL packages. Hopefully the sale will be completed quickly and whoever gains control of the company here will increase the speeds in short order, but if they don't do anything then I'll probably consider changing ISP when my contract ends in November.

capistrano

In the past NTL Broadband speeds in Ireland followed those in the UK. NTL UK increased their three speeds from 350k, 750k and 1.5M to 1M, 2M and 3M on March 8. See here.

Now that they're selling up I guess this link has changed. But I agree with some other comments here that they will be forced by competitive pressures to improve their offering here.

All together now: God bless Smart Telecom!

Infini

capistrano wrote:

All together now: God bless Smart Telecom!

You've got that right. Hope they enable the cabra exchange!

causal

...however our Marketing Department are continuously working on all different avenues regarding the Cable Modem Service and ways to bring more services to our customers...

Shouldn't that be the Technical Department :rolleyes:

causal

jimmycrackcorm

causal wrote:

Shouldn't that be the Technical Department :rolleyes:

causal

As consumers we buy what is presented by marketing. Do you buy yellow pack cornflakes or kellogs?

causal

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

As consumers we buy what is presented by marketing. Do you buy yellow pack cornflakes or kellogs?

Speak for yourself automatonic lemming
As it happens I buy neither product you mention.

I, and I wager most all people on this particular list, look beyond marketing piffle and focus in on technical facts.

imho marketing piffle is often like the cheap plastic packaging put around a product - it distorts the customers view of the product and it just gets in the way.

NTLs marketing department should be focussing on one of the cornerstones of marketing - i.e. market research - they should be finding out what we, the customers, want. If they're not doing this then they're not a marketing department at all - they're a sales department - BIG difference.

causal

jesus_thats_gre

causal wrote:

Shouldn't that be the Technical Department :rolleyes:

causal

The marketing department determine the service offerings that fall into the technical constraints of the companies network.. So the marketing department work out the costs of releasing an upgraded product and the technical department implement what they say..

causal

capistrano wrote:

NTL UK increased their three speeds from 350k, 750k and 1.5M to 1M, 2M and 3M on March 8.

But I agree with some other comments here that they will be forced by competitive pressures to improve their offering here.

Absolutely. And they better get the increases right or they'll haemorrage customers, especially to Smart.
Even if they copy the ntl-uk increases they'll still only match (bar the top 3Mb product) the eircon + resellers offerings at 1Mb and 2Mb.
If that's all they do then I'll be tempted to switch to Smart and cancel ntl altogether, including their tv package.

NTL have a golden opportunity to stand out from the others, they're not limited by eircom or DSL technology, so their product offerings should reflect this fact. Their products shouldn't simply mimic dsl offerings - they should stand out.

Is there any cogent technical reason why they can't offer as a minimum:
1Mbps/256kbps - 2Mbps/512kbps - 3Mbps/512kbps

As I understand it enabling this is a software issue - no hardware - so minimal cost.

causal

dub45

causal wrote:

Absolutely. And they better get the increases right or they'll haemorrage customers, especially to Smart.
.............................

NTL have a golden opportunity to stand out from the others, they're not limited by eircom or DSL technology, so their product offerings should reflect this fact. Their products shouldn't simply mimic dsl offerings - they should stand out.

......................

causal

Maybe I am very wrong on this but boards users by and large are not typical bb users. It seems to me that the average bb user wants a fairly fast speed and is not too worried about uploads or caps. The companies (especially their marketing depts) know this. Most users (not your typical boards user) would see very little difference between the NTL and Smart product - apart from the line rental aspect so I dont really believe that Smart is a threat to NTL as it stands now at least from a speed consideration. I know a few people who have NTL bb and none of them know what speed they are on!. And as for mentioning cap to them......

Factor in that NTL will be trying to disengage from Ireland so comparisons with the UK offering are rapidly becoming irrelevant plus NTL management here in Ireland are probably reluctant to make any significant decision until the sale of the Company goes through and the strategy of the new owner emerges.

It seems to me that over the past few weeks there has been a distinct falling off of new areas being enabled by NTL at least if boards is any indicator. When was the last time someone posted that their area had just got NTL bb?

jimmycrackcorm

causal wrote:

Speak for yourself automatonic lemming
As it happens I buy neither product you mention.

I, and I wager most all people on this particular list, look beyond marketing piffle and focus in on technical facts.

causal

Ok I see you're an All-Bran person. :rolleyes:

Wager away - but the horses are more interesting.
Maybe so for this list but I know so many ordinary joes that chose eircom over utv or esat - and nothing to do with latency etc - just pure marketing.

As for research what BB users want - just have a read again of the smart BB thread and you'll see they wat everything - some want latency some want 1024/256 over 2048/128, some want unlimited utopian 24hr a day haven't got a life - have to go to the toilet at my computer desk downloading. some whinge for fixed definite 30 gb caps instead of the posibility of their isp complaining if they go over 100gb.

Why can't we just get along? :eek:

diarmo

I was just wondering as we are talking about possible NTL speed increases...what is the maximum possible speed download/upload of cable???

! dwarfchucka

quote from click

(Relevant to the UK I know but don't see why they can't contemplate it over here.) 100 Mbps for christs sake. If this ever happens in ireland the present thread will be laughed at!!!



"The UK's only other cable operator is due to announce its own upgrades within the next few weeks.

It will see them offer a 3Mbps service for £37.99 and a 2Mbps service for £24.99.

It is understood that the two new services will have a 45 gigabyte and 30 gigabyte usage allowance.

NTL is preparing to launch super super-fast broadband, with speeds of up to 100Mbps.

Keith Monserrat, NTL's director of policy has recently been quoted as saying that is would be "relatively easy" to offer such speeds on its fibre-based network in the "not too distant future".

Others dispute how the company could do it without an expensive outlay and a lot of road digging.

Andrew Ferguson, a broadband expert and editor of the ADSL Guide, believes some of the talk could be marketing speak on NTL's behalf but believes 2005 could be a make or break year for the cable firm.

If its plans come to fruition it could go head to head with BT he predicts." end of quote.

causal

diarmo wrote:

I was just wondering as we are talking about possible NTL speed increases...what is the maximum possible speed download/upload of cable???

According to here each 6MHz channel "is capable of 30 to 40 megabits per second (Mbps) of total throughput",
and according to here "The coaxial cable used to carry cable television can carry hundreds of megahertz of signals".
According to this
"Coax bandwidth is as much as 860 MHz, so over 120 channels are available."

So 120 channels * 40 Mbps = 4.8Gbps = 600MBps
- caveats - these are the theoretical max figures, and can be increased by using fancier modulation, error correction etc. But you won't be getting any tv signal, and the rest of the cable network would need to be upgraded if eveyone wanted 4.8Gbps through their house coax

From what I can gather coax cable is second only to fibre in terms of bandwidth.
The problem with cable seems to be network related - the network needs to be upgraded to take upstream traffic.
Also it's not very scalable because it lacks switching - everything gets broadcst to everybody. I _presume_ it is switched until towards the local part of the network. If not then our downloads are being broadcast to everyone with ntl


hth,
causal

capistrano

causal wrote:

Also it's not very scalable because it lacks switching - everything gets broadcst to everybody. I _presume_ it is switched until towards the local part of the network. If not then our downloads are being broadcast to everyone with ntl

This is ture, cable data is broadcast to everyone connected from the same local hub. It's effectively a LAN. In fact, in the early days of cable broadband users could see their neigbbours in their network neighbourhood in windows!