Chorus & NTL zones abolished?

c0y0te

Folks,

I read or heard somewhere (can't remember where unfortunately) that from Feb 6th the existing 'operating zones' for Chorus and NTL were being axed.

Effectively this could mean competition in previously monopolised areas / segments. I know that Chorus and NTL have their own issues at present (operatonal and financial).. however this could open the door for a third or fourth vendor to potentially offer cable based broadband in these areas.

Can anyone shed any light on this? It may be a red herring (and if so - apologies).. but I would like some additional information if it exists. Thanks

c0y0te

dahamsta

I'm not sure of the exact date for the removal of the franchise area clauses - I thought it was sometime in the middle of this year - but yes, NTL and Chorus are losing their exclusivity clauses as part of the package that allowed them raise their prices late last year. If you go to the ODTR site, you'll find documents relating to this, and they should have the exact date.

adam

mdf

I think it's the end of March and was a condition of the price increase that was allowed

c0y0te

Any sign of new competition or plans to cross the existing boundaries by NTL / Chorus?

I'm stuck with Chorus at the mo (Malahide) and they are absolutely dismal. It would be nice to have an alternative. Tis a pity NTL are in such dire straits financially at the mo, else there may have been some chance of a cable solution in the near future.

Personally I trialled the always on 24/7 cable offering from cablenet (before Chorus took them over and killed it) for approx 2 years, and it was excellent. Now that I'm back on dial up it's just not acceptable. Can't be arsed with ISDN so its either cable, ASDL or satellite... only question is which one, and when

c0y0te

pete

Originally posted by c0y0te
It would be nice to have an alternative. Tis a pity NTL are in such dire straits financially at the mo, else there may have been some chance of a cable solution in the near future.

I just got off the phone to NTL. I read a post on Net/Comms which hinted at the cable modem service being extended to Blanchardstown, and when i asked NTL they told me that over the next six months they hope to extend the service to "most areas" in dublin.

To be honest, I wouldn't hold out much hope - the only thing that makes me lean towards believing it is that even when i told her where i lived she still went through the sales pitch (512k, always on, no install fee or equipment costs yadda yadda it's on their site). When i asked about timescales she said that was dependent on the engineers....

Make of that what you will.

Maybe someone from IOFFL could contact the NTL PRO and see what's up?

c0y0te

Thanks for the info.

c0y0te

SkepticOne

Originally posted by pete
I just got off the phone to NTL. I read a post on Net/Comms which hinted at the cable modem service being extended to Blanchardstown, and when i asked NTL they told me that over the next six months they hope to extend the service to "most areas" in dublin.

Did you happen to get the name of the person that said this? Sometimes they are willing to give out the first name. It would be usefull in querying them formally. It is probably worth writing to them.

c0y0te

See thread entitled 'NTL Roll cable modem access in Dublin since Monday 4th Feb' for more info.

c0y0te

pete

weellll i'm maintaining a firm "wait & see" policy on this one... but here's something I've been thinking about recently:

Cablelink / NTL have been talking about cable modems in dublin for years now - surely they have had the foresight to ensure that the type of cable and equipment they've installed in new housing developments over the last 3 or 4 years is suitable for 2 way, so that it won't require "upgrading" for these services?

I seem to remember a colleague telling me in 1996 or thereabouts that her husband (who worked for a certain big blue chip computer company) had been in talks with cablelink about v.o.d. / internet services on their network....Or am I mad?

c0y0te

I was on the cablenet trial (cable modem solution from cable management before Chorus bought them and screwed it into the ground)....

The connection was solid, and although the trial was only among about 30 people in the area, all sharing a 512K pipe to the internet, my 128K connection from the house was sufficiently fast and stable enough to run some nice VPNs.

I didn't try any video on demand stuff, but I would expect that with a bigger pipe to the net, and controlled user to bandwidth ratios the v.o.d. solution would be a possibility.

Perhaps someone else can comment (with more techie speak! )...

c0y0te