NTL?

dahamsta

Pray tell, does anyone have NTL's weekend flat-rate service in Cork, or was the call center operator right when she told me they couldn't supply it here? (I tend not to believe call centre staff most of the time, since a good portion of them can't find their own bottoms with both hands.) If it's true, I just have to say well done to the ODTR again for giving out those exclusive licences. Really brainy.

Actually, that's one I'd like to see someone from the ODTR justify...

adam

LegacyUser

unless you can get pipe, they wont take you on,
do they even do cable services in cork

LegacyUser

The weekend deal with NTL is realy just a sweatener to get people to join up to their cable service. Therefore they do not offer it outside their franchise area. I think there is some standard ISP package for people outside.

I think the exclusive licence business pre-dates the odtr and is a carry over from when Telecom owned cablelink. It was this licence that made cablelink so attractive to NTL. If it were not for this, Eircom would not have made so much money in the sale. I don't blame the ODTR for this. What I do blame them for was not obliging the buyer to upgrade the cable to a modern 1980s style cable system. I read that chorus are planning much the same thing in Cork.

I think the country would be better off without both Chorus and NTL. The services they provide could be done much more efficently using digital terestrial TV and satelite. These companies only exist due to their licences.

dahamsta

Hi Skeptic1,

If it were not for this, Eircom would not have made so much money in the sale.

I dunno, I reckon Eircom would have been overpriced no matter what the circumstances. The whole offering was flawed from the off.

I don't blame the ODTR for this. What I do blame them for was not obliging the buyer to upgrade the cable to a modern 1980s style cable system. I read that chorus are planning much the same thing in Cork.

You mean upgrade the network to two-way digital? That's what NTL were supposed to do in Dublin and they backed out, didn't they? I dunno, we were offered to upgrade to digital last year, but I don't think they've come anywhere near my area yet, and they don't have an Internet offering over cable anyway.

Cork Communications / Cork Multichannel / Irish Multichannel / Chorus have never been an innovative company anyway, and there's only one reason for that - their local monopoly status. They have no reason to innovate, simply because they have no competition. Whoever is responsible for that made a serious error in judgement (or received a hefty bribe).

What annoys me the most is that there's very little we can do about it, because it's in effect a state-sanctioned monopoly, which is catered for in the competition rules. That should never have been allowed happen in the first place, and it shouldn't be allowed to continue, because it's obvious to anyone that there is absolutely zero competition or innovation.

I think the country would be better off without both Chorus and NTL. The services they provide could be done much more efficently using digital terestrial TV and satelite. These companies only exist due to their licences.

I can't comment on NTL because I've never dealt with them, but I'll tell you this - the only thing holding me back from switching to Sky is the lack of BBC and UTV. I guarantee that when they become available via satellite - and it's only a matter of time - they're going to find how hard they kicked themselves in the ass. There's a lot of people in Cork absolutely detest Chorus for the way they've treated us over the years.

If it wasn't for the staff, I'd laugh myself to sleep if they went bust.

adam

LegacyUser

NTL are ok, id hate to see them go,
i dont get the impression their out to screw me over half as much as eircom, their the only decent telecom in irelands whos not playing by eircoms rules and abusing their clients,
i found them very responsive, As i said to one eircom pr person, id much rather give ntl £16 a month in a phone bill then you guys £12.

The only reason they are not upgrading to two way is they have to rush to get digital tv up and going by the end of september.

then once they have dont that and their licence is safe they will invest more in a 2 way system,

theres no point in getting half of dublin up with both broadband and digital tv a year from now if companies like eircom have beat you to it by 16 month with adsl,

NTL are the best chance most of us have at afordable high quaily broadband or wide spread 24/7 internet.
who else is going to give us a fair deal

LegacyUser

Have to agree with Skeptic1 when he says

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The weekend deal with NTL is realy just a sweatener to get people to join up to their cable service. Therefore they do not offer it outside their franchise area</font>

I have it and its just a regular dialup deal, no technical reason that i can see why it couldnt be offered in most places. I hope they plan to flog me a sweet internet cable connection soon (already have the standard thingy since the ol' cablelink days)

LegacyUser

I understand Chorus is under great pressure from Sky TV and are going to have a staff reduction (voluntary at first).

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by dahamsta:
Hi Skeptic1,

If it were not for this, Eircom would not have made so much money in the sale.

I dunno, I reckon Eircom would have been overpriced no matter what the circumstances. The whole offering was flawed from the off.
</font>

I think you mean NTL being overpriced. Well, yes. Due to the tech. boom companies paid a premium for a bit of market share even though profits might be far down the line. An even greater premium would be paid for local monopolies. It would still be overpriced, but considerably less for market share in an environment of open competition.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">
I don't blame the ODTR for this. What I do blame them for was not obliging the buyer to upgrade the cable to a modern 1980s style cable system. I read that chorus are planning much the same thing in Cork.
You mean upgrade the network to two-way digital? That's what NTL were supposed to do in Dublin and they backed out, didn't they?
</font>

No. Their obligation was simply to offer digital TV to a certain number of customers within a given timescale. There was no requirement for two-way services such as might compete with Eircom even though this was the reason Eircom and RTE was forced to sell cablelink. This is a great scandal in my opinion. Throughout the whole fiasco the ambiguous term "digital services" was used when describing NTLs obligation. I always assumed this meant two way services. It was only when they halted that I became aware of the Digital TV thing.

Some of NTLs franchise area consists of fairly recently installed cable. While still not two way, it allows digital signals and it is over this cable that they are implementing the Digital TV.

Someone, somewhere, made a big mistake which set back Internet access, if not in the whole country, then certainly in Dublin.

I believe that residental broadband in the US largely came about through competition between telcos and cable companies. In Ireland, things were contrived to prevent this.

I agree with the rest of your post.

LegacyUser

i was realised, those guy aint going to give me digital tv. im in dublin cnetre city so id have one of the older cable systems,
damn them, hwen will they upgrade the rest of us

LegacyUser

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gladiator:
i was realised, those guy aint going to give me digital tv. im in dublin cnetre city so id have one of the older cable systems,
damn them, hwen will they upgrade the rest of us</font>

You might be lucky. With the exception of Tallaght, it was the old areas that were getting the full upgrade first. In the unlikely event that the upgrading starts again, these same areas will likely be chosen. The other areas will already have digital TV and will be of lower priority but they still won't have bi-directional services.

LegacyUser

so what you saying is, because my area is so old and has crap cable, in order to give digital tv they will have to upgrade my area to two way anyway,
sounds good,