Metropol

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4749987.stm

Some excerpts from the article:

Cable firm NTL has upped the basic speeds of its broadband offering to 10Mbps.

Subscribers will get a standard minimum 10Mbps connection speed, without paying extra. NTL said it was a "major step" for the UK's digital future."

The higher speeds will be rolled out fully to 3Mbps customers by the end of this year, and the rest of its 1.4 million customer next year.

NTL also said that usage allowances would go up from 30GB to 75GB a month.

This sounds good. I love the idea of high-bandwidth video content on websites. Perhaps a Metropol video show?

Don't like the usage allowances. Are they really necessary?

More the the point, I am with Telewest. Were those two companies going to merge, or did I imagine that?

I don't what the deal with NTL is.

The Cardiff NTL centre is less than a mile from me, but I cannot get cable!

I live on a new development in the bay, so you'd think that they'd have put down their cables when this place was being built in 2003!

My mate who lives in an old Victorian house on the other side of the city, can get all NTL cable services. Strange!

I'm not even allowed to put up a Sky dish on my place, and there isn't even a communal dish! gutted.

Sorry to wonder off topic slightly

Just been looking around for cheaper broadband connection and see that http://www.freedom2surf.net/adsl/homeuser.php are offering up to 8 mbits for as little as £14.99 a month. All exchanges are due to be upgraded to this by the end of the year apparently. Some good feedback around for them too.

Time to say goodbye to my 2MB, £33 Pipex connection I think.

And Gav, yes, I did hear NTL and Telewest are supposed to be merging.

Gavin Scott wrote:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4749987.stm

Some excerpts from the article:

Cable firm NTL has upped the basic speeds of its broadband offering to 10Mbps.

Subscribers will get a standard minimum 10Mbps connection speed, without paying extra. NTL said it was a "major step" for the UK's digital future."

The higher speeds will be rolled out fully to 3Mbps customers by the end of this year, and the rest of its 1.4 million customer next year.

NTL also said that usage allowances would go up from 30GB to 75GB a month.

This sounds good. I love the idea of high-bandwidth video content on websites. Perhaps a Metropol video show?

Don't like the usage allowances. Are they really necessary?

More the the point, I am with Telewest. Were those two companies going to merge, or did I imagine that?

I am on Telewest too, I would like that upgrade!
I don't really need it but it would be handy.

Yes, they are merging in the near future.

Jamez wrote:I don't what the deal with NTL is.

The Cardiff NTL centre is less than a mile from me, but I cannot get cable!

I live on a new development in the bay, so you'd think that they'd have put down their cables when this place was being built in 2003!

My mate who lives in an old Victorian house on the other side of the city, can get all NTL cable services. Strange!

I'm not even allowed to put up a Sky dish on my place, and there isn't even a communal dish! gutted.

It's quite simple.. if NTL don't have a cable near you (on your street) you can't access them It's prob not NTL fault, local councils are great at stopping them digging.

fusionlad wrote:And Gav, yes, I did hear NTL and Telewest are supposed to be merging.

Last I heard it should be before the end of this year, they've started to prepare for it, as TW are selling Flextech, estimated at around £800 Million.

Jamez wrote:I don't what the deal with NTL is.

The Cardiff NTL centre is less than a mile from me, but I cannot get cable!

I live on a new development in the bay, so you'd think that they'd have put down their cables when this place was being built in 2003!

My mate who lives in an old Victorian house on the other side of the city, can get all NTL cable services. Strange!

I'm not even allowed to put up a Sky dish on my place, and there isn't even a communal dish! gutted.

That's because: -

a) the council refused planning permission to lay the cables and/or
b) NTL ran out cash or were in severe debt with the contractor (hence the fact that services for continuing laying the cables were withdrawn because they felt that NTL were unable to pay the debt)
c) NTL never had any plans to cable that area in the first place.

Don't like the usage allowances. Are they really necessary?

Well, I hate the term "usage allowance". The term sounds like some kind of bullshit dreamt up by the people in the marketing dept. Cap or limit would sound better IMO but I doubt if it'd help to sell it as it sounda a little "harsh" to the tongue.

Chris wrote:

Jamez wrote:I don't what the deal with NTL is.

The Cardiff NTL centre is less than a mile from me, but I cannot get cable!

I live on a new development in the bay, so you'd think that they'd have put down their cables when this place was being built in 2003!

My mate who lives in an old Victorian house on the other side of the city, can get all NTL cable services. Strange!

I'm not even allowed to put up a Sky dish on my place, and there isn't even a communal dish! gutted.

That's because: -

a) the council refused planning permission to lay the cables and/or
b) NTL ran out cash or were in severe debt with the contractor (hence the fact that services for continuing laying the cables were withdrawn because they felt that NTL were unable to pay the debt)
c) NTL never had any plans to cable that area in the first place.

Don't like the usage allowances. Are they really necessary?

Well, I hate the term "usage allowance". The term sounds like some kind of bullshit dreamt up by the people in the marketing dept. Cap or limit would sound better IMO but I doubt if it'd help to sell it as it sounda a little "harsh" to the tongue.

I regularly flout the NTL "usage limit" and have never had any problems. I do by just downloading a bit every month. It's easy to hit 15Gb just by browsing and downloading the odd app here and there. It surprised me when I monitored.

I must say, NTL have been good to us - very few problems (especially with the infamous billing) and the bloke who installed broadband for us (when they finally sold it standalone so we didn't have to take tv/phoneline too) was very helpful.

Never been truly disappointed since the inital downstream problems were sorted over 3 years ago. Never looked back.

What's currently the best ADSL (down your telephone line) broadband to get right now?

I want at least 1Mbit, and a monthly fee of no more than £20-25!

Jamez wrote:What's currently the best ADSL (down your telephone line) broadband to get right now?

I want at least 1Mbit, and a monthly fee of no more than £20-25!

PlusNet...
2meg Broadband Premier, no Cap, £21.99/month.
2meg Broadband Plus, no Cap but Traffic Shaped for P2P, £14.99/month.
2meg Broadband PayG, 1GB usage, you can buy more, £14.99/month.

WARNING: DO NOT SELECT 8MEG BROADBAND PREMIER (it's not available, but they will still charge you to queue).

Customer Service is the best you can get, the pricing isn't bad either. I'm on Broadband Plus - I don't really use P2P/Bittorrent much.

http://www.plus.net

Fireboy wrote:

Jamez wrote:What's currently the best ADSL (down your telephone line) broadband to get right now?

I want at least 1Mbit, and a monthly fee of no more than £20-25!

PlusNet...
2meg Broadband Premier, no Cap, £21.99/month.
2meg Broadband Plus, no Cap but Traffic Shaped for P2P, £14.99/month.
2meg Broadband PayG, 1GB usage, you can buy more, £14.99/month.

WARNING: DO NOT SELECT 8MEG BROADBAND PREMIER (it's not available, but they will still charge you to queue).

Customer Service is the best you can get, the pricing isn't bad either. I'm on Broadband Plus - I don't really use P2P/Bittorrent much.

http://www.plus.net

If I placed an order tomorrow, how long before my modem arrives and I'm up and running?

I've just had a brand new BT line installed, and my dial-up speed is currently 48.5kbps! This same computer hooked up to my mums antiquated telephone line only gets 26.0kbps!

I'm living around a mile from my exchange which is called Cardiff Empire, and living a stones throw from some big companies and the Assembly buildings, the exchange should be able to deliver me top notch broadband. I hope!