Confused of Bromley

Theodoric · 16-07-2003, 19:20

From the Home Page of this forum.

"NTL have yet again shunned their Langley platform digital television customers, and will be offering an Open Golf 'red button interactive' service to Bromley CR3 platform customers only.
The fact that customers receive the same bills, yet one group receives a substandard service, appears to mean nothing to NTL who will be offering Bromley CR3 platform customers the chance to choose between five different video streams, offering different group options, highlights and other choices, as well as an interactive leaderboard and course guide between Thursday July the 17th and Sunday July the 20th."

How can I put this tactfully, without causing those still living in the Outer Darkness to grind their teeth in envy? I'm a Bromley ntl customer and I haven't the faintest idea what all this means! As I'm apparently being offered all these goodies, could anyone tell me exactly what it's all about and give me a link to where they are explained in more detail.

matty4donna · 16-07-2003, 19:26

This site is basically having a bitching session about the fact that ntl's Langley part of the network cannot currently recieve the etv features that the Bromley part can. Even though they know full well that the two networks were built by different cable companies at different times and are actually different formats and the Langley network cannot currently cupport all the features that the Bromly part is offering!

Don't exactly know why they are saying it i think it just because its ntl: as usual and they have got nothing else to bitch about! If ntl: didn't offer any etv they would be bitching about that as well!

A company still in debt that has not long come out of bankruptcy WILL NOT have the money to spend on rebuilding the whole network in 5 minutes its totally unrealistic for the people who run this site to expect them to!

matty4donna · 16-07-2003, 19:33

I aint bitching about anything, it seems this site does not have any room for praise of ntl: and im hear to simply even the odds a bit as they are trying and they have improved massivly!

matty4donna · 16-07-2003, 19:45

Yes of course you do, the post was not "ntl: have made a significant step forward towards their etv service rivalling Sky", no no it was "yet again ntl: are only offering customers on one half of the network etv services, whilst the other half suffers yet pays the same price" - that is just plain stupid as its technological barriers on one half of the network that prevents them from doing so, not that they just dont want to and that they are treating one half of the customers like S**t

**Stuart C** · 16-07-2003, 19:57

Quote:

Originally posted by Andre
When ntl do something constructive, we will post about it.

Surely they already have?

What's best? NTL running a full e-TV service to the parts of the network that can handle it, or NTL running a cut down e-TV service to the whole network?

I personally would go for the former option..

Another thing Andre, what would happen if NTL had applied your reasoning to Broadband availability? No one would have broadband because parts of the country can't recieve it.

matty4donna · 16-07-2003, 19:59

Quote:

Originally posted by scastle
Surely they already have?

What's best? NTL running a full e-TV service to the parts of the network that can handle it, or NTL running a cut down e-TV service to the whole network?

I personally would go for the former option..

Another thing Andre, what would happen if NTL had applied your reasoning to Broadband availability? No one would have broadband because parts of the country can't recieve it.

Exactly

KingPhoenix · 16-07-2003, 20:10

Why does everyone seem to "Gang Up" on Andre???

I actually agree with him, NTL have a network, that they cannot provide services to all people on, why arent those people compensated???

They pay the same bills, to recieve the same services, but dont actually get them...

I have had Sky now for 6 months, and have not had a single problem with it, admittedly my BT line, my ADSL and Sky works out quite a bit more expensive..... but i get SERVICE!!!! I wouldnt of minded keeping my services with NTL if i got treated like a customer, rather than a piece of junk mail...

NTL may have got the technology sorted out on one platform, but why charge the customers that cant use that service the same? theyre not recieving the same service are they???

I dont think NTL deserves praise at all.... they deserver a clap of hands for achieveing what should of been done years ago!

*runs away to put flame retardant suit on"

matty4donna · 16-07-2003, 20:19

Sky don't have a network of cabling that covers 13,700km! So sky don't have to keep that upgraded, only the satellites that they RENT! Also ntl: have aquired an ex-cwc network that is more advanced then their original network.

You say it should have been done years ago yes? Well years ago CWC DID NOT KNOW that ntl: were going to offer them an extortionate price for their network so they were not going to convert their network to be more like ntl's!

A network as big as ntl's requires thousands of engineers and millions of pounds worth of investment just to maintain, never mind the billions it would cost to upgrade it! You have to have a sense of money to realise that!

Yes it would be nice if both halfs of the network were identical, but they are not simple as, you can't change that, i can't change that and ntl: can't change it without money.

I think the fact that they are making progress towards thier etv services is the better thing! Last year we didnt have any etv really, broadband was at Ã‚Â£50 for 1mb and we didnt have CR3. I think ntl: have made massive strides forward but this site only seems to highlight the bad parts of ntl: for some reason!

**Stuart C** · 16-07-2003, 20:30

Quote:

Originally posted by Andre
What 'reasoning' of mine are you referring to?

My Apologies. Misread the article. Still doesn't explain why the site appears to prefer to concentrate on ****ging off NTL for not getting e-TV to the whole network, rather than saying "well done, you got e-TV on part of the network, now, how about the rest of it?".

KingPhoenix · 16-07-2003, 20:37

OK.... you own a hosting company as do i.... lets put it into our own scenario,

I-Web Solutions has 7 Servers spread accross the world, we use our servers to make backups of each other, as well as hosting and gaming servers. If a software patch comes out, because i cant afford to pay one of my staff do i say that only 3 of those servers gets patched? or do i suffer and force a way to patch all 7?

I understand NTL's network is alot bigger, but why dedicate all of their resources to getting 1 half of the network going on etv, rather than spending those resources finding a way to get the entire network running at its fullest potential..... If customers didnt have those services, would it make a difference? if they didnt even know NTL were working on them? then that way they could of enabled etv on the system properly rather than a 'BODGE JOB' and having an entire network of happy customers! EVen if it came 6 - 12 months later......

NTL must have known about the C&W network as soon as they bought it, why didnt they start plans then to intergrate it into there own bromley platform? Oh yeah... cos they didnt give a **** then did they, and now they do and are f**ked because they didnt think about it earlier.

So all those customers paying the same money as someone on the Bromley platform... what do they get as compensation? Why shouldnt they? at the end of the day if they lived somewhere else paying the same money they would recieve the etv service wouldnt they?

Its like caller display isnt available in all areas, if it was included as standard on all telephone packages i bet NTL would have customers going mad because its a service they cant get in there area, yet someone else paying the same price can!!!!

Jeeeeeeeeez some people

SMHarman · 16-07-2003, 20:44

Quote:

Originally posted by KingPhoenix
OK.... you own a hosting company as do i.... lets put it into our own scenario,

I-Web Solutions has 7 Servers spread accross the world, we use our servers to make backups of each other, as well as hosting and gaming servers. If a software patch comes out, because i cant afford to pay one of my staff do i say that only 3 of those servers gets patched? or do i suffer and force a way to patch all 7?

Yes but your starting from the point of having 7 servers on the same software, configuration and network protocols.

Now if 3 were still IBM Token Ring network and the other 4 were IP and you could not afford to replace the first 3 yet they satisfied a large proportion of your customer base what would you do?

KingPhoenix · 16-07-2003, 20:51

Quote:

Originally posted by SMHarman
Yes but your starting from the point of having 7 servers on the same software, configuration and network protocols.

Now if 3 were still IBM Token Ring network and the other 4 were IP and you could not afford to replace the first 3 yet they satisfied a large proportion of your customer base what would you do?

When i got the 7 servers they were running various o/s and i saw it as a priority to better my own network to ensure they were all on the same wavelength, therefore making it easier for my techs to work with.

On the network issue, which machines did i have first? the 3 token ring then added the 4 IP??? if so then the 4 IP would of been converted to token ring as they were purchased.... this is hyperthetically obviously as it is all IP based,

So any machine gets added into my network as it is purchased.... i purchase 1 machine at a time, and integrate it into my network, with its IP its OS etc.......

At the end of the day, i can understand NTL have done a good thing getting this far, but why should they be congratulated for doing a half job????

When your changing the brakes on your car, you know there worn out, because you cant afford 2 pairs of pads (left and right sets) do you just replace the pads on the right hand side and think its a job well done?

Seb · 16-07-2003, 20:59

You know what if NTL: stopped worrying about this website's format and textual content then maybe they would save money and possibly have an extra 5 minutes to try and over come the 'technical barriers'!! The time, which we all know is a cost, of them emailing Andre could have surely been made improving their customer service. [Apologies if this has gone slightly off topic mods]

Edit: I'm an orig-ntl customers, so therefrore i MUST have a biased opinion!!

**Stuart C** · 16-07-2003, 21:11

Quote:

Originally posted by KingPhoenix

I understand NTL's network is alot bigger, but why dedicate all of their resources to getting 1 half of the network going on etv, rather than spending those resources finding a way to get the entire network running at its fullest potential..... If customers didnt have those services, would it make a difference? if they didnt even know NTL were working on them? then that way they could of enabled etv on the system properly rather than a 'BODGE JOB' and having an entire network of happy customers! EVen if it came 6 - 12 months later......

NTL are developing CR3 (or equivalent) for the Langley platform. They say it should be available late in the year (Q3). I thought they were currently testing it (have been for a while now).

Quote:

NTL must have known about the C&W network as soon as they bought it, why didnt they start plans then to intergrate it into there own bromley platform? Oh yeah... cos they didnt give a **** then did they, and now they do and are f**ked because they didnt think about it earlier.

The Bromley platform IS the C&W network. I live in Bromley (about 2-3 miles from the Head End), and the network was built by Nynex, then bought by C&W, then NTL.

NTL are upgrading the original areas to the same spec as the Bromley network as the Bromley network is more advanced.

It's actually a very expensive operation to do this. Not only do they need to upgrade the equipment at the head ends (& there are quite a few), but they need to stockpile 100's of STBs as a certain percentage will fail in the upgrade (I think somebody on .com said 10-15% of boxes fail during software upgrades). NTL have hundreds of thousands of boxes installed in orig. NTL areas, so a 10% failure rate means a lot of boxes..

Quote:

So all those customers paying the same money as someone on the Bromley platform... what do they get as compensation? Why shouldnt they? at the end of the day if they lived somewhere else paying the same money they would recieve the etv service wouldnt they?

That actually is a fair comment, although I am sure that NTL would argue that you don't pay for e-TV directly.

Seb · 16-07-2003, 21:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Andre
Hallelulah!!

That is exactly the point I have been trying to make

Well i have been on your side ever since i saw that thread this mornin about the letter from NTL's very own AG! However i didnt really want to post this mornin, but i jus had too now. Its built up insideme for most of the day, and some previous posts jus pushed me over the edge

Well i'm glad i have let off a bit of steam there.