Is NTL any good?

[barton fink]

I am currently using Bt Broadband and Sky and I am thinking of joining NTL for TV, 4 mb Internet and Telephone service and was wondering if anyone could tell me what the service is like. I am particularly interested in the internet service as i work from home alot and need a good consistent service. Also is the digitial tv any good?

[Martyn H]

Can't advise on the TV but I've found the internet pretty reliable if not a bit pricey compared to other providers, eg. Waitrose.

Also, ntl's billing and customer service can be truly appalling at times IMO.

[Charlie_Bubble]

Sky is probably better for TV. NTL is good for internet if it's working well. Like a lot of places, if it's all working well, good, but when it does go wrong....

[Graham M]

Sky's CS is no better than NTL's however

Originally Posted by Zeph

Sky's CS is no better than NTL's however

I would strongly disagree!

NTL have the worst CS I have ever had to deal with, they are even worse than British Gas and that took some beating!

[TheNorm]

I am particularly interested in the internet service as i work from home alot and need a good consistent service.

I work from home a fair bit and find that the ntl service is quite acceptable. I use VPN directly to my work servers - a bit slow sometimes, but then I'm on 1 meg.

I do notice that the service "slows" from about 5pm, presumably my neighbours returning from home/school logging on. So, I usually try to start early and finish early, e.g. 8am to 4pm.

Finally - welcome to the forum!

[jtwn]

Broadbands good, one of the best for internet. Downtime is basically non existent apart from some very rare occasions when it can go off in the early hours of the morning.

TVs good as long as you are not bothered about having a PVR which you can with Sky.

[ntl customer]

As an ex customer, I would avoid them based on my experiences. I can't say whether what I will write below has changed, but NTL being NTL, I doubt it.

> Billing and customer services is appalling.

They couldn't bill properly at all - i.e. one month they would take out this, the next month, they would take out that. There was no consistency. Spent many a hour on the phone to NTL listening to their on hold music, interspersed with adverts for their TV football pack and internet services. Now you've got to pay to call CS.

> Internet.

ntlworld email was hopeless and one point, it took hours for emails to be received from A to B. They (still) use proxy servers to interfere with web browsing - this often causes problems with displaying webpages, and you often got to do the 'proxy dance' when they all go wrong, which is far too often.

Plus you've got the complications of the proxy being a pain for some sites - some admins accidentally ban the proxy IP, whilst others detect the proxy IP as yours and think you're downloading too much etc (e.g. Rapidshare).

If you're going to VPN via work then that might not be such a problem, provided your work doesn't complain that you're browsing/downloading on their connection. Streaming media was also very much hit and miss - on some sites, some clips would work whilst others wouldn't at all.

I would avoid the high blood pressure and not use ntl internet. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

> TV

I didn't have TV but when I went round a friend's and did some channel hopping, it froze. I think I have my tale somewhere on this board in the TV section.

My out look

Ntl for phone
Ntl for broadband
Sky for tv unless you want no frills then go Ntl and keep it all in one place

[lostandconfused]

i agree with unlimted.
sky do offer more channels than ntl, they have pvr and HD
it depends on if their that important to you i suppose

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by unlimited

My out look

Ntl for phone
Ntl for broadband
Sky for tv unless you want no frills then go Ntl and keep it all in one place

Or even Vonage for phone (7.99 a month for unlimited land line calls)....much cheaper than talk 24.

[paul11974]

sky for more shopping chanels than ntl and pvr and sky plus

ntl for good broadband and the tv is getting better with video on demand and a very good base pack tv service and the phone has never let me down in 15 years of being with cable tv. Also 4 play is around the corner so if you like to have just one bill for tv telephone broadband and mobile then i would say come on over .............. oh yeah and there is this forum if it does all go wrong

Well I have Sky for tv at £18 a month, it's way better than NTL!

I have NTL's 4mb broadband at £24.99 but I will be downgrading to the 2mb teir next month at £17.99 and I use voip as my main phone line and I get a free local number along with free off-peak calls and peak calls cost me 2p per hour!

That's £35.99 a month for 2mb broadband, sky tv and a phone line with free peak/off peak calls!

[kat2]

I am a new customer and sadly regret it.
I am with them for twelve months, (only four left) thank goodness. I personally from my own experiences would not recommend them, and now that they have extended their business no doubt things can only get worse*sighs*.
poor installation always going wrong
poor customer services
none existant complaints procedure, sure you can log one two three four five, need I go on, but you wont get your issues resolved!
just my experiences
huggies kat2

[Mick Fisher]

Regrettably all communications companies seem to suck.

Whenever theres a poll on who is the worst at something it always seems to be Ntl that comes out on top.

So whenever anyone says that Ntl are good for nothing you will now know that they are either lying or misinformed.

My most recent experiences are: Within the last 6 months I have been without TV and Inet twice due to Network breakdowns. In both instances it was a week to 10 days before an engineer could call. In the first instance it took 2 engineers to visit my home and then a third engineer to fix the network.

Pretty pathetic HuH!

Oh and BTW if you want DTV you get charged for a phoneline whether you want one or not.