Pricing Changes - January 2006

Bob · 11-11-2005, 15:28

There are are a number of price changes taking place from the 1st January 2006. There is more information here: http://www.home.ntl.com/page/customerupdate

andygrif · 11-11-2005, 16:03

My assumptions based on that info (might be wrong on some of this as it's wording is a little ambiguous in places)....

So the connection fee is on the up AGAIN. It wasn't that long back when it was 3.5p connection fee plus the call costs, right now it's 5p and from January it will 6p per call. That's a 73% increase over a couple of years.

Also they will charging 3p per minute for call plan calls over the 60 minutes in duration. Even at weekends when the minute rate is 1pm per minute. Is that legal?

NTL are getting a far too greedy on these little items that make a BIG difference to the overall costs. If BT did the same OFCOM would start getting heavy, but then we know who's in charge of OFCOM.

Bob · 11-11-2005, 16:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by andygrif

So the connection fee is on the up AGAIN. It wasn't that long back when it was 3.5p connection fee plus the call costs, right now it's 5p and from January it will 6p per call. That's a 73% increase over a couple of years.

That was a good while ago - its been 5p for quite some time now. Telewest upped their connection fee this year to 6p I think.

I very much doubt charging 3p outside of the one hour call plan limit is illegal - because they wouldn't do it if it was.

ian@huth · 11-11-2005, 16:33

Oh well, just the nudge I needed to go back to BT for the telephone. Free CLID and free fully itemised billing here I come.

Rillington · 11-11-2005, 16:42

This move makes them more expensive than BT and I always thought that ntl claimed to be cheaper than BT?

Bob · 11-11-2005, 16:47

Taken from BT's site:

Extra minutes over one hour charged at 3p per minute

This applies to their call plans

ian@huth · 11-11-2005, 16:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob

Taken from BT's site:

Extra minutes over one hour charged at 3p per minute

This applies to their call plans

It's not the extra minutes over one hour that I am bothered about. it's the 6p connection charge. We make quite a number of short calls which will cost 9p with NTL from January but only 5p with BT.

tabatha · 11-11-2005, 18:44

I recently dropped my call plan,still get phone line as part of the TV package....
Signed up to 1899....[do a search on these forums]....3p connection and free calls in the UK 24/7..No probs to date.....

andygrif · 11-11-2005, 18:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob

That was a good while ago - its been 5p for quite some time now. Telewest upped their connection fee this year to 6p I think.

I did say it was a 73% increase over a couple of years. That's 36.5% per year, or over FIFTEEN times the rate of inflation. I don't think the cost of connecting a call has rised that much to ntl.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob

I very much doubt charging 3p outside of the one hour call plan limit is illegal - because they wouldn't do it if it was.

Well it was a kind of tongue in cheek comment of mine....but then ntl have been known to do less than legitmate things in the past.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rillington

This move makes them more expensive than BT and I always thought that ntl claimed to be cheaper than BT?

For average users they've been more expensive than BT for a while now (since they almost went bust the 2nd time) particularly things like caller ID and full itemised billing (which I still think no-one in their right minds should charge for....you wouldn't stand for your bank only sending a statement of transactions over 50 quid for example!)

gavnad · 11-11-2005, 19:41

I use 1899 but we musn't forget you pay connection fee to 1899 and the connection fee to ntl,so far only problems is sundays,find it hard to get on?

Chrysalis · 11-11-2005, 20:50

andygrif I agree, if was BT ofcom would be jumping in.

mmm · 11-11-2005, 21:30

I use onetel over NTL with a dialer box. There is a a delay when making calls but you get electronic full itemized bills and no 1 hour cut-off!

Visitor · 11-11-2005, 22:02

It wasnt long ago NTL were providing BT customers dial boxes to get cheaper calls, now we can use the same thing to get off the NTL network and get cheaper calls from people like onetel...

andygrif · 11-11-2005, 22:43

Ironic isn't it? Nice observation Visitor!

bywater · 12-11-2005, 01:40

I've been using a mixture of voip from sipgate and onetel for sometime now. My mobile covers most of my mobile to mobile calls with very good rates from three. The onetel and sipgate service give you a local dial number. The sipgate one is actually free. With the onetel service I all the extra services like call direct three way calling, caller display and the like come as standard and actually work. Unlimted calls Ã‚Â£4.99 per month.

Have been having the free twelve month line rental off NTL which ends November. So I think is a great time to get rid of the phone line all together. As the phone line is bundled with the TV and I can not justify Ã‚Â£22 for the basic tv pack as I can get cheaper from Sky that will have to go to.

I'm keeping the interent for now but with UK online doing 22meg at Ã‚Â£29.99 a month and raw lines on the way soon and BT ondemand tv a very near possibility next year. HDTV coming soon to Sky. There's very little to stay with NTL for now.

We have freeview PVR and the number of channels not bad for free we also get Sky Three which we cannot find on my NTL box. We have waited long enough for VOD from NTL.

So basically NTL have just shot themselfs in the foot as far as I am concerned as a customer.