brianlb
29-10-2004, 11:21
Here in Wandsworth, SW London, most of us can get very good (but not interactive) digital TV and a reliable dial-up internet connection from NTL, as well as telephone lines, but still not cable broadband, pending an upgrade of the old Videotron (later Cable & Wireless) cabling. Until last month (September 2004) many of us in this central London area couldn't get broadband from BT either, because of the length of our local loops connecting us to our BT exchange. Earlier this year I ran a small private campaign via my MP, the responsible DTI minister, the e-envoy, Ofcom, BT and NTL to draw attention to this absurd and little-publicised anomaly whereby thousands of Londoners were deprived of broadband access and couldn't get any indication from either BT or NTL of when this was going to be put right. Finally, after exchanges of emails with the Chairmen and Chief Executives and the heads of the broadband departments of both companies, who had presumably been spurred into communicating with me by the spate of letters they were getting from my MP and the minister, I was told that from 6 September BT would be providing broadband to customers previously barred by the local loop length issue; and rather later, I heard from a senior executive at NTL that my area was scheduled for a cable upgrade to broadband standard by around the middle of or late 2005, subject to nothing cropping up in the meantime to delay it. In reluctantly disclosing this information to me, both companies apologised for the lack of publicly available information about their plans (e.g. on their websites or from their respective Customer Service departments) and promised to do better on the information front in future.
I now have a very good 512 kbs broadband service from Zen on a BT line and I'm keeping my NTL dialup account alive (even though it is virtually drowned in the incessant flood of spam -- between 200 and 300 a day!) in the hope that I'll be able to go over to cable broadband by around this time next year, if all goes well. (And, BTW, the NTL man also said that NTL was hoping to follow just about every ISP on the planet in introducing a spam filter in the not too distant future -- although there's no sign of it so far.)
Just thought other broadband-starved Londoners would like to know. I'd be surprised if you could find anyone in NTL Customer Services who would give you this information, or even be able to find it out for themselves!
Cheers
Brian
29 Oct 04
http://www.barder.com/brian/
I now have a very good 512 kbs broadband service from Zen on a BT line and I'm keeping my NTL dialup account alive (even though it is virtually drowned in the incessant flood of spam -- between 200 and 300 a day!) in the hope that I'll be able to go over to cable broadband by around this time next year, if all goes well. (And, BTW, the NTL man also said that NTL was hoping to follow just about every ISP on the planet in introducing a spam filter in the not too distant future -- although there's no sign of it so far.)
Just thought other broadband-starved Londoners would like to know. I'd be surprised if you could find anyone in NTL Customer Services who would give you this information, or even be able to find it out for themselves!
Cheers
Brian
29 Oct 04
http://www.barder.com/brian/