Existing Customer - Incentive to stay with NTL

[busterdan]

I just called NTL, having been told by someone at work that new customers can get the 750K service for £19.99 per month.

Anyway, NTL were happy to reduce the cost of my current package to £14.99 for 12 months... but I asked about upgrading to the 1.5m service. Anyway they went away and have offered me the 1.5m service for £22.99 per month for 12 months plus I will get a new Samsung setup.... overall I am very happy with that.

Just one query though..... I currently have my set-top box running Cat 5/RJ45 cable to my Netgear Router.... is this generally OK with NTL or should I remove the Router? also does anyone know if the Samsung has strainght RJ45 connections or if it is USB instead?

Thanks for your help.

[BBKing]

Samsung is straight Ethernet but set your end of the connection to 10Mb/half duplex as you get better throughput, perversely.

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by dfarry

I just called NTL, having been told by someone at work that new customers can get the 750K service for £19.99 per month.

Anyway, NTL were happy to reduce the cost of my current package to £14.99 for 12 months... but I asked about upgrading to the 1.5m service. Anyway they went away and have offered me the 1.5m service for £22.99 per month for 12 months plus I will get a new Samsung setup.... overall I am very happy with that.
.

Thats me getting on the phone, been thinking of upgrading from 750 myself but at that price its now a deffinite, thanks for the heads up

[busterdan]

Cheers BB!

[Matth]

Sounds like it might be worth a bash - I bet you need to be lucky with who you get though!

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by Matth

Sounds like it might be worth a bash - I bet you need to be lucky with who you get though!

On the phone to them now, will let you know

[busterdan]

Just had my Samsung fitted... took ages to be activated and a few problems getting broadband going.... (despite using MAC address cloning) I couldn't get anything back...unless they were having DNS issues at the time...

Seems OK now... though I want to try a speed test to see if it is 1.5mb

[bopdude]

Originally Posted by bopdude

On the phone to them now, will let you know

Will after 10 to 15 minutes waiting in line we hung up, try again later unless theres one of you nice c/s team online at the mo and can help this poor lad in the northeast, all he wants is twice the speed at half the cost

[busterdan]

Just run a speed test... using Dan Elwells Broadband tester... Ping times look good but download times are not as good as they should be....especially as this is comparing against 1mbit line too in the test

[busterdan]

Dan Elwell's Broadband Speed Test (unregistered)

Speed Test Report 04/09/30 14:52 - Quick test

Test conducted at: 30/09/2004 14:52:07

Test sequence: Quick test

Please note that these results are a snapshot of this particular moment. Run the test a few times to ensure maximum accuracy. Although the test has been constructed to be highly accurate, no guarantees can be made to the level of accuracy experienced in everyday use.

Test 1: Ping times to UK servers

Ideally, you should get a result of around 30 ms (lower is better)

bristol.ac.uk: 19.3 ms

bristol.ac.uk: 19.8 ms

gnu.teleglobe.net: 80 ms

Your ping times are slightly poorer than expected.

Test 2: Ping times to European servers

Ideally, you should get a result of around 50 ms (lower is better)

univ-rennes1.fr: 27.8 ms

free.fr: 19.8 ms

uni-kl.de: 46.3 ms

The results of this test indicate no problems.

Test 3: Ping times to east-coast USA servers

Ideally, you should get a result of around 120 ms (lower is better)

ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu: 103 ms

ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu: 104 ms

unet.brandeis.edu: 91 ms

The results of this test indicate no problems.

Test 4: Ping times to west-coast USA servers

Ideally, you should get a result of around 160 ms (lower is better)

math.utah.edu: 130 ms

limestone.uoregon.edu: 154.8 ms

mirrors.usc.edu: 150 ms

The results of this test indicate no problems.

Test 5: Download speeds from UK servers

Ideally, you should get a result of around 1024 Kb/s (higher is better)

apache.mirrors.rossfell.co.uk: 963 Kb/s

The results of this test indicate no problems.

Test 6: Upload speeds to the Speed Test Server

Ideally, you should get a result of around 256 Kb/s (higher is better)

Not conducted: You must register this software in order to perform this test.

Please click 'What's This?' for information on registering this software to enable this test.

Test 7: Packet loss en route to a UK server

Ideally, you should get a result of around 0 % (lower is better)

f2s.com: 0 %

bristol.ac.uk: 0 %

The results of this test indicate no problems.

End of testing.

[BigChin]

Originally Posted by dfarry

Anyway they went away and have offered me the 1.5m service for £22.99 per month for 12 months plus I will get a new Samsung setup....

Wow, I assume you must have been a customer for a long time, and subscribe to nearly all the TV channels... Paying that for for 1.5Mb is a bargain, and makes me feel a little unwell

Although, you won't actually get 1.5Mb until they activate it on the STB's (don't know when that will be), so for now you'll have 1Mb. And I had a Samsung STB but I didn't like it, packet loss and massive speed reductions when downloading/uploading at the same time led me to swapping it for a SACM.

[busterdan]

Yes I have been with NTL ever since they took over the Cable and Wireless franchise...who themselves took over Bell Cablemedia.

So far I seem to also have somewhat comprised 1.5 service... but I will give it a few days before I start insisting the give me a SACM.... The Samsung is much better for TV though two downsides are the lack of phono/audio connectors at the rear...so i need to get a Scart cable that splits audio...and my universal remote control wont pickup/learn most of the buttons on the new NTL remote

The other complication I have is I am now running a wirelss router/laptop so I am trying to get to grips with that too

[MysticKiller]

I am an existing 600k customer.if i ring and ask to be upgraded to 1mbit, how much will i get charged per month? And what if my uncle wants broad band? He only suscribes to the TV service, as a new broadband customer, how much will he have to pay a month for 1mbit? Thanks

[Matth]

Leaflet through the door, "Broadband for the price of dialup".

300k for £15.99 per month (a generous £2 off, to match the most expensive dialups they could find) - I can remember when it used to be the price of dialup - £14.99 and then they whacked a whopping £3 on the price, and a pitiful 128-150k speed increase.

Not a fantastic incentive to join them - and maybe time to think of leaving for one of the "broadband + calls" deals

[Kliro]

Originally Posted by dfarry

Yes I have been with NTL ever since they took over the Cable and Wireless franchise...who themselves took over Bell Cablemedia.

So far I seem to also have somewhat comprised 1.5 service... but I will give it a few days before I start insisting the give me a SACM.... The Samsung is much better for TV though two downsides are the lack of phono/audio connectors at the rear...so i need to get a Scart cable that splits audio...and my universal remote control wont pickup/learn most of the buttons on the new NTL remote

The other complication I have is I am now running a wirelss router/laptop so I am trying to get to grips with that too

I have too been with NTL since then, about 6 years now? how did you manage to persuade them to give you 1.5mbit for 22.99, how much do you spend with them a month??