NTL Price Hike

10:10.52 - Tuesday 20th April 2004   (Link to This Entry)

With yesterday's news of af an NTL Price Rise doing the rounds I figured it was time to sit back and look at the broadband market. In my area, NTL cable has been available for a long, long time, and I've been a customer myself for roughly three years. This means they've basically got the monopoly here, and although ADSL is available, most people have an NTL line - including us.

But the hike to £37.99 for 1Mb cable is starting to hurt - ADSL is available at 512k for around £20 now, and 1Mb for around £27 for a connection-only account which would suit me just fine. Heck, 2Mb is available for £35.49 from CentralPoint, so why should I stick?

It turns out that BT's Option 3, which gives free calls to 01 and 02 numbers as long as they're under an hour, is only 50p more than NTL's offering - 50p which could be more than made up in the broadband savings. Chuck in Freeview instead of NTL Digital Cable (which is a blurry mess, at least here) and we can have much the same services. I actually want to buy a Pace Twin anyway, so this would tie in nicely, and I still have my Pioneer onDigital box until then.

So the future looks... possible. ADSL is getting cheaper all the time, and NTL is getting more expensive. It's a simple case of market forces: NTL doesn't have any competitors (at least in this area) on it's broadband network, but there are plenty of companies fighting for a share of the ADSL market.

For now, I've dropped the cable back down to the 600Mb service to save a tenner a month there. The only practical difference is that I won't be able to host a UT2004 server anymore - someone with a faster line will have to do that. There's much to consider before I do a big swap to ADSL: New phone number; new equipment purchase; going back to BT (ugh!) and so on. I've lost patience with NTL though.

Replacement Whiteboard

12:55.24 - Tuesday 20th April 2004   (Link to This Entry)

Will wonders never cease? I actually received a replacement whiteboard today as promised - same 1500x1200 size and - while it shows signs of wear - it's a better-looking make than the one I was originally sent. Still no fixing kit, however, so I've got to invest in some sturdy hooks and screws.

Virus Infected Email DoS

14:49.35 - Tuesday 20th April 2004   (Link to This Entry)

Check out the last letter on this page from a highly-pissed-off company owner - it's a cracker!