ntl broadband & TV = YES (NTL)

Member Name: de-Yelverton

Product:	NTL
Date:	21/06/02 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Provision, Speed, Range

Disadvantages: Few if any

Early days – but good so far.

With the collapse of ITV Select ( Yes I am one of the million or so left high and dry) I decided to look into ntl cable as an alternative supplier of digital communication.

I was particularly keen to try out broadband internet and decided that ntl was the most cost effective route to getting both Digital TV and Broadband internet. The rationale lay in the fact that the saving in phone costs would at the very least offset the running cost (£14.99) of the cheapest broadband option.

Costs
The package I opted for was as follows:


Digital TV (Family pack) - £26.00 (110 or so channels but not premium film or sport)
128K Broadband £14.99
Telephone £00.00 (only calls are charged )
Sub Total £40.99

Lumping Sky Sports 1,2 and 3 in on top of this comes in at £14 more

Overall Total £54.99

Benefits

The benefits of this system compared to the conventional BT line with dial up internet connection I had are:

Internet Speed (Yes it is much better)
‘Always on’ Internet connection (so no dialling in)
Frees up the phone line because it uses TV CoAx connection
No internet call charges
Unlimited access day or night
No standing telephone charge (it’s included in the digital TV pack price)

Down Side

Cost? It looks a lot but then – you get a lot - so none yet.

Pre-Installation

Having done all the sums I rang ntl with my requirements and they were happy to give me an installation date on a Saturday (pm) only ten days forward of my call. The completion of the formalities over the phone was relatively painless even when I rang back to belatedly request that we retain our original BT telephone number (no extra charge). The installation cost was £25.
Having experienced an ITV select TV aerial contractor nailing cable all over the house at his convenience n
ot mine I decided to plan and prepare the cable routes ahead of the installation. I would say that this was a very wise move. Cabling contractors are, understandably, not going to spend hours of their precious time preparing routes that could otherwise be short cut. To this end I drilled through walls and ceilings and put trunking in place where I suspected there could be issues about placement. Of course this could all be done post-installation – but it worked for me.
My requirements would need three cables installing. The telephone, and two coax - one for the TV and one for the Broadband. These three cables were to run from the connection box (we had ours put inside the garage – but could have been on the outside wall if we wanted) to their three very separate and distant locations.

Installation

Now there is nothing like an impending England World Cup game V Denmark for galvanising the British worker into action. Firstly the team arrived early (about 10am) – just as well we were in! I let them tut about the block paved drive, talk me through where they were going to put the cabling and generally puff and wheeze as the realisation that the footy could well be a no-no crept up on them. Then I explained my alternative (longer but simpler) and the air was filled with wellbeing and grace.
Even persuading them to put in a second telephone line (‘it might cost a tenner on top’ ) was met with little resistance. The team worked hard (of course they did) and shared tasks. The main cable was buried neatly under the lawn by hand ( not very deep I might add!) and the whole job took less than two and a half hours. The final phase was an explanation of the TV set top box operation and a little about the cable modem.

Broadband Installation
This has to be done by the customer and it is wise to read the instructions because the timing of connection to the cable modem is important Your first decision
is to decide how you want to connect your PC to the cable modem and you have two choices (via one of two cables left by the cabling people). The first (the recommended choice) is via a USB cable. The second is via an Ethernet card. I suspect the former is recommended because it has less potential for errors in set-up but I opted for the Ethernet as I had read somewhere that it was better (in theory anyway). Buying the Ethernet card (£10 - £20 PCWorld etc etc), fitting it inside the PC and installing the drivers was Okish. So finally to the installation of the Broadband software from the Cd left with me by the cabling engineers. This again was painless - until the final phase. Unbeknown to me one of the ntl registration servers was down and I got an error message that was rather puzzling. So to technical support.

Technical Support (broadband)
I have read a few horror stories about the support side of ntl so it wasn’t without some trepidation that I rang their technical support (on the Sunday morning). I must say I was impressed. The software engineer was prompt, polite, competent and solved the problem in an efficient manner. In addition he talked me through setting up two email accounts and also set up a redirection of my email from my previous (non ntl) dial up ISP so I could receive it without any problems.

Since then everything has worked flawlessly. It is this that has been my main motivation for writing this account. I hope it gives a balanced view and shows how (touch wood) it can work very well. Incidentally I am not in anyway connected with the ntl business (Education in fact)

Summary: