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Review by Kiryu 
UPDATED: 3 days ago
member for 3.2 years, 237 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 united kingd
 $70 per month
 "Very fast with all the right hardware"
 "Aggressive throttling during peak hours for heavy users"
 "overall better than most providers"
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**NOW KNOWN AS VIRGIN MEDIA**
FiOs connected on most installations to the Cabinet in your street. Excellent speed.
Currently on a 20Mb/768k package, only can benefit from the speed with the right hardware and proper settings.
Tech support isn't the cheapest to call so be prepared to call a premium rate number.
Good value in the sense can download excessively with no problems on hours except 4pm-9pm as YOU WILL THROTTLED (for heavy users during peak time).
Very stable connections, again, with the right hardware.
Testing currently being done for a 40Mbps package, can't wait for that.
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Review by colctl11
UPDATED: 106 days ago
member for 2.9 years, 160 visits, last login: 64 days ago
CO2 7RJ
$70 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
"Good uptime, downloads usually within 2 to 3Mbps of the 20Mbps advertised speed"
"Stingy 768Kbps upload speed, 75% throttle for 5 hours if 3GB down or 1GB up limits exceeded at peek times, aweful tech support"
"Expensive, works well 99% of the time but when you get a problem they don't listen!"
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I’m generally happy with the download speeds, I think the 768Kbps upload speed is stingy and feel it should be more like 1.5Mbps considering the 10Mbps service has a 512Kbps upload speed, it’s certainly a case of diminishing returns, back in the days when I had the old 1Mbps service the upload speed then was 256Kbps being a quarter of the download rate, my current ADVERTISED upload speed is less than one twentieth! Ping times with connections to UK and some European servers are really good or good, say 10 to 15 ms in the UK and maybe 25 to 30 for Germany, download speeds to the same servers are usually between 16,xxx to 19,xxx Kbps, but I can’t say the same for long haul international connections.Typical results for US West coast servers would be 10,xxx Kbps and ping times in the 300’s to 400’s.
I reckon my uptime is about 99%, I’ve had 2 or 3 outages in the last 5 years and two equipment failures (cable modems) in the same period.
I think 37 quid a month is steep but I’ve no alternative currently and my experience of ADSL in this area has not been good.
Maybe I’m just lucky?
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 Review by MoonWolf
UPDATED: 250 days ago
member for 6 years, 1036 visits, last login: a few hours ago
England
Contract price not specified. (12 month contract)
"Never been down, consistent speed, lttle contention"
"Cannot cope with change. They break it every time I change service"
"They're OK and I hear horror stories from others"
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Updated: Obviously I have moved to Virgin but little has changed.
I have been with C&W moved to NTL moved to Virgin as they were taken over for seven years - a long time in the UK. It is a cable modem inside a set top box and I have only lost service for technical reasons when the STB has bombed out and I have had to get a new one. I started on 500K and am now on 2MB. Installation and each time I change my package though they break my service or bill me incorrectly, this has happened with C&W, NTL and now Virgin.
I have a dynamic IP but as I am always on (See Seti@Home) it rarely renews.
It does what I need it to but I wish I didn't have to get nervous every time I change things.
Followup comments:  
kobi
@green.ch
| NTL = Virgin Media? Still very expensive for Europe Was NTL taken over by Virgin Media? or is it still own by Telewest Global, Inc.? Or has Virgin Media taken over Telewest Global, Inc?
My Cable company here in Switzerland, Cablecon is no owned by NTL, and I pay for a 3000/300 kbit service $18.50 per month.
In the UK you pay for 1002/266 kbit $61 per month and for a 3Mb £37.99 per month. That is a lot of money! I wonder how one company can charge customers more than double so much in another country?
Kobi | |
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MoonWolf
Stick To The Road
Premium
join:2002-09-17
England
clubs:
 ·ntlworld
| Re: NTL = Virgin Media? Still very expensive for Europe I'm now on Virgin Media.
The price is in the same ballpark as other UK suppliers, difficult to compare when all the services (Phone, Cable, TV) are added together. The same supplier will charge in country prices so differential pricing isn't surprising.
As BT rolls out the wireless city and 21st Century network projects I expect to see further price drops here. Not sure about the £37.99
--
How Lonely Is The Night Without The Howl Of The Wolf
»www.pbase.com/moonwolf/falconry | |
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J in Northants
@ntl.com
| NTL / Virgin Media I'm one of those Horror Story people I'm afraid... I've been with NTL for 3 or 4 years now, going from dial-up, to 2MB broadband, 10MB Broadband.
We constantly get cut off, sometimes through technically error, sometimes through the bill apparantly not being paid (it is, and always on time), Sometimes we are told we must pay extra for using the phone service, and the tv service, neither of which we have.
When it switched over to Virgin Media, it got 10 times worse.
I'm currently online now, the only person connected, and yet it takes 30 seconds to load google. With 10MB broadband, that just shouldn't be. | |
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 Review by BobbyC101st
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 2.6 years, 370 visits, last login: 2 days ago
M20 6BN
$75 per month
"good fast web browsing and download speeds from inside manchester"
"Hard time cancelling broadband-still taking monthly payments"
"NTL need to improve international access for Manchester users"
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I am no longer a customer of NTLworld and this review is not valid. Please see my new review
Disgruntled
BobbyC101st
Attached images and files
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 Review by Cuchulainn
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 7.9 years, 606 visits, last login: 99 days ago
Chevy Chase,Montgomery,MD
$61 per month (12 month contract)
about 28 days
"cable install ok; connection is pretty reliable"
"random outages (especially e-mail); horrid Indian call centre support"
"OK for the moment - but rubbish at the end"
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I moved house in late July from a blueyonder city to an NTL city. I spoke to NTL in June and they really were very good about taking the order and co-ordinating the install (more on this later as there was one non-internet related hiccup). Within 30 minutes I had a definite install date and all the user info I needed. I was able to arrange install the Monday after a three-week holiday - exactly on the date that suited me. I opted for the 1meg service plus digital cable for 2 TVs.
The install went well except for one minor hiccup - they were supposed to install 2 STBs but only had one on the order. They could not simply go back to the truck and get another box: the second box had to be installed another day..whatever. I wound up waiting almost three weeks for the second box to be installed.
On the morning of the install, the first set of techs arrived at 0930 to pull the cable from the street onto the property. At 10:30 I got a call saying that the second set of techs were on the way - they arrived at noon. Work went well and they had me (very neatly) installed by 1330. I was a bit surprised when the tech told me I'dhave to set up the cable modem myself - he left me with the modem and an install disk. I was able to get everything up and running, however I have a suspicion that the install disk may have corrupted my hard disk as I wound up having to reinstall XP the next day. Service is dynamic IP and noPPPoE or other junk.
Once I rebuilt the XP box, I stuck a router on the front end and things have been pretty trouble free ever since. Speeds are right on the money and fairly consistent, although ping times can go up considerably in the evenings. I have had one or two random, unexplained outages and about a week where they were having massive DNS server trouble but that's been pretty much it.
My chief gripes are related to e-mail and speed. NTL has random, unexplained e-mail difficulties. I have tried everything and have simply resolved myself to the fact that their mail is pants. On the speed front, I would gladly pay more for 2Mb but NTL does not offer it and as far as I know has no plans to.
Overall I am happy with my service.
UPDATE - August 2006 -
OK, it's been a while since I updated. My gripe about speed has gone away. In 2004 I got bumped to 3meg and now we are on 10 meg - and the price has gone down by a fiver from STG 39.99 to STG 34.99. The 10 meg upgrade was rocky - there was a two week period when the connection was very flaky but all seems well now. Overall I am satisfied but would be ecstatic if they would lift upload speeds to 1meg. Seems to hover somewhere around 500-750.
UPDATE - January 2007
I am leaving NTL in March and quite frankly it is not soon enough.
I have received a blizzard of emails and crap through the post describing how NTL is now going to rebrand itself as Virgin. Whoopee. How incredibly nice for you. I bet your mom is so proud. Why don't you take some of that money and try improving Customer Service?
NTL's basic attitude is "We don't care and you're stuck with it." One of many examples:I had to spend over an hour on the phone yesterday to make arrangements to disconnect my service. When I phoned back to the direct number the CSR had given me to provide some additional information, I got put through to Telewest; from there it was another half an hour to get transfered back to Newcastle only to be told that the CSR was unavailable and - get this- she couldn't put me on hold. No matter how I pleaded or begged, she simply wouldn't help me and could not care less.
There is no way to get any customer service without spending an hour on the phone to surly Geordie housewives or clueless call center staff in India. And even then, chances are you'll walk away disappointed. You'll be told that "you must be running peer to peer programs or you have a virus" or you will get no more information from them than the recorded drone at the start of the call.
They've built a careful fortress of delay and dissembling that makes sure their support is crap. And the most galling thing is that they're constantly moaning about how they are working to improve customer service. Utter nonsense....
Service has grown increasingly flaky over the last couple of months. Who wants to bet that Sir Richard gets fed up with this shower of w***ers in about six months and gets out?
I cannot wait to go back to Verizon/Comcast - they've got to be better than this mess!
NTL: as Eric Cartman says "you suck b*lls!"
UPDATE Feb 06 2007:
WOO HOO! Just placed an order for 15/2 FiOS at my new crib for 25 quid a month. Suck my b*lls NTL!!!
WOO HOO Update! FIOS Rocks! and NTLVirginBlueYonder still sucks! I can't even get these pestilent crapheads to send me my final bill.
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Review by jwx213
Posted: 1.8 years ago
member for 2.1 years, 137 visits, last login: 272 days ago
Leicester,UK
Contract price not specified.
"Works, Never goes off in my area! Very Fast, Easy to Configure!"
"Cant think of any with my account, just works perfect!"
"Good quality Broadband that does the speed they state."
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NTL in my area (Leicestershire) hardly ever goes down.
It runs at a constant 2MB like they state and i am not capped which is good for downloads and VoIP.
Never had a problem running it through a Netgear router and sharing it with 3 devices.
Also, have a D-Link VTA which i use on Sipgate through NTL and have never yet missed a call or picked up the phone and could not dial out.
Would recommend it, it just works well and is always on and ready to roll!
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Review by scot2
Posted: 2.1 years ago
member for 2.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.1 years ago
undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
"speed constancy, reliability outside of (past) network-upgrading bouts."
""caching"?, no warning before (past) disconnections"
"pretty good"
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Been a cable broadband customer since 2002, together with cable telephone and television. Started at 300K, staged up, and now on 4M. I have found speed always is on the money - using NTL's own Speed test, that is. When "Correct Connect" was replaced with "Broadband Medic", I did not install the latter, in the interest of lean, simplicity - and have not regretted that.
Tech Support was marvellous when it was English. My only unhappiness was a year or so ago, when the network was being upgraded all over the country. I'd find the connection cut without warning, and be off until the next morning - most confusing and frustrating. Happily, that seems to be in the distant past now.
My present grouse is concerning updates to security programmes, such as AdAware. The AdAware new definitions notice does not appear until two days after it is actually available, and then the downloaded updated file does not actually replace the existing one until a repeated download a further two days later - no matter how many times it is downloaded in the interim. NTL does not seem to provide any information on this, but I was informed in a forum ( sorry, I cannot remember which one) that this is due to "ISP caching" - seemingly certain downloads are cached, and retained by the ISP before being passed on belatedly. It is not acceptable that we are exposed to malware for four days after religiously updating our protection and, unless nitpickingly observant, left ingnorant of the fact.
Apart from this point I am a satisfied customer.- a moan about neglect of long-term clients, in favour of attracting newcomers, was satisfactorily handled by Customer Support. I don't think NTL's rates compare badly, and believe it has served me better than many competitors would (I don't download, or share, music or video, so cannot comment on that side of things).
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Review by grantpe
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 2.7 years, 0 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
England
$17 per month (12 month contract)
"Relaible, no BT line required"
"Can need to change proxy servers for diffrent websites"
"Its OK, cheap if you have ntl TV/Phone already"
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First got 300Kb, free upgrade to 1Mb but with 30G cap, which they do not inforce properly, apparently as those without their 'Broadband Medic' program loaded cannot be tracked, or those who purchase routers without going through them. Cost £17.99 per month on top of TV/Phone charges. If you only need broadband and have a BT line, don't go for NTL, but for a complete package they are OK. The IP appears to static, as does the machine name (linked to your customer number & area) customer number is last number of IP address, but all can be sent through proxy which prevents IP being seen easily. Occassional updates mean that you have to reboot/reset modem often when they upgrade your speed or do work on their network. Otherwise good uptime. Their proxy servers sometimes give problems with certain websites, they often need to be rotated, but full list of proxy servers used is online, and can be easily saved to harddrive. For proxy server use those with firewalls need to open port a certain port to let this work. (This can be found out from NTL:I don't want to help anyone hacking me!) Installation sould be watched: their cabling can be messy with lots of slack in it-newer set-top boxes have the modem in & connect to your network via a normal patch cable.
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Review by ctek
Posted: 2.7 years ago
member for 3.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 2.7 years ago
England
$17 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"Generally reliable connection."
"Over zealous email filtering. Poor Customer support."
"If email filtering continues and price becomes more uncompetitive may look elsewhere in future."
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I mainly wanted to alert people to the fact that NTL filter out too many legitimate emails with the junk and spam. Of course you only know about this when people ask (by some other communication method) if you got an email or not, or why didn't you reply.
I have contacted ntl about this and most of the people who responded had no idea but eventually someone admitted that they knew about it and claimed it was a temporary problem - but it doesn't seem that way to me.
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Review by rjs1003
UPDATED: 2.8 years ago
member for 5.8 years, 1030 visits, last login: 2 days ago
united kingd
$25 per month (12 month contract)
about 7 days
"ok performance, ok cost"
"Call centre staff a bit clueless."
"Still not upset by them enough to think about moving."
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My service got upgraded to 4MB down, 400k up. Now the uplink bandwidth is half-decent at last!
I had a spate of funny behaviour during the heatwave in July 06, not sure if it was my cable modem or NTL's problem... ntl booked an engineer to come replace the modem but it has fixed itself so I cancelled the appointment. Getting the appointment in the first place took several support calls though before anyone believed my connection was intermittent.
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