are there alternatives to NTL broadband?

dander

Hiya

I'm just about to move to a house which only has NTL points at the moment. The BT wires are connected to the house, but the BT sockets have been removed. Unless I'm prepared to give BT £100 to connect me (which I'm not!) it looks like I'm stuck with having to have an NTL phone line.

If this is the case, do I have any alternative but to take NTL broadband too? Frankly their broadband packages look rubbish when you compare price and speed to what I can get elsewhere - but most companies insist on a BT phone line don't they?

Does anyone know of anyone who can give me better Broadband access through an NTL phone line?

Any thoughts about the situation would be appreciated!

star1_2

The short answer is "no" ....

NTL install and own their own network. The phone system that the cable co's deploy is not DSL based and hence you can not take "other carriers" services accross their phone network.

Personally I'm with Telewest and their Internet packages are far better value (for the capacity and contention ratios offered, and support) than DSL packages. From personal experience they are also far more relyable ! You might want to check again to see what NTL offer and see if a basic package suits both your pocket and technical requirements (thou - I note that NTL customer service is rather poor - as opposed to Telewest!).

paramonkey

yes indeed, NTL isn't as bad on average as alot of people believe it is. Yes you have people that have real issues with them, but then you can have these with BT, Sky, AOL and anyone. If my new house could have ntl then I would keep them as my broadband supplier, but not for phone or tv. Just prefer Sky. Although the on demand service which ntl have and telewest call teleport is really handy and FREE to catch up with some of the major programmes on bbc whenever you want them. I would have gone for sky+ but dont really want to pay £80 for the box then £10 a month cos i dont subscribe to sky movies and sky sports. I could get a dvd recorder for <£80. also for the channels i watch, with the new sky packs thing, im paying less than i was with ntl.

paramonkey

also if you pay bt to install a line your tied into a years contract which with option 1 you arn't (option 2 and above you are).

i think thats just absolute crapness on behalf of BT. Sky dont change u to put up a dish, ntl don't although u enter contracts which makes a bit of difference, but if they waved the charge and had a year contract or you payed the £100 to install it and then didnt have the years contract that would be alot better. Having both is just crap. It's a bit like sainburys charging you to enter the store to purchase stuff.

Bit of a catch 22 when you dont even want to go with bt but need to have the line activated or installed as this has to be done by bt rather than talk talk or any other phone company.

boatman

Could you not take out the NTL phone cable from the main socket and rewire in the old BT line? When i moved house i had the same situation, but all they had done was remove the BT line from the main box in the hall and put in the NTL one, so when i changed back to BT all the sockets around the house worked with BT again.

BT said they would charge £75 to reconnect(18months ago), only if lots of work needed to be done, which it didn't.