Electronic Utilities

[ewx]

NTL's clever customer retention strategy means that their contract here is ending a bit after LNR moves out. I'm thinking of switching to BT for phones, Freeview for TV[1] and some as-yet unknown ADSL provider for Internet connectivity.

Phones: NTL's reliability has been less than stellar - we had to call them out to fix the phone line three times and only the third time did it stay fixed for more than a few months. BT's cheapest monthly rate (which implies online-only billing, which is fine by me) is only slightly cheaper than NTL's.

Freeview: I mainly watch Channel 5 and BBC channels, so there shouldn't be any problem with channel availability in moving away from NTL here. NTL's TV service is somewhat flaky (probably the fault of the awful STB but whatever.) I was thinking of getting a digital box with hard disk and dual tuner (Life On Mars is clashing with CSI at the moment l-)

ADSL: NTL's internet service has probably been the most reliable of the three for us (I know other people have found it unreliable). However I'll be glad to get away from their intercepting web and DNS proxies (the latter are particularly broken). The BT availability checker thinks my postcode could get 1.5Mbit/s which is a bit less than NTL seem to be providing right now but I reckon is plenty.

So, anyone got any advice/recommendations/disrecommendations?

Comments

[mikewd]

You should be able to get decent Freeview reception from where you are, but you may well need a new aerial - you need a wideband one to get get all the muxes in Cambridge, whereas the analogue one for here is only band A. Also, as DTT is sensitive to impulse noise interference from things like badly suppressed motors, you may find you want to replace the downlead with a better screened one.

I can recommend the Topfield TF5800 PVR - one of its neat features is that it has a published API allowing people to write add-on modules ("TAPs") to enhance/customise its functions and user interface. It has an enthusiastic user group in the UK and there are loads of TAPs offering all sorts of features. It also has a USB interface to allow uploading software and downloading/uploading recordings.

We use Nildram for DSL for our customers (and ourselves) and they do offer a very reliable service (so far they appear to keep buying enough backhaul and interconnect capacity to make sure they keep up with usage) and they still seem to have clueful people. However they're not the cheapest for home user packages and static IPs do cost extra.[Their home packages do include the option of a free PSTN voice call package as well which might make them more cost effective for you].

[ewx.livejournal.com]

If freeview will need a new aerial and cabling I suspect I might just stick with cable...