Unbiased comparison please

I have tried to get an unbiased comparison of the "Three for £30" option
being offered by Telewest to what I have.

What I have is as follows:
Freeview box which works well on a good aerial 'most of the time', but needs
re-setting a couple of times a week.
Plusnet broadband @ £14.99 pm. When it works I get ~6Mbps, but Plusnet is
notoriously prone to slowdowns and is having real problems with USENET,
which is text only. (I do not really need speeds as high as 6Mbps.)
BT telephone @ ~£11 pm plus calls which seldom exceed £3pm.
My wife uses teletext on Freeview and conventional TV quite a lot.

The difference in price is only ~£5, but that would be a reasonable price to
pay to overcome the crashes in Freeview and the unreliability of Plusnet if
indeed Telewest is more reliable and teletext is as good.
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
http://www.jimscott.co.uk

Jim S wrote:
I have tried to get an unbiased comparison of the "Three for £30"
option being offered by Telewest to what I have.

What I have is as follows:
Freeview box which works well on a good aerial 'most of the time',
but needs re-setting a couple of times a week.
Plusnet broadband @ £14.99 pm. When it works I get ~6Mbps, but
Plusnet is notoriously prone to slowdowns and is having real problems
with USENET, which is text only. (I do not really need speeds as high
as 6Mbps.)
BT telephone @ ~£11 pm plus calls which seldom exceed £3pm.
My wife uses teletext on Freeview and conventional TV quite a lot.

The difference in price is only ~£5, but that would be a reasonable
price to pay to overcome the crashes in Freeview and the
unreliability of Plusnet if indeed Telewest is more reliable and
teletext is as good.

Telewest is pretty reliable on the whole. I'd say that their broadband
service is the main reason to take the service. The TV side of things is
poorer than Sky with regard to range of channels and pricing (although the
pricing is very close) and the phone call charges are a bit more than BT.

Telewest also doesn't have their teletext service up and running yet. If
your TV has two scart sockets you could connect the cable box into one and
the Freeview box into the other so you'd still have access to text.

If the range of channels Telewest is offering suits you I'd seriously
consider it. The broadband is very solid and reliable - they do have the
occasional outage, about two a year in my area which can last a few hours.
The Blueyonder newsgroups are very good in conveying information if things
go wrong and for liaising with tech support. You can book support visits
there too. One aspect I really like is that the customer service is very
good - the call centre staff are obviously well trained and it shows.

Telewest are gradually building up a library of 'on demand' material. This
is free with the higher level packages but an extra fiver a month for
starter packages. Part of this is the free 'replay' system (I believe it's
free for all packages) where they keep most of the popular BBC programmes
online for a week after transmission so you can watch them through the cable
box whenever you like. This is being extended to include C4 and other
channels.

Also, Telewest's twin tuner PVR 'TV Drive' is pretty good. It was very buggy
at first but these are being ironed out. The plus points are the fact that
there's no upfront charge (unlike Sky+ which is 199.00) and it's HD ready
with some test channels already in HD. All you need is an HD TV and you're
up and running. TV Drive costs an extra ten pounds per month.

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:02:39 GMT, Paul D wrote:

Jim S wrote:
I have tried to get an unbiased comparison of the "Three for £30"
option being offered by Telewest to what I have.

What I have is as follows:
Freeview box which works well on a good aerial 'most of the time',
but needs re-setting a couple of times a week.
Plusnet broadband @ £14.99 pm. When it works I get ~6Mbps, but
Plusnet is notoriously prone to slowdowns and is having real problems
with USENET, which is text only. (I do not really need speeds as high
as 6Mbps.)
BT telephone @ ~£11 pm plus calls which seldom exceed £3pm.
My wife uses teletext on Freeview and conventional TV quite a lot.

The difference in price is only ~£5, but that would be a reasonable
price to pay to overcome the crashes in Freeview and the
unreliability of Plusnet if indeed Telewest is more reliable and
teletext is as good.

Telewest is pretty reliable on the whole. I'd say that their broadband
service is the main reason to take the service. The TV side of things is
poorer than Sky with regard to range of channels and pricing (although the
pricing is very close) and the phone call charges are a bit more than BT.

Telewest also doesn't have their teletext service up and running yet. If
your TV has two scart sockets you could connect the cable box into one and
the Freeview box into the other so you'd still have access to text.

If the range of channels Telewest is offering suits you I'd seriously
consider it. The broadband is very solid and reliable - they do have the
occasional outage, about two a year in my area which can last a few hours.
The Blueyonder newsgroups are very good in conveying information if things
go wrong and for liaising with tech support. You can book support visits
there too. One aspect I really like is that the customer service is very
good - the call centre staff are obviously well trained and it shows.

Telewest are gradually building up a library of 'on demand' material. This
is free with the higher level packages but an extra fiver a month for
starter packages. Part of this is the free 'replay' system (I believe it's
free for all packages) where they keep most of the popular BBC programmes
online for a week after transmission so you can watch them through the cable
box whenever you like. This is being extended to include C4 and other
channels.

Also, Telewest's twin tuner PVR 'TV Drive' is pretty good. It was very buggy
at first but these are being ironed out. The plus points are the fact that
there's no upfront charge (unlike Sky+ which is 199.00) and it's HD ready
with some test channels already in HD. All you need is an HD TV and you're
up and running. TV Drive costs an extra ten pounds per month.

Thank you Paul.
My Freeview box has refused me three times this afternoon so I'm heading TW
way.
I am right in thinking that I can keep my existing aerial too (TV has only
one scart) so that missis can access ordinary text on the 5 basic channels?
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
http://www.jimscott.co.uk

Jim S wrote:
On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:02:39 GMT, Paul D wrote:

Jim S wrote:
I have tried to get an unbiased comparison of the "Three for £30"
option being offered by Telewest to what I have.

What I have is as follows:
Freeview box which works well on a good aerial 'most of the time',
but needs re-setting a couple of times a week.
Plusnet broadband @ £14.99 pm. When it works I get ~6Mbps, but
Plusnet is notoriously prone to slowdowns and is having real
problems with USENET, which is text only. (I do not really need
speeds as high as 6Mbps.)
BT telephone @ ~£11 pm plus calls which seldom exceed £3pm.
My wife uses teletext on Freeview and conventional TV quite a lot.

The difference in price is only ~£5, but that would be a reasonable
price to pay to overcome the crashes in Freeview and the
unreliability of Plusnet if indeed Telewest is more reliable and
teletext is as good.

Telewest is pretty reliable on the whole. I'd say that their
broadband service is the main reason to take the service. The TV
side of things is poorer than Sky with regard to range of channels
and pricing (although the pricing is very close) and the phone call
charges are a bit more than BT.

Telewest also doesn't have their teletext service up and running
yet. If your TV has two scart sockets you could connect the cable
box into one and the Freeview box into the other so you'd still have
access to text.

If the range of channels Telewest is offering suits you I'd seriously
consider it. The broadband is very solid and reliable - they do have
the occasional outage, about two a year in my area which can last a
few hours. The Blueyonder newsgroups are very good in conveying
information if things go wrong and for liaising with tech support.
You can book support visits there too. One aspect I really like is
that the customer service is very good - the call centre staff are
obviously well trained and it shows.

Telewest are gradually building up a library of 'on demand'
material. This is free with the higher level packages but an extra
fiver a month for starter packages. Part of this is the free
'replay' system (I believe it's free for all packages) where they
keep most of the popular BBC programmes online for a week after
transmission so you can watch them through the cable box whenever
you like. This is being extended to include C4 and other channels.

Also, Telewest's twin tuner PVR 'TV Drive' is pretty good. It was
very buggy at first but these are being ironed out. The plus points
are the fact that there's no upfront charge (unlike Sky+ which is
199.00) and it's HD ready with some test channels already in HD. All
you need is an HD TV and you're up and running. TV Drive costs an
extra ten pounds per month.

Thank you Paul.
My Freeview box has refused me three times this afternoon so I'm
heading TW way.
I am right in thinking that I can keep my existing aerial too (TV has
only one scart) so that missis can access ordinary text on the 5
basic channels?

Yes indeed, you can certainly keep your analogue channels via the aerial and
watch them (and their teletext) using the TV's tuner.

There is a chance plusnet will get taken over by BT

See
http://www.cbronline.com/article_new...5-4910AEB44708

Better or Worse? Who knows.

Jc.

Jim S wrote:
On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:02:39 GMT, Paul D wrote:

Jim S wrote:
I have tried to get an unbiased comparison of the "Three for £30"
option being offered by Telewest to what I have.

What I have is as follows:
Freeview box which works well on a good aerial 'most of the time',
but needs re-setting a couple of times a week.
Plusnet broadband @ £14.99 pm. When it works I get ~6Mbps, but
Plusnet is notoriously prone to slowdowns and is having real
problems with USENET, which is text only. (I do not really need
speeds as high as 6Mbps.)
BT telephone @ ~£11 pm plus calls which seldom exceed £3pm.
My wife uses teletext on Freeview and conventional TV quite a lot.

The difference in price is only ~£5, but that would be a reasonable
price to pay to overcome the crashes in Freeview and the
unreliability of Plusnet if indeed Telewest is more reliable and
teletext is as good.

Telewest is pretty reliable on the whole. I'd say that their
broadband service is the main reason to take the service. The TV
side of things is poorer than Sky with regard to range of channels
and pricing (although the pricing is very close) and the phone call
charges are a bit more than BT.

Telewest also doesn't have their teletext service up and running
yet. If your TV has two scart sockets you could connect the cable
box into one and the Freeview box into the other so you'd still have
access to text.

If the range of channels Telewest is offering suits you I'd seriously
consider it. The broadband is very solid and reliable - they do have
the occasional outage, about two a year in my area which can last a
few hours. The Blueyonder newsgroups are very good in conveying
information if things go wrong and for liaising with tech support.
You can book support visits there too. One aspect I really like is
that the customer service is very good - the call centre staff are
obviously well trained and it shows.

Telewest are gradually building up a library of 'on demand'
material. This is free with the higher level packages but an extra
fiver a month for starter packages. Part of this is the free
'replay' system (I believe it's free for all packages) where they
keep most of the popular BBC programmes online for a week after
transmission so you can watch them through the cable box whenever
you like. This is being extended to include C4 and other channels.

Also, Telewest's twin tuner PVR 'TV Drive' is pretty good. It was
very buggy at first but these are being ironed out. The plus points
are the fact that there's no upfront charge (unlike Sky+ which is
199.00) and it's HD ready with some test channels already in HD. All
you need is an HD TV and you're up and running. TV Drive costs an
extra ten pounds per month.

Thank you Paul.
My Freeview box has refused me three times this afternoon so I'm
heading TW way.
I am right in thinking that I can keep my existing aerial too (TV has
only one scart) so that missis can access ordinary text on the 5
basic channels?

You can access the 'ordinary text' services with TW just by pressing the
text button on your TV remote as you do at the moment on the 5 basic
channels.

On Sun, 29 Oct 2006 16:28:46 -0000, Josey wrote:

There is a chance plusnet will get taken over by BT

See
http://www.cbronline.com/article_new...5-4910AEB44708

Better or Worse? Who knows.

Jc.

Dearer I expect.
Do I stay or do I go? (Jackson Browne)
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
http://www.jimscott.co.uk

I am right in thinking that I can keep my existing aerial too (TV has
only one scart) so that missis can access ordinary text on the 5
basic channels?

You can access the 'ordinary text' services with TW just by pressing the
text button on your TV remote as you do at the moment on the 5 basic
channels.

You sound as if you have TW.
Satisfied (with TW ))?
--
Jim S
Tyneside UK
http://www.jimscott.co.uk

Graham wrote:
Jim S wrote:

Thank you Paul.
My Freeview box has refused me three times this afternoon so I'm
heading TW way.
I am right in thinking that I can keep my existing aerial too (TV has
only one scart) so that missis can access ordinary text on the 5
basic channels?

You can access the 'ordinary text' services with TW just by pressing
the text button on your TV remote as you do at the moment on the 5
basic channels.

Are you sure? It certainly doesn't work that way on my setup. The text needs
an analogue channel and there's no text at all via the cablebox, even if I
press the TV remote's text button.

Jim S wrote:
I am right in thinking that I can keep my existing aerial too (TV
has only one scart) so that missis can access ordinary text on the 5
basic channels?

You can access the 'ordinary text' services with TW just by pressing
the text button on your TV remote as you do at the moment on the 5
basic channels.

You sound as if you have TW.
Satisfied (with TW ))?

I've been with TW for about five years - TV, Broadband and Telephone. Not
really got any complaints. You do get the occassional 'outage' but not very
often and then not for long. The best deals as far as prices go are usually
only available to new customers and then only for a limited time - but the
customer retentions department is swift to offer reduced prices for a period
of time if you point out cheaper deals are around elsewhere - eg when BT
recently cut the price of the unlimited call package.