Cable Forum: Major ntl budget cutbacks threatens service for customers: http://www.cableforum.co.uk/article/137/major-ntl-budget-cutbacks-threatens-service-for-customers

  • Only Network Masters/Outages affecting more than 30 telco subs are to be attended out of hours.
  • Power Outages will be attended until 11pm, then cab will have to run on batteries until 8am.
  • No CATV/BB Outages to be attended out-of-hours.
  • No Service Refferals to be attended out-of-hours.
  • No Preventative Maintenance, only fire-fighting.
  • No “Network” Upgrades.
  • No Overtime.

Oh dear – I am already in the middle of moving from cable to ADSL (I can’t stand the lack of static IP and the far-too-low-upload speeds), but if I wasn’t I’d be on hold^H^H^H^Hcalling BT this morning.

That’s assuming that it’s all true, of course: it might, however, be the first solid sign of a merger/takeover since the whole ntl:/Telewest rumour mill began. I’m still not convinced that just because they are the two largest Cable companies they should merge, but then I rarely agree with business analysts.