the internet used to cut out a lot and wasn't very reliable, i must say though that it was more reliable than the new virgin broadband service. It was connected most of the time and was pretty fast. Not the most reliable internet in the world but it was ok i suppose thats why im not giving it a very good rating.

At least NTL Broadband stayed up long enough to type this.

I have been with them over the last few years on and off, with different houses, exchanges and locations, and they have never let me down.

I had a glitch when NTL Broadband had the old grey modems, and annoyingly it took a phone call of obvious "have you plugged it in" style phone calls to get a replacement, but after a blunt "No light on the modem, it's completely dead" response to their questions, I got what I needed - a nice new reliable modem.

I've had my Virgin broadband since November. I have had nothing but problems, especially with my bills as every month I've been over charged, I have written in twice with no reply, and now been forced to cancel my direct debit at the bank. My service is 2mb and for the last 2 month has been running very slow,taken at least 15 seconds to load up a web page. Called customer service and got no help at all and was told my broadband is fine, and it clearly wasn't.

I cancelled my Virgin broadband last Friday, had to pay a early termination fee of £80
Best thing I've done this year, NO MORE STRESS!

I strongly wouldn't recommend broadband with Virgin as they don't value the customers, you will find the service is slow, just don't make the same mistake I did. There are much better company's out there for a lot less money.

After being with them for more than 3 years, we had a few problems, but we were always sorted (despite a long wait for technical support).

Since Virgin took over NTL Broadband, we have had nothing but problems. The internet stops working for days at a time, and phoning technical support in India is completely pointless.

After a two hour call and multiple pointless tests, we were told it was our PC's. I know enough about networking and internet connections to know the problem was nothing to do with our hardware; but it was either the modem or the service itself. Support were adamant that nothing was wrong on their end, and they refused to send out an engineer, and if they did, they would charge me! Needless to say, I have since cancelled my broadband with them.

I would dread to think of the problems people would have if they didn't know much about computers and connections, and if their only resource is Virgin Media technical support!

I was hoping Virgin would improve on NTL's services when they took over, but this clearly isn't the case.

I can't get access to it in one of my houses, even though my neighbours can, which seems stupid, and I have to use the internet over a BT line, which sucks!

If you can use NTL cable broadband - use it!

They have just taken over by Virgin (the review here of their service is much worse than NTL, so who knows what will happen)!

I gave up using the email service early on, as it was seriously unreliable, and I haven't changed anything for quite a while. Once it is in and working, it is fine and a good speed.

It is not the cheapest, which is why I'm looking on the Review Centre site to switch! Sounds like the others are just as bad, but cheaper! I pay 25.99 for 4Mb.

I'm being lured by Sky's £26 (+ £11 line rental with BT) for 4Mb broadband, 6 pack TV, and weekend and evening calls package. I'm paying 25.99 just for broadband, £5.50 for analogue (yes) TV and £11 phone.

They can no longer give the service they gave, as Virgin have taken over. Well sorry, not at my expense!

NTL Broadband have broken the contract, so I am no longer held to a 12 month deal. I may go back to AOL or BT.

We installed NTL after having used BT (with no problems), and since the beginning, we found that the connection was intermittent (it would disconnect and connect constantly). We called the customer service centre several times. They spent a long time trying to prove that the problem was on our side and not in theirs (our PC, the router, etc)... We changed routers 3 times, tried to connect with different PC's. Nothing!!!!
We had problems with our NTL cable as well, so a technical guy came round, and he told us that this was a common problem. He said that with Virgin on-board, investments were likely to increase, so problems should be solved. LET'S HOPE!

I had NTL installed because of their 10MB service. Everything was installed as it should be however when we tried to use the internet it wouldn't turn connect. (The ready light was out). NTL customer services were promptly called.

Almost two hours were spent on the phone trying to sort this out. We were being passed from call centre agent to call centre agent, then finially back to the first call centre agent/tech support person in the first place and this went on and on. After two hours they finially told us our account didn't exist and our account number belonged to someone else so we had to re register with NTL and go through the process of setting broadband up manually.

When we finially got the internet going it has been almost flawless. The download and upload speeds are usually constant. 1200kbps download transfer rate means 1gb of data can be downloaded in around ten minutes. The upload transfer rate is 60kbps so if you have online photo or video collections then this really takes the pain out up uploading them to you album.

"Unlimited bandwidth" (subject to a fair usage policy) means you can download and browse without worrying about your service being cut off, getting nasty letters or a surcharge on your bill coming in at the end of the month.

When it was good, it was very, very good, But when it was bad, 'it was horrid'. We have finally given up ntl after trialling a different service alongside, and the difference has been incredible.
The final nail in the coffin was the appalling telephone support - with numerous reasons to contact customer services, the delay in getting to speak to someone in the first place was infuriating, never mind being passed around and being told that someone would call back, but never did. For the level of service, it was seriously over-priced. We have gone.

NTL scores with me because it doesn't 'go down' - it seems to give a very reliable service, with good speeds. It's also easy to get hold of their customer service team for technical advice.

You think the quality wouldn't be as good with such good prices but it is, amazing connection, very easy to set up and if you need help the staff are really friendly. Great Internet service provider that will leave you satisfied I guarantee, go get it!

The operators I have come into contact with seem to be based in a different country, so when you try to fix your internet over the phone it can be frustrating to have a language barrier to deal with at the same time.
They are useless with the bill, they have charged me double on a number of occasions.

They offer a reasonable TV service, and it is cheap if you combine with telephone line, but the broadband is a bit on the pricey side. You do get realistic download and upload speeds (not like others that tell you up to 8Mb and only offer 2Mb if you're lucky). NTL seem to put your speed up for free rather than give price reductions. Overall, it is a good service. Customer service is not to bad, as long as you speak to them in layman's terms (don't think they are very experienced. I think most are young college leavers with hardly any experience).

A good service though - 8/10.

This is absolutely the worst service I have ever got from any company.

NTL Broadband's product is rubbish and expensive in comparison to the competition and impossible to cancel.

When NTL first launched, they were a complete shambles, with many of their failures in the media and Internet. Ignoring the first year or two of their life, they have now become a solid ISP provider who I often recommend to friends.

I subscribed to the then 512k cable connection within 6 months of it being initially released, and it cost me £25/month. The modem I received all that time ago finally died last month. NTL replaced the modem with their latest model within 2 business days. Since originally subscribing, I have been upgraded from 512k to 2Mb, and then to 4Mb, and I believe it is going even higher soon.

The connection is flawless. Downtime is so minor that this is the only mention it is getting. On good quality servers (ie. Microsoft) I always hit 300kb/sec+. Recently I have been getting higher speeds, but that isn't all the time yet.

The D.N.S. servers, apart from one blip a few months ago, have always been solid since I joined. I don't use NTL POP3 email, so I cannot comment on that.

My only real gripe is upload is still mulling around the 25kb/sec figure, which is only 10kb/sec higher than when I joined.

No issues with payments. Direct debits have been fully automated since day one. Apart from when my modem failed, I have had no other dealings ever with NTL customer service, so I cannot comment further. Although that is a complement in itself.

I guess at the end of the day I rate NTL very highly because they do what I pay them to do without causing me any hassle, which is a lot more than other ISP's from what I've heard and read over the years.

I have been with NTL for 10 years now (originally Cable Tel), and I have always had the full package; TV, Phone and Internet connection. I have over the years found the service to be quite patchy at times, whether it is no TV, and large noise over telephone or days without Internet connection. But despite these many problems, NTL have always resolved them, and in most cases given some sort of compensation, such as 3 months of free service or refund the previous months bill.

I just didn't realise how good they were until I read all the awful experiences of other reviews and other companies.

To sum up, I think that Internet, although over 15 years old in the public life, is still a relatively new thing, and from time to time things are still going to go wrong. The difference is, with NTL they will go out of their way to resolve any issues, and they are willing to put the customer first, making them a good ISP provider.