# So near  but so far



## Muttley1900 (Dec 23, 2008)

Such a dilemma! 

I live in Milton Keynes  

-	I have to the door the old Bt cable service which VM now look after, but very probably wont be upgrading to fibre due to the existing infrastructure being BTs;

-	I am not in a VM cabled street;

-	This time last year, I opted out of that service and went for freeview via aerial and built in digital tuner for the tv and a digi box to link with the series 1 TiVo I also have;

-	My broadband / phone line is with BT  both of which are due for renewal in the next month (mid December for the Broadband and early Jan for the phone line);

-	My broadband line capability is reported to be between 10mbps and 11mbps.

Now my question is, as my broadband / phone line is up for renewal, should I go with VM for these with the hope that the new VM/TiVo box will be usable across broadband for the likes of me who are not in a VM cabled area (as suggested in one or two posts here), or do I stick with BT for another 12 month contract?

BT are currently charging me for Broadband (unlimited) £22.99/month with then a £7.50/month discount, so £15.49 a month.

The phone line is with unlimited weekend and evening calls at £16.28/month and again with a £2.99/month discount, so £13.29 a month.

Both together giving me a current charge of £28.78/month (and checking with BT, this will hold, if not be reduced a little if I carry on with them and one of their new "bundles").

Everything I have looked at with VM for similar packages are more expensive (a total of £36.83/month taking into account x months discounts and an activation fee etc), which although Im not opposed to paying if I knew I was able to get the VM/TiVo box  I dont want to tie into a 12 month more expensive contract without the certainty that the Over the Top service was going to be offered

Choice anxiety!


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

12 months is a long time and something *may* happen, but I would probably leave it another year as they haven't even hinted, never mind announced, any suitable projects.

I am a little confused though.

First you say...



> -	I am not in a VM "cabled" street;


Then you say....



> -	This time last year, I opted out of that service and went for "freeview"...


If you don't have a cable service, how can you 'opt out' of it?

Okay... thinking about it, you probably meant you opted-out of the 'BT cable service' you mentioned in your first point


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## Milhouse (Sep 15, 2001)

Muttley1900 said:


> or do I stick with BT for another 12 month contract?


Don't know what you mean here - surely you have a minimum contract of 12 months, after which you can terminate with minimal notice (usually a month). I'd stay with BT on your now "rolling" contract, and switch to VM if/when they release an OTT box.


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## Muttley1900 (Dec 23, 2008)

cwaring said:


> 12 months is a long time and something *may* happen, but I would probably leave it another year as they haven't even hinted, never mind announced, any suitable projects.


Thanks - I think that is where I'm leaning towards and anyway MK (well my area) goes full digital next March/April - so the digital transmission "should" be boosted a bit at the same time the analogue is switched off. So generally the "digital experience" should be better than it currently is for me.



cwaring said:


> If you don't have a cable service, how can you 'opt out' of it?
> 
> Okay... thinking about it, you probably meant you opted-out of the 'BT cable service' you mentioned in your first point


Sorry for the confusion, but yes you are right, I opted out of the "Bt cable service"


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## Muttley1900 (Dec 23, 2008)

Milhouse said:


> Don't know what you mean here - surely you have a minimum contract of 12 months, after which you can terminate with minimal notice (usually a month).


Thanks, you are right it is a minimum of a 12 month contract, and after the 12 months I can terminate with a months notice, but it maybe something I need to check into a bit more as I think I may loose the "discounts" that they are currently giving me each month after the 12 month is up.


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## Muttley1900 (Dec 23, 2008)

Just been looking at the post over at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8266856#post8266856 where Royfox has mailed Cindy Rose the Executive Director of Digital Entertainment for Virgin Media trying to get the S1 owners/users a deal (nice post by the way) and the response back from Cindy Rose containing:-



royfox said:


> "We are indeed working on a special offer to tempt this group over the Virgin Media (at least those who are lucky enough to be on cable)."


So unless VM can match the deal I have with BT for phone and broadband, there is no point (at this stage) moving over to VM for me  .

I'll just go and polish the old S1 and talk to it nicely for a bit (I'm sure these things "know" when I am thinking of replacing them and it is only after the point I say "nay, I'll not do that for a while", it breaks.


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## Muttley1900 (Dec 23, 2008)

Milhouse said:


> Don't know what you mean here - surely you have a minimum contract of 12 months, after which you can terminate with minimal notice (usually a month). I'd stay with BT on your now "rolling" contract, and switch to VM if/when they release an OTT box.


After checking with the paperwork re the BT broadband offer I was getting - yes it was a minimum of a 12 month contract, but the clever bit (from BT's point of view) was that the reduced price wasn't a reduced price, but 12 months of discounts, so after the 12 months the discounts stopped and I reverted back to "full" price for broadband.

Due to all the work that Royfox has done to get a deal for us S1 people, I'm not going to renew with BT until I know what the deal is (although there is a very slim chance there will be anything for me as I'm not in a VM digital cable area).

J.


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## jonphil (Aug 7, 2002)

I would think if you can't get the VM cable service you maybe out of luck. 
I think Royfox's form stated you need to be in a VM area and willing to take a VM package.
You can only hope for VM to do a deal with BT to use their cable?


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## Muttley1900 (Dec 23, 2008)

jonphil said:


> I would think if you can't get the VM cable service you maybe out of luck.


:sigh: yes you are very probably right... but I still live in hope...


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