Users call for anti-NTL protest

Valentine's Day massacre

Angry NTL customers are trying to drum up support for a public demonstration of defiance against the cableco following its decision to cap its broadband service.

Some are calling for a "mass cancellation" of their service on Valentine's Day (this Friday) while others want to use the day simply to disconnect from the service in a bid to register their dissatisfaction.

Either way, the newsgroups are buzzing with suggestions about how to make NTL understand the unrest felt by its broadband customers.

They include:

• A public demonstration outside NTL's offices
  
• Withholding payment
  
• Massively exceeding the 1 gig a day limit but ensuring that this does not breach guidelines that say people will only be targeted if they exceed the daily data limit for three or more days in any consecutive 14-day period.

At the moment, there doesn't appear to be any co-ordinated campaign of action that would cement the opposition to NTL's decision to cap the service.

Instead, many people have taken their own decision by cancelling or downgrading their services in protest at the move.

Others have complained to Oftel, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the BBC's flagship consumer affair programme Watchdog. There have even been calls for the resignation of senior execs at NTL over the affair.

It's clear that NTL has badly misjudged opposition to this move. ®

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