Thousands of NTL subscribers to its high-speed internet access service have deluged the cable company with complaints after it imposed a limit on their use of its so-called "unlimited" service.
Customers are up in arms after NTL changed the terms and conditions of its internet services to limit the amount of music, video and web pages that they can download per day. Since the weekend thousands have deluged internet message boards and NTL chief executive Barclay Knapp with complaints.
The NTHellWorld website, a consumer site bought by NTL last year as part of a drive to improve customer service, has received more than 3,800 comments on the subject since Friday afternoon.
And a dedicated complaints website, www.don't-pay-ntl.co.uk, has also been set up to encourage subscribers to the broadband service not to pay their next bill or switch provider.
"This is an absolute disgrace. What are they on? This will cripple NTL," says one. Another customer labels the move an "outrage" while another adds, "I can't believe what I have just read. I have just signed up to broadband and the fact they are limiting it is not right".
According to those affected, the guidelines for the service were changed on Friday without their knowledge. Anyone downloading more than 1Gb of information per day for three days in the same fortnight will be blacklisted and risk having their connection terminated.
One gigabyte, equivalent to 1,024 megabytes, is a lot of information - an entire computer CD-rom takes around 600 megabytes of information.
NTL claimed it has taken the step to stop heavy users slowing down the network for everyone else, and argued that it was equivalent to downloading 20,000 web pages or 10,000 images a day.
"NTL's broadband and dial-up services are intended for normal recreational or educational use by individuals and families and our pricing and network architecture have been designed accordingly. Customers who use the services more heavily than a normal home user will reduce the performance of the network for other customers," it said in response to those who complained.
But broadband users who use their connection to download games, music and video claim that they will reach the new limit in just two and a half hours and are threatening to cancel their subscription and move elsewhere.
NTL has over 500,000 broadband subscribers to its 'Gold' service, which is 20 times faster than normal dial-up web access and its 'Silver' 512kb service, which is 10 times faster. They cost £35 per month and £25 per month respectively.
The uprising will worry NTL executives planning to make broadband the cornerstone of its "triple play" telephone, television and high speed internet proposition, which they hope will tempt customers away from Sky.
NTL chief executive Barclay Knapp said the move would not affect the vast majority of subscribers.
"We felt it was important to remind our customers of this policy as we were seeing a small but growing proportion of very heavy users sometimes degrading the service across the board for everyone - and some who abuse the service by, among other things, hosting commercial web sites from their homes," said Mr Knapp, who has recently led the company through a financial restructuring to halve its £12bn debt.
"Broadband is still in its early days as a technology, and we are trying very hard to find the right balance between service and cost so that our service can be truly universal," he added in an email to customers.
"NTL broadband is a good service and we want to keep it that way for all of our customers. It will not affect 99% of our customers. People can still surf for 24hours a day if they want to," added an NTL spokesman, saying that it planned to set up a "heavy users" group with those that had complained to try to find a way around the problem.
