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NTL hit by email breakdown

Users claim that NTL's email service hasn't worked properly since Friday. The company insists that only a tiny number of people have been affected, but won't go into details
Written by Graeme Wearden, Contributor

NTL has been hit by technical problems that are preventing some users from connecting to the company's email services.

According to the cable company, the fault is only sporadically affecting a very small proportion of its users. But several users have told ZDNet UK that the NTL email service has been close to unusable since last Friday.

NTL says it is working to remedy the issue, which it insists is not a major problem. It also says that it doesn't stop people from sending emails, just from downloading new messages they have received.

"It's an intermittent fault, affecting a tiny number of customers," an NTL spokesman told ZDNet UK on Wednesday. He declined to give precise details of the problem or to say how long it is likely to take before the service is resolved, but insisted that "a quick fix" is being implemented.

A number of NTL users, though, are angry about the lack of information that has been available about the problem.

"All attempts to contact NTL either get ignored, or you get a recorded message saying 'You may have trouble collecting email from one or more of your email addresses,' said one disgruntled reader. He added that when he tries to use NTL's Webmail service he encounters a delay of between five and ten minutes after logging on, and again when he attempts to open, reply to, or delete a message.

Another NTL user, Colin Hurrell, said he has had repeated problems with email since moving to NTL from BT at the end of March this year. "Since transferring to NTL, I have only had about two or three weeks where there have not been email server problems and I have made numerous complaints to your technical support team," wrote Hurrell, in a letter of complaint to NTL. "I now wish I had never left BT".

NTL said it will keep users informed about the condition of its email service through announcements posted on the NTL World Web site.

Are you an NTL user whose email account has been affected by these problems, or is the service working fine for you? Let us know


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