Obviously the upgrade wasn't 100% free but it didn't involve any extra hardware just a profile change. I doubt that they had to increase any capacity either as each cab has a fibre back to the exchange and supports less lines than a VM optical node. The fact it was rolled out nationwide (well everywhere with FTTC at least) in short order reinforces that.

I'm not sure who was first announcing their upgrades - certainly BT were first to deliver though because VM did need to upgrade capacity. I thought VM only announced their upgrade because BT had but may be wrong. Certainly it is only BS pushing ever higher headline speeds because the majority simply don't need them. Those that do are almost certainly unprofitable customers.

BY was run on the cheap and to get it up to scratch cost the combined group an awful lot of money.

Sadly VM adopted BY's capacity planning model rather than ntl's.

They could definitely do things better but aren't going to be crushed by BT or anyone else. The company is profitable and doing well. I just wish I'd bought shares when they were down at under $4.