topic BROADBAND SUPER FAST-or not as my case is! in Archive

BROADBAND SUPER FAST-or not as my case is!

JMWwwwwwwwwwwwwww — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 05:22:46 GMT

Well SKY, here we are again...☹️ I recently upgraded my SKY bundle to UHD, I also asked if I could upgrade my broadband to 'Superfast' from the old 'SKY fibre unlimited'. Ironically, there has been absolutly no change to my bb speed at all, so I can only sumise that it's the same package under its new name! The speed I'm assured by SKY is supposed to be 60-73 Mb/s, it's only 33 Mb/s. Apparently, it's because my property is so far away from the 'cabinet' & it's not on an optical fibre line my garenteed speed cannot be acheived; so upgraded it then!

I wish SKY would stop blaming Openreach for my broadband speed issue & contribute more to speed up, upgrade & improve the UK's antiquated network, or simply cut the cost of my line rental as well as my bb package.

Two years ago before relocating to Barnard Castle we resided in Darlington & enjoyed Virgin Media's bb package which delivered 200 Mb/s download speed. Maybe it's time to relocate back to Darlington & Virgin Media! 😃

Re: BROADBAND SUPER FAST-or not as my case is!

JPR007 — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 05:58:47 GMT

@JMWwwwwwwwwwwwwww As you have discovered, Unlimited is the same as the old Fibre max just with a different name, but it should still provide the same speeds.

What speed did they say you should expect to achieve, and what is it saying you are getting on the line checker in the MySky app?

As much as I would like to agree with that simple mantra of "well upgrade it then", it isn't quite as simple as that. So Sky are right to be blaming Openreach.

All ISP's aside from Virgin (and apart from a few independent FTTP startups in big cities), lease the lines and exchange equipment from Openreach, so it is not there infrastructure to upgrade. It is not down to Sky (or Talk Talk, Vodafone, or whoever) to just "upgrade" a line to full fibre that isn't there's in the first place. Also the line rental is a cost from Openreach to Sky and is the cost of renting the physical line, and nothing to do with its speed, so no they can't just drop the price of the line rental either.
FTTP is in the (very slow and expensive) process of rolling out but it will take time to replace all the old copper wires that currently adorn most of our infrastructure. It's a legacy we are left with from yesterdecades.

Yes this is far from an ideal 21st century Britain, but there isn't a massive amount that can be done that quickly, whether you like it or not. Maybe best to move back to Virgin....

Re: BROADBAND SUPER FAST-or not as my case is!

Chrisee — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 06:19:34 GMT

@JMWwwwwwwwwwwwwww to add to @JPR007 's excellent post while you have to use copper phone lines the length of the line sets the speed which is simple physics. Not seen any isp discounting services on longer lines not least because Openreach charge them a standard charge which is a benefit as longer lines cost more to maintain.

Sky like Talk Talk do not own or run their own network so like BT's subsidiaries buy capacity on Openreach's network. Openreach are running fibre direct to 20 million addresses as part of a £12bn investment programme and have covered roughly 4.5 million of those so far. Quite when or if your area will be covered is down to Openreach's programme so see here

Other network providers maybe supporting your area with fibre or you maybe in one of the roughly 50% of adddresses Virgin Media's network passes otherwise like the rest of us you are stuck using copper phone lines. At 30Mb/s you are unlikely to be a target for public money as you are classed as having a superfast service as many customers are stuck below 10Mb/s so are higher priority.