topic Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin in Broadband

Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:00:29 GMT

My broadband speed was twice as fast a few months ago. I was told at the time that this was slightly slower than normal.

Now the connection keeps buffering and the Sky App tells me that the half speed is 'good'.

When I contacted Sky, they told me the speed I had was 'good'. They were unaware that the speed had been twice as fast. They had no answer when I told them I had the name and number of the Sky engineer and evidence that it was twice as fast.

I was advised by the Sky phone rep to move to Virgin but keep the Sky tv package. I don't see why I should subsidize Sky when they won't improve their service.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

Chrisee — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:05:24 GMT

@DishDash can you post your Sky hubs stats see Find your Sky Broadband router statistics

as those should showxwhat is going on.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

TimmyBGood — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:11:06 GMT

@DishDash wrote:

I was advised by the Sky phone rep to move to Virgin but keep the Sky tv package. I don't see why I should subsidize Sky when they won't improve their service.

Virgin can provide guaranteed speed over their private coaxial network which no Openreach ISP can match over FTTC.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:27:40 GMT

Thanks. This is it.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

TimmyBGood — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:32:30 GMT

@DishDash

That's an ADSL connection, which puts it in the slowest 1% of broadband nationally.

2.6Mbs inbound and 0.7Mbs outbound.

I'm not surprised Sky suggested Virgin, if there's no Openreach infrastructure better than ADSL available locally.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:32:22 GMT

Not about matching them. It's that Sky's service has substantially worsened.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

TimmyBGood — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:37:54 GMT

@DishDash

ADSL at twice as fast is still dreadful.

If it's in the UK, putting the address into the BT Wholesale Availability Checker should indicate what might be available.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

It's the table and the two text lines below it which are most useful.

Remove any personal information (such as the address itself) if you post an image.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

cookiemonsteruk — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:34:44 GMT

@DishDash

Could you enter you full address below and post the table and notes after removing your address from the image

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:35:09 GMT

It was closer to 5 mpbs earlier this year.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

cookiemonsteruk — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:36:45 GMT

@DishDash

Using the link we would see what else is available

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

TimmyBGood — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:39:29 GMT

@DishDash

All ADSL is bad by any modern standards, particularly as the outbound speed is inherently so limited.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

HiHowAreYa — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:40:38 GMT

Out of interest, is there a date if you put your details into the open reach checker

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:46:48 GMT

Thank you to everyone who replied. I never realised Sky decided to leave us in the worst 1% of the country. I've been a VIP customer for several years so it looks like that doesn't mean much *grimace*

I'm going to call Sky tomorrow and if they can't help, I'll then take the advice and move to Virgin.

I've spoken with the family and they mainly watch online services anyway.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:49:25 GMT

It just says 'not yet available'.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

TimmyBGood — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:51:22 GMT

@DishDash wrote:

I never realised Sky decided to leave us in the worst 1% of the country. I've been a VIP customer for several years so it looks like that doesn't mean much *grimace*

Neither Sky nor any other Openreach ISP can provide anything better if FTTC never reached your area and FTTP isn't there yet. That's unusual, but certainly not unknown.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

HiHowAreYa — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:53:25 GMT

Oh dear, that's it then. ADSL, virgin, and mobile broadband are your only possible.

The only reason why someone is still on ADSL, is because your to far away from the nearest fttc cabinet.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

TimmyBGood — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 21:44:22 GMT

@HiHowAreYa wrote:

The only reason why someone is still on ADSL, is because your to far away from the nearest fttc cabinet.

@DishDash

Some remaining ADSL is actually found in dense urban areas where local authorities have blocked the installation of additional cabinets, while in others there's not enough FTTC capacity for the current population (typically where properties have been subdivided)

Realistically there's no new investment going into FTTC, so the situation won't improve until FTTP arrives.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 20:59:31 GMT

I've just checked and Virgin is 132 mbps for £26 a month.

Certainly beats 2 mbps 🙂

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

DishDash — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 21:01:26 GMT

cabinets?

Any idea why it's so bad? I've been to developing countries and it's been a lot better.

Re: Sky advising to move to Virgin

TimmyBGood — Sat, 17 Aug 2024 21:45:01 GMT

@DishDash

As in 'Fibre To The Cabinet' (FTTC)

Typically 'developing countries' never had ADSL (which relies on legacy phone wiring from local exchanges) and jumped straight to faster cabled internet technologies or just bypassed this entirely and adopted cellular and satellite data distribution.