Broadband upgrade

[MNS]

Hi all, a little rant.

Don't get me wrong, we are very happy with the service from Sky and the following issue is not Sky's fault to my mind.

We live on the Isle of Sheppey, North Kent. I have Sky Broadband Superfast 35 and we'd like to upgrade to a faster connection but there's a problem. At present we only have the old 1950's copper overhead telephone lines. Last year an BT Open Reach engineer told me that there are no fast fibre connection available in the area.

Tuesday last, on BT Open Reach website, I found it now say's we have the available the fibre connection for our address, yay! ...don't how Sky are going to connect this as we've seen no work been done in our area.

Yesterday, I rang the Sky sales team to get conformation whether is possible or not. He tells me, yes, we can superfast fibre broadband according to the information he had on his screen for our address. I didn't commit to the new package until I got comformation of the new fibre connection from Sky engineer due to see us today, not a problem I can complete this order online if I wish.

Great, OK, all our internet connection issues, like lost of connection or slow internet will be gone but Oh no, it isn't going to be that simple.

Today we had a Sky engineer around for this connection issue, who then tells me the old copper phone lines are never going to be very good which I understand. I asked about the fibre connection. He tells me that it is 3/4 mile down the road at the green telephone hub box, so we would be connected but with same old 1950's copper overhead telephone lines, thus only giving 60 to 70% the fibre speed.

Don't know about all of you, but I do not pay for half the service!

To add to this, when I login to the Sky website today I get this message...

I feel sorry for the sales team who obviously have been given the incorrect information by Open Reach, or whoever supplies the installation data and annoyed we cannot upgrade from frankly a connection that is at times as bad as the old dial up internet.

Does anyone know, when, if ever these connections are ever going to be installed, probably not.

[Giggsy1977]

Have a look here

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

and post the results (with any personal information removed) and we'll be able to tell if it's available now or not. 

[MNS]

Thank you for the link.

Here's the result.

[MNS]

Any idea what they mean by "Potential line of sight problems"?

[cookiemonsteruk]

@MNS 

Wbc fttp is available so you can upgrade.  Line of sight usually means trees with overhanging branches that may require a cherry picker and or lopping

[TimmyBGood]

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@MNS wrote:

Does anyone know, when, if ever these connections are ever going to be installed, probably not.

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The Openreach target to get FTTP within reach of every commercially viable address in the UK is by the end of 2026: that's not exactly a trivial undertaking.

The BT Wholesale result shows you can get it now (subject to those branches being cleared) but Sky may not have updated their sales system from the Openreach database yet: they do seem to be rather slow at that.

[TimmyBGood]

@MNS 

As confirmation, perhaps try the address in the EE website. 

[MNS]

@cookiemonsteruk

Line of sight usually means trees with overhanging branches that may require a cherry picker and or lopping

@TimmyBGood 

(subject to those branches being cleared)

I thought that was what it might mean, only...

Since we've lived here there's never been any trees. I'm wondering if it's because the KCC Highways stopped BT installing a new telegraph pole in as our pavement outside is less than one metre wide?

[MNS]

EE comes up with Full Fibre deals for the address but doesn't say one way or the other if it can be connected.

Out of interest here the OpenReach Broadband checker page:

[cookiemonsteruk]

@MNS 

As @TimmyBGood mentioned sky can be a bit slow picking up on the openreach database.  Leave it a week or 2 and check on your my sky app broadband upgrade options .  It is only when it appears as an upgrade option that you can place the order and then worry about what possible line of sight problems there are

[Giggsy1977]

Sky will eventually catch up to the BT checker. I'd check in once a day or every few days to see when it's available on the Sky website them give them a call and you'll be on your way. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@MNS wrote:

EE comes up with Full Fibre deals for the address but doesn't say one way or the other if it can be connected.

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Seeing those speeds of Ultrafast for sale is confirmation FTTP is available: ISP databases populate from the wholesale lookup.

The only issue at your address is likely to be installation delay while Openreach clear the overhead route.