My experience with the new Sky Broadband Hub

[Mark-Br]

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@Chrisee wrote:

@davegka I think there is some confusion.

Sky is trialling a new product called SOGEA where customers do not have a traditional phoneline connection they get the voice service over IP. The new sr203 has two phone sockets one for UK phones and one for ROI and Italian phones. The only people so far who have the new hubs apart from some staff and James and myself are people on that trial.

If you are one of those there is no traditional phone connection at the exchange so plugging a phone into the master socket wont give a dialling tone you have to use the socket on the router but have no need for filters anywhere. Read the set up guide  that came with the router.

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As @Chrisee mentioned, Sky are currently offering VOIP to some customers as part of a SOGEA order - this may be useful information for some Sky Community regulars. 🙂

As this service works slightly differently to traditional phone lines, it may not be suitable for customers in some circumstances e.g. if you have a care alarm or no mobile phone access. Of course, staff will ask the relevant questions to make sure the right service is ordered for you.

[davegka]

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@jewers wrote:

@.Chris.... Many thanks for getting back to me.  In the post above my previous one it states that landline phone plugged into back of router,  I have read about new broadband hub on Sky website and there is a place on the back which is labelled UK phone.  Does this mean that phone line would no longer go into Master socket and go into back of router instead?  I know that Sky may not allow me to buy this new router but would be grateful if you could educate me on this.  Many thanks.

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Yes your right the phone doesn't work in the master socket only when plugged into the back of the hub.

[davegka]

I can only get my phone to work when plugged into the hub and no where else in the house, Sky tell me this is right. I don't know why but I do know I can't get any phone to work in a micro filter or a different socket

[Chrisee]

@davegka If you are on the SOGEA trial then you no longer have a traditional phone voice line and are using Voice Over Internet Protocol for voice calls, which means you have to use the socket on the new hub to connect your phone.

This should have been explained before you signed up to the trial. You no longer need line filters as they keep the voice signal and the internet signal on the same copper line from interfering.  

[Magicmart]

Morning I’ve had a right mere so ordered sky superfast on the 6 June wasn’t told anything about voip ect hub came and I was over joyed as at my mums she has the q router very poor.  On the 9 June I got a text saying all work compleat and will be getting a call for appointments. Got the call next day asked when would I like it installed I said 17 July (moving in date)  ok no problem 12 of June got a text saying openreach are having issues progress the order we will update you in 24 hours, this was the same message untill 15 July then got texts saying your Openreach Engineer will be there 8-1  plz be home or may incur a £65 charge,  at 3pm on the 17th  I rang sky to find out why there had been a no show from the engineer after over an hour I was told that openreach didn’t assign the job and it has now been put a  as a bridge case we would need to wait 48 hours before we could rebook, since the 17 of July to 1 of August I’ve had 8 bridge cases they said the job was stuck in system at openreach and couldn’t move or make changes, so lady on the phone said if we cancel the order then reorder so was cancelled on the 1 st and they couldn’t cancel it so it was bridged 3 more times  I finally got told yesterday in now in the final  stages of being cancelled they are now saying maybe  we should reorder with out voip they send me out. A. Q router  but I don’t want a. Q router she says I can use the. New 4.2 hub I got sent out  but my question is will this hub still work  ? If I don’t have voip  just the normal line and if it goes faulty will they replace 4.2 with a 4.2 ? As to me I’ve seen the q hub and wasn’t impressed and it’s a deal. Beaker 

[Chrisee]

Hi @Magicmart Yes the new hub works just fine without voip - that is how my test hub is set up. The only thing to remember is you will need a filtered master socket or a line filter if you have a traditional voice line which was not mentioned in the set up guide.

Openreach have a unique way of messing up and you seem to have had a major issue. The SOGEA is still in trial so suspect that is one cause - a family member of mine was on one of the early g.fast trials and had similar issues.

[Magicmart]

Thank you for a reply 

cos it won’t be running voip dose that impact on speed ie won’t be running as fast 

[jamesn123]

@Magicmart 

Whether you use VOIP or not it should make no difference to your broadband service or speed.

[simon194]

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@Magicmart wrote:

Thank you for a reply 

cos it won’t be running voip dose that impact on speed ie won’t be running as fast 

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VoIP uses very little bandwidth. The highest quality code, G.711, tops out at a massive 87 Kbps, so unless you have a very very slow connection you aren't going to see any impact.

[Steve-35]

Nothing short of curiosity driving me to ask this question but can anyone tell me the difference, if any, between the two hubs available, one with black label one with grey?? I’m not on the trial so don’t have the hub, just interested to know more.  

[Magicmart]

The black one is  the standard the other is for the G fast service that’s coming soon in a very few small areas currently 

[Laing1]

So I was also given a new hub 4 to trial but due to holidays etc I was only able to look at this last Saturday. I was wondering what I could do differently to the reviews that @jamesn123  and @Chrisee  have provided.

For a start I am not as knowledgeable as both of them when it comes to broadband etc so I decided to do a video of me unboxing the router and looking at it. 

I have also included some pictures and and some screenshots from wifi analyser of before the new router and after the new router

[video]

The following are some pictures of the router and cables supplied

Front of hub 4

Back of hub 4

cables included

I live in a standard 2 storey house built in the 60's the loft space has been converted in to another room and is the room that is furthest from the router.

So before installing the new router I wanted to take take a reading of how strong/weak a signal I was getting in the loft room from the Q hub and then do the same with the new hub 4. I swithed off all Q boxes so the signal had to come from the router.

The first pic is from the Q hub the second is from the new hub 4 not overly scientific

screenshot of Q hub

screenshot of hub 4

so from the screenshots we can see that both the 2.4Ghz and the 5 Ghz show an increased signal. I can also say since using the new hub 4 there have been no complaints from anyone on the performance of it.

All in all I think this is a big improvement over the previous Sky hubs 

[Sinth]

@Laing1 

Congrats and great you confirm an increase in Wifi.

My landline is only really used for family contact and I use my mobile to call out so internet landline would suit me fine tbh (unless people struggle to ring in from a standard landline)

[jay111111]

Hi anyone got any idea when normal sky customers are going to be able to get this?

[Chrisee]

@jay111111 Sky seem to be making a bit of a drama about the launch but it should be within a month or so but availability maybe restricted. There are a few thousand out on pilots already.