Sky Broadband - Don't have 'BT' line into property

[PapaBear7777]

Hi everyone, 

Looking to switch to Sky for BB as VM are becoming a total joke with their pricing. Looking for some advice on a possible stumbling block.

Outside the property there is both a VM  and a BT junction box( little plastic cabinet things stuck to the wall) but only a VM cable coming into the property. I imagine when VM installed years back they cut the BT cables as was the practice of both entities back in the day. Our VM cable is Gigabit capable although we don't have it. It also feeds our TiVo box. We are forced to pay for a damn phone line rental despite not having one & not having had a landline phone in the property for plus 10 years. 

Can Sky bridge to the cable we have or is it off limits as it's VM's property? I think I know the answer but hey you never know as it might not work that way nowadays.

If the fibre cable we have coming in cannot be used and we need a new cable/ phone line then how does that work and whats the average timescale cost? We live in the centre of Brighton so very urban. I do appreciate that the reality of this answer is likely along the lines of 'how longs a piece of string' so am only looking for guidance not to hold anyone to any given guesstimate along with any links to any solurces I can use to establish such things myself in a more accurate manner. 

Thanks in advance for any & all assistance 

PapaBear

NOTES: When selecting our property on skys site they said 'superfast' but then also ranged that at 67-84 which is stretching the term somewhat imho but hey. I add this as being in., literally, the centre of a city it makes me question if we have FFTH, leaning towards probably not. 

[The+Real+DJ]

Hello, 

From the speeds you mention, it looks like you only have Fiber to the Cab rather than Fiber to the home on openreach's network, the install process would be simple though, but thats the fastest you would be able to get until open reach roll out full fiber in your area. 

Have a look here to confirm.... 

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

that will tell you if you can get FTTP or your stuck with the slower FTTC.

A few years back I moved from VM with a 300Mbps connection to a sky 60Mbps due to the stability and constant router reboots, even with the slower speed I was a lot happier with it!

[jamesn123]

Hi @PapaBear7777 

Lead time is on average 2 weeks (10 working days) for Openreach to connect you. Since you only have superfast available there will be no requirement to install a new fibre cable to your home.

However Sky will not be able to use your existing VM cabling and if Openreach do not have any record of VM cutting their cables they may think you still have existing internal cabling as well as a BT/Openreach master socket so will probably arrange for a 'Remote Activation' to take place. I am assuming you dont have a master socket currently so you'll need to make Sky aware of this so that they can organise for Openreach to come and fit one. Due to the way that Openreach work orders are entered you may not be able to get anyone to come out until after your original activation date so I'd keep your VM connection live until you know you have a working Sky connection. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@PapaBear7777 wrote:

NOTES: When selecting our property on skys site they said 'superfast' but then also ranged that at 67-84 which is stretching the term somewhat imho but hey. I add this as being in., literally, the centre of a city it makes me question if we have FFTH, leaning towards probably not. 

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'Superfast' is the accepted marketing term for FTTC ('up to' 80Mbs).  Even FTTC capped at 40Mbs is 'Superfast'.

Broadband delivered over FTTH / FTTP would usually be branded 'Ultrafast' or 'Gigafast', although it is also possible to provision a nominally 'Superfast' broadband service over full fibre infrastructure.

[PapaBear7777]

@jamesn123 Thanks that's a great help & info to bare in mind. We are about to go 'out of contract' with VM but I think i'll just pay the one month to cover us whilst I look to get setup with Sky. 

@TimmyBGood Thanks for that clarification. I guess I am too used to VM's speeds which is about the only thing I will actually miss.