Unstable connection

[Jase31]

Hello. Ever since the bad storm we had at the end of January (we had a warning sent to our phones) my Internet has been horrendous.  When it's a windy day my connection can drop every 30 seconds all day making it impossible to use. Other the next period of 7 days my speed goes from 20/79999 down to 14/39999 with my guaranteed speed of 65mbs not being achieved (can only get 30 average). Sky then send an openreach engineer out who say they can't find any issue, but they'll tweak some things and then leave. The speeds go back to my contracted 20/79999 and the connection seems OK for a couple of days unless it's windy and then it's back to the same cycle of dropping, speeds go down to 14/39999 over the next few days and Sky send another openreach engineer. I made a complaint and Sky's final resolution was I can leave without any penalty. This isn't any use to me as the only options for broadband is an openreach network so I'll get the same issues anywhere else. I just want my issue fixed. How can openreach not find any issue when clearly there is one? The last openreach who visited my property told me he's absolutely shocked Sky haven't request a tier 2 senior technician out. I also was shocked. I didn't know this was an option. He told me they have better tools to check for weather damage. This made me think they're deliberately not sending one out as it probably costs money to do this. I contacted Sky immediately and was told the openreach engineer was talking rubbish and there was no tier 2 technician. After a lot of digging and speaking to ofcom and the broadband universal service obligation i find out there is higher level engineers for openreach! I was even told Sky look like they don't care and maybe trying another company would care. I was so angry with Sky. I've been a customer for almost 15 years! I contacted retentions and told them my story and to my shock I was told by a manager I should of been sent a tier 2 openreach engineer. After months they finally admit this is an option! What a disgrace. Below is a graph of how clearly you can see there's a serious issue and if it only triggers this when it's windy it has to be weather damage imo.

 

 

 I'm now having to write this all here as the last month Skys phone service to technical support has an automated voice saying they're too busy and drops the call. I've had the retention team witness this. I'm so disappointed in Sky. A company as big as Sky shouldn't be this bad. You've proven to me that you don't even care about loyal customers when they have issues or at least you don't show it. I will give Sky one last opportunity to send a tier 2 engineer before I leave for BT!

[TimmyBGood]

@Jase31 

It appears that your FTTC connection is being automatically capped by Openreach Dynamic Line Management (DLM) at 40Mbs, presumably because adverse line conditions are being detected.

Realistically, Openreach is running down support for copper circuits as it pushes the national FTTP rollout: there's very little any individual client ISPs can do about this.

The Universal Service Obligation is for 10Mbs broadband, and BT is the USO ISP, not Sky or any other (apart from KCOM in their monopoly region)

In theory, and according to Ofcom regulation, BT has no more access to Openreach services than any other ISP despite Openreach Ltd being wholly owned by BT Group.

[Daniel0210]

---

@Jase31 wrote:

You've proven to me that you don't even care about loyal customers when they have issues or at least you don't show it. I will give Sky one last opportunity to send a tier 2 engineer before I leave for BT!

---

@Jase31 

Threatening to leave is pointless on here I'm afraid. You aren’t contacting Sky Customer Services on here. This is a customer led discussion forum where Sky customers are available to try to help other customers.

[JimM1]

@Jase31 Can you post up your hub stat's let the fields all fill in for a couple minutes before you capture them! Image as per the sample link below so we can see how the link looks in general!  

How to read your Sky Hub statistics

[Jase31]

@TimmyBGood thanks for the reply. Ofcom have told me there is something you can do as the deadline for the full fibre rollout keeps getting delayed. It's now been changed to 2030 i was told. I've been told it's a requirement for a provider to fix an issue and I even asked if they can't, are you able to have them replace the whole copper wire. I was told potentially yes as it's part of a competition act (can't remember the actual quote ofcom said). 

All I'm hoping is Sky finally send around a level 2 tier openreach engineer and finally fix the issue. 

@Daniel0210 It's not a threat. It's literally what I'm going to have to do if Sky can't fix my issue. This whole post is documentation in the nightmare I've been going through and in hope someone has went through similar and if they got a solution. 

[TimmyBGood]

---

@Jase31 wrote:

 Ofcom have told me there is something you can do as the deadline for the full fibre rollout keeps getting delayed. It's now been changed to 2030 i was told.

The target date for the end of the commercial phase of the national FTTP rollout is December 2026.

I've been told it's a requirement for a provider to fix an issue and I even asked if they can't, are you able to have them replace the whole copper wire. I was told potentially yes as it's part of a competition act (can't remember the actual quote ofcom said). 

I suspect that's extremely unlikely while the circuit is still providing four times the USO threshold.  In any case, 'lines' are the domain of Openreach rather than any ISP.

---

[Jase31]

Hey @JimM1  

[JimM1]

@Jase31 Soon as the picture gets cleared for viewing will take a look see!👍

[JimM1]

@Jase31 You need the assistance off the old copper Engineers with Phone cable experience, there getting pretty thin on the ground now with all the Fibre priority, but they are good at back tracing error's in the cable transmisson line, Speed you have they don't have far to go as you are up near the max to start with, so your Green Street box must be REAL close to your home!

[Jase31]

@TimmyBGood I was literally told on Thursday it's been now changed from 2026 to 2030 from Ofcom. 

I agree it's highly unlikely they replace the whole wire if the rollout out was 2026 but being pushed back a further 4 years should be an option and again Ofcom said there's a possible way. How can you suddenly just be without any Internet and not have it replaced for several years in this day and age. 

What's worrying is that you could possibly be right and the actual regulator is wrong. 

[Jase31]

@JimM1 cheers again for the advice. This is what the last openreach engineer said. He was surprised after all this time it wasn't requested by Sky. The problem is or was, is Sky are saying there is nobody that can do this and every engineer has the same level of expertise. Yesterday was the first time I was told by Sky by a manager that I was wrongly advised.

[JimM1]

@Jase31 Trust me went through the same last year from March to June 2024, After about the 6th OR Engineer sent ((your great no issues)), i had it all down pat, said see you in two weeks time, the last Engineer REAL good, listened and looked OK this is just B S, so let me go fix it, did take him 4 hours to do so, lift and split testing error's, back traced it all the way junction box by GPO show's how old been in the house 42 years and NO one even new the box existed, cables off the screw terminals, crimped together as that IS the main line in, and NOT one single fault on the line after that, 5 months later went FF500, but had NOT one complaint in that whole 5 months!

[JimM1]

@Jase31 Could have made it way larger, nearly 70year old eyesite, but is your Noise Margin way higher than the recommended 3Db, looks like you may be up in the twenties!

[Jase31]

"I suspect that's extremely unlikely while the circuit is still providing four times the USO threshold. In any case, 'lines' are the domain of Openreach rather than any ISP."

@TimmyBGood while the speed is like you say, four times the threshold , it's no use if the connection itself drops every 30 seconds most days, drops as soon as more than one device trys to connect to the WiFi signal or at times when it's really windy, drops and doesn't even come back until the wind has settled.

[Jase31]

@JimM1 My bad, here's a bigger image. A new issue I've been getting recently was my upload now drops to as low as 14000 kbps. It never did that before.  It was always the download that was affected.