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Discussion topic: SKY squeezed by O2?

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This message was authored by dodgydentist This message was authored by: dodgydentist

SKY squeezed by O2?

I travel Winchester to London every day

I used to be with Vodafone and my experience was good subject to the usual rigours that too many people are hungry for data faster than the tiny masts can supply it.

 

I came to Sky for price and O2 used to be my carrier and all good so far except:

 

The signal strength and quality is generally dire when on the move and I am left wondering if the bandwidth available from O2 is limited.  Obviously O2 are not going to give away top level access

 

I am sometimes lucky to get an E signal and 3G can the norm

 

But for me this a real deal breaker - using my laptop for work is a no go.

 

so :

 

anyone else experienced this poor signal issue?

 

Do SKY have a bandwidth limitation with O2?


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This message was authored by Sam-R This message was authored by: Sam-R Answer

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Hi all, 

 

Just wanted to reiterate that Sky Mobile is what the experts call a 'thick' MVNO. This means that we own all of the infrastructure to perform all required functions except radio, which is supplied by the O2 network. We are responsible for porting and all of the services we offer (voice/data/SMS/MMS/billing/routing/roaming/VoWiFi and the future stuff like VoLTE and 5G.

 

O2 are obliged to provide a level of service to Sky that's equal to their own customers. We work closely with them to make sure that the quality of service is the same. 

 

We will report issues to O2 as and when we get them as there could be isolated issues with radio in those locations.

Sam
Community Manager

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This message was authored by jamesm182 This message was authored by: jamesm182

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Just moved to Sky from three and finding signal levels generally good but speeds quite poor. I have seen as high as 20mbps, but more often than not I'm finding I get 2mbs or even less with apparently full 4G. I've tried switching to 3G only and sometimes this is faster! Quite disappointing really - it seems like sky customers really aren't getting priority.

 

I've tried calling sky but they don't seem to get it and just keep offering me replacement Sims and asking me to reset my phone. I know it's not either of those causing the issue.

This message was authored by Lee+Bromley This message was authored by: Lee+Bromley

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

O2 do limit bandwidth to Sky Mobile, regardless of what Sky or O2 will tell you. I have 5 handsets with Sky Mobile and I have an iPhone 8 on O2.

 

I have done speed tests on O2 via the iPhone 8 and identical test on Sky Mobile via an iPhone X. I have tried different times of day, and I always perform the tests at the same time using the speedtest.net app,  I’ve tried using the same server, differing servers, differing servers at the same time. I have always given the Sky Mobile service a more favourable test by using the iPhone X. I have done the test outside, with full 4G service on both phones.

 

Every test the iPhone 8 on O2 downloads on average about 30-35meg with an 15-20meg upload, the iPhone X on Sky Mobile is variable at worst I’ve had service as low as 4meg but as high as 25meg, upload varies between 2 and 10meg. I’ve tested the same service on Sky Mobile with the other 4 handsets, 2 iPhone X’s, iPhone 7+, and Sony Xperia XA2 and the results are within a couple of meg of the original iPhone X on Sky Mobile. I’ve also tried the tests on different masts, in fact I tried the test In Cheadle (near Alton Towers) which is around 60 miles from my home. The test gave a poor service on O2, while the test would not even run on Sky Mobile, more often than not there was time out errors, when it did run it gave a test of 0.2meg download and upload also at 0.2meg.

 

So my conclusion is O2 customers will always get priority over a MVNO meaning O2 customers for example may get 60-70 of bandwidth from a mast and they share this with each other, leaving MVNO’s such as Sky with the remaining bandwidth to share with other MVNO’s and then to each customer on each network.

 

And I state this from a point of experience, I worked for Arqiva for 7 years working on TV Transmitters setting up point to point microwave antennas, I have also worked for EE when they merged with T-Mobile upgrading EE sites and decommissioning some T-Mobile sites. I’ve also worked for Virgin Media as network engineer and performed many network resegments to fix over utilisation issues, before finishing as an IRS design engineer for multi dwelling properties. So I do have a good understanding of these matters.

This message was authored by jamesm182 This message was authored by: jamesm182

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?


@Lee+Bromley wrote:

O2 do limit bandwidth to Sky Mobile, regardless of what Sky or O2 will tell you. I have 5 handsets with Sky Mobile and I have an iPhone 8 on O2.

 

I have done speed tests on O2 via the iPhone 8 and identical test on Sky Mobile via an iPhone X. I have tried different times of day, and I always perform the tests at the same time using the speedtest.net app,  I’ve tried using the same server, differing servers, differing servers at the same time. I have always given the Sky Mobile service a more favourable test by using the iPhone X. I have done the test outside, with full 4G service on both phones.

 

Every test the iPhone 8 on O2 downloads on average about 30-35meg with an 15-20meg upload, the iPhone X on Sky Mobile is variable at worst I’ve had service as low as 4meg but as high as 25meg, upload varies between 2 and 10meg. I’ve tested the same service on Sky Mobile with the other 4 handsets, 2 iPhone X’s, iPhone 7+, and Sony Xperia XA2 and the results are within a couple of meg of the original iPhone X on Sky Mobile. I’ve also tried the tests on different masts, in fact I tried the test In Cheadle (near Alton Towers) which is around 60 miles from my home. The test gave a poor service on O2, while the test would not even run on Sky Mobile, more often than not there was time out errors, when it did run it gave a test of 0.2meg download and upload also at 0.2meg.

 

So my conclusion is O2 customers will always get priority over a MVNO meaning O2 customers for example may get 60-70 of bandwidth from a mast and they share this with each other, leaving MVNO’s such as Sky with the remaining bandwidth to share with other MVNO’s and then to each customer on each network.

 

And I state this from a point of experience, I worked for Arqiva for 7 years working on TV Transmitters setting up point to point microwave antennas, I have also worked for EE when they merged with T-Mobile upgrading EE sites and decommissioning some T-Mobile sites. I’ve also worked for Virgin Media as network engineer and performed many network resegments to fix over utilisation issues, before finishing as an IRS design engineer for multi dwelling properties. So I do have a good understanding of these matters.


Thanks for your response.

 

That's really interesting and can't say I'm that suprised - I had kind of suspected this was happeneing but Sky will not tell you this is the case.

 

If I had known this then I would have thought twice about moving to Sky. If you look on their coverage checker it claims their 4G is "superfast" which now just seems a lie to be honest. 

 

Is it even legal for them to advertise "superfast" 4G when most of the time I'm struggling to get 2mbps with full signal?

This message was authored by Lee+Bromley This message was authored by: Lee+Bromley

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

The legal aspect is a difficult one, as Sky would be pretty much in the same boat as other MVNO’s, as Sky don’t own the primary network infrastructure, Sky have a network in their own right as a MVNO and have command over higher level tasks such as SIM activations and service restrictions. But they won’t have any control over the low level network functions at the switch, such as utilisation, they won’t have control over assignments and number ports as that is a low level operation (Sky can request a number port via a paper request or via a control panel, but the number is actually ported by O2)

The definition of Super-fast is always going to be by Sky’s definition of Super-fast and not O2, the nitty gritty will be in the service agreement Sky have with O2, but that is always going to be commercially sensitive data, unless a regulatory body jump all over Sky, which is unlikely to happen.

This message was authored by Dazzasky This message was authored by: Dazzasky

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more

@Lee+Bromley wrote:

The legal aspect is a difficult one, as Sky would be pretty much in the same boat as other MVNO’s, as Sky don’t own the primary network infrastructure, Sky have a network in their own right as a MVNO and have command over higher level tasks such as SIM activations and service restrictions. But they won’t have any control over the low level network functions at the switch, such as utilisation, they won’t have control over assignments and number ports as that is a low level operation (Sky can request a number port via a paper request or via a control panel, but the number is actually ported by O2)

The definition of Super-fast is always going to be by Sky’s definition of Super-fast and not O2, the nitty gritty will be in the service agreement Sky have with O2, but that is always going to be commercially sensitive data, unless a regulatory body jump all over Sky, which is unlikely to happen.


Interestingly if you know all of this then why would you go with an MVNO provider knowing you are going to be worse off. That's providing it is true of course.

This message was authored by Lee+Bromley This message was authored by: Lee+Bromley

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Why would I go with a MVNO such as Sky? Simple question really, iPhone X on O2 at the time £72 per month, Sky Mobile as a TV customer £42 a month. It’s a no brainier really.

 

I don’t have a problem with the service I get with Sky Mobile, all I’ve stated is my wife gets a better service with regard to speed, but for me it isn’t a problem. But for others they may be worse off in a congested area which is more apparent.

 

I was just making other customers aware to not expect O2 speeds on Sky Mobile.

This message was authored by Marcelli This message was authored by: Marcelli

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Two weeks ago over four days I travelled from Berkshire to Peterborough,Cambridge,and Norwich (overnight stay)

then Ipswich,Colchester,Bishop's Stortford,Enfield and Romford (overnight stay)

then Canterbury,Maidstone,Tunbridge Wells, and Eastbourne (overnight stay)

then Crawley,Redhill,Guildford,Woking and finally Berkshire.

I have a car fitted with an Android auto screen which is very practical for various things including Google maps with traffic and Amazon music, however the data connection was so poor that I could only use Maps offline.

In each of these towns, I checked my mobile date speed and it was often around 2 to 5 mbps and sometimes up to 16. I have visited countless O2 shops and in each of these shops I asked an assistant to tell me what speed they were getting on their personal phones. (only one was not with O2).  Most speed recorded were between 20 and 30 Mbps. (that was speed from their own data and not the shops internet data).

Finally, In one shop, a young lady assistant (who will remain nameless) bluntly told me that O2 was throttling Sky customers.  I have spoken to two Sky advisers and I was told that there were not aware of the problem and they had never heard of the expression ''throttling''.    I will be leaving them soon.

This message was authored by Sam-R This message was authored by: Sam-R Answer

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Hi all, 

 

Just wanted to reiterate that Sky Mobile is what the experts call a 'thick' MVNO. This means that we own all of the infrastructure to perform all required functions except radio, which is supplied by the O2 network. We are responsible for porting and all of the services we offer (voice/data/SMS/MMS/billing/routing/roaming/VoWiFi and the future stuff like VoLTE and 5G.

 

O2 are obliged to provide a level of service to Sky that's equal to their own customers. We work closely with them to make sure that the quality of service is the same. 

 

We will report issues to O2 as and when we get them as there could be isolated issues with radio in those locations.

Sam
Community Manager

This message was authored by Marcelli This message was authored by: Marcelli

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Sam, I don't want to insult but your bland answer is the typical cr4p that I expected of Sky.

It is painfully obvious that you have totally ignored the numerous comments on the subject.

Please don't bother.

This message was authored by Dazzasky This message was authored by: Dazzasky

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more

@Marcelli wrote:

Sam, I don't want to insult but your bland answer is the typical cr4p that I expected of Sky.

It is painfully obvious that you have totally ignored the numerous comments on the subject.

Please don't bother.


I guess some people just don’t like the truth when it is told to them. 

This message was authored by Sam-R This message was authored by: Sam-R

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Just removed an unnecessary comment from this conversation. Please remember community rule number 1 and be nice to each other. 

 

 

Sam
Community Manager

This message was authored by daveNOS This message was authored by: daveNOS

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more

@Sam-R Are you working on the side for GCHQ? I'd just written a rather lengthy reply to that unnecessary comment and then poof its gone......🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♀️

-------- Please note i am not a Sky employee ----------
This message was authored by Marcelli This message was authored by: Marcelli

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

One fact is that Sky (and its employees) try to pretend that throttling does not happen.

It does, and I have countless screenshots when my speed barely reaches 5mbps and my friend who is on O2 gets 30mbps.

The good news is that after many years I will be leaving Sky this week.

This message was authored by rscott This message was authored by: rscott

Re: SKY squeezed by O2?

Posted by a Superuser, not a Sky employee. Find out more

Marcelli, I spend a lot of time in two of the towns you mentioned and have appalling problems with my mobile speeds sometimes. Although the phone can be showing 4G /4G+, it still can fail to even complete a speedtest.

 

However, I'm with O2, not Sky, which suggests a problem with the O2 core network.

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