Posting on behalf of my father - Currently with Sky for TV and broadband but BT for landline

[Sky-Guy100]

Good morning all,

I'm posting this on behalf of my father as I'm looking for some advice.

He's 89 and doesn't really like change!  He's been a Sky customer for around 25 years and he currently has 2 Sky+ boxes, multiroom subscription, Sky Sports complete and Sky broadband Lite.

I've convinced him that we need to switch his landline away from BT and move it to Sky which I believe will save him money. 

He obviously wants to keep his current landline number but he also pays BT to allow for unlimited landline AND mobile phone calls.

My concern is that if I contact Sky to try and arrange this, they may deem his equipment (Sky+ boxes) too old and want to switch him to Sky Q.  I don't think he'd cope with a change of interface and remote and his current broadband speed is only around 8Mb as he doesn't use any wireless devices.

At some point, he will be forced to switch his phone to Sky due to the upcoming changes to move away from copper lines for phones.

Is anyone able to confirm whether he'd be allowed to keep all of his old equipment and simply switch his landline to Sky?  He's also currently paying  a £5.00 supplement on his broadband for not having Sky talk, so that would save him some money and hopefully, it would be cheaper for him to move away from BT.

I realise I'm probably going to have to speak to Sky directly when I next go to visit him, but just wanted to try and be as pre-armed as possible before making that call.

Many thanks in advance for any help and advice.

[Mark39]

Welcome to this customer Community @Sky-Guy100. Please see the answers below:

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@Sky-Guy100 wrote:

He obviously wants to keep his current landline number but he also pays BT to allow for unlimited landline AND mobile phone calls.

He may be able to keep his landline number, but I doubt Sky will guarantee it. 

My concern is that if I contact Sky to try and arrange this, they may deem his equipment (Sky+ boxes) too old and want to switch him to Sky Q.  I don't think he'd cope with a change of interface and remote and his current broadband speed is only around 8Mb as he doesn't use any wireless devices.

There's no reason for Sky to do that. Sky's TV and broadband/landline contracts are separate.

At some point, he will be forced to switch his phone to Sky due to the upcoming changes to move away from copper lines for phones.

He will be switched immediately to internet calls, where the phone handset plugs into a broadband router if he switches to Sky. He can, for the moment. delay the switch to a digital landline service if he stays with BT. 

Is anyone able to confirm whether he'd be allowed to keep all of his old equipment and simply switch his landline to Sky?

Sky will doubtless want him to upgrade to Sky Q, but for now, there's no reason for him to do so. Note that there's no longer any engineer support for Sky+ equipment so in the event of a fault with dish or cables, he would need a local satellite technician to fix it. Similarly if his Sky+ boxes fail, there's no Sky+ replacement option.

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[GD1]

@Sky-Guy100  It's also worth noting in addition to @Mark39  reply that by the end of 2029 satellite broadcasting in the UK & Ireland will cease due to the batch of satellites serving the UK & Ireland coming to the end of life.

Until then there is no reason why your father can't continue with Sky+HD, however there will be a push to stream before this happens.

[Sky-Guy100]

Thank you both for your helpful comments.  I'll have to speak to Sky at the weekend to see what they say.