Changes to Sky Broadband usage caps

I received a letter from "Sky" this morning detailing changes that increase telephone line rental and reduce my broadband Internet monthly usage cap from a previous 40Gig to a measly 10Gig.

I could almost use that up in one day if I chose to stream an evening's HD content from "BBCi player"!

"Sky" does give the option to cancel the broadband contract without charge provided it is cancelled before the changes are applied. Bill charges change in August/September so presumably this is the cut-off time within which to cancel without costs - but this option is unlikely to appeal to anyone due to all the hassles involved in setting up a broadband account with any new provider - Delays, Loss of service, Hidden costs, duplicate costs, etc - etc.

If you are on the "Sky" Mid package (up to 8Mb - now renamed "Everyday") the only practical alternative they give you is to pay an extra £5.00 a month to get unlimited use. These are blatantly bullying tactics applied shabbily wrapped-up in a presentation letter telling you how wonderful "Sky" is and how wonderful these new improvements are! Huh - they are so pleased with themselves about this that they have even given the reduced packages new names. Well I for one am not impressed and I trust that if enough of us complain about it we might be able to influence things.

I am mad and totally disillusioned with "Sky" who I recently switched to after having so much bad experience with Virgin. I am now beginning to wonder if I made the right choice - or am I being stupid in thinking that any of them are different and might just start treating us as paying customers who should be looked after, rather than cash cows that they can milk ad-infinitum.

As the BBc's "Watch dog" is off air at the moment I am forwarding this to Dominic Littlewood on the "One Show" to see if he will take this up for us. You might want to do the same?

I have to agree with you that this is clearly coersion tactics to get people to stump up another £5 a month, as this is what anyone will decide to do if they can't be bothered with the hasstle of moving ISP - which most of us can't.

Atleast Sky are making everyone well aware of their legal right to jump ship even if they are in contract, just as they should. They could've not told anyone they have this right and only waived cancellation fees if people complained, still doesn't make it right tho IMO.

I think this is more in line with the government and OFCOM incentives to "alter" broadband packages and impose limits, i.e. download caps, traffic shaping, speed throttling etc to aid the "fight against piracy".

It was actually mentioned in the digital britian report that OFCOM now have the power to ORDER ISPs to impose restrictions on customers to "help" this "piracy issue".

But as you quite rightly point out this also adversely affects those that enjoy media like HD iPlayer, streaming media on youtube or internet radio, and any number of popular, legal reasons, to use a lot of bandwidth.

Blame the government. Seems to be the trend at the moment

_____________________________________________
Be*Value
Downstream: 7653K 48.5dB Loss 4.0dB SNR
Upstream:1291K 27.5dB Loss 3.0dB SNR
TechBroadband
Speed Test

Edited by izools (Sat 04-Jul-09 19:31:48)

In reply to a post by izools:

I have to agree with you that this is clearly coersion tactics to get people to stump up another £5 a month, as this is what anyone will decide to do if they can't be bothered with the hasstle of moving ISP - which most of us can't.

You speak for yourself - if/when I decide that Sky isn't good value, I will be off like a shot - it really isn't that hard to migrate. The fact is that even at an extra £5, Sky Max is hard to beat.

Home ADSL: Sky Max LLU
Business ADSL: ZeN Office 8000

the sad thing is at these new prices sky is still pretty much the best deal if you have sky tv.

sky max is the only consumer based isp package that is truly unlimited with no FUP and is operating on a uncongested isp backhaul.

end of the day it is still cheap for an unthrottled internet connection.

I agree with you that from what is available on the market at the moment "Sky" does offer a good deal - but that is not the point at all! I signed up with "Sky" less than 6 months ago and decided on the £10.00 (discounted with "SkyTalk" to £5.00) mid package broadband solely because the 2Gig cap on the £5.00 basic package (discounted to free with "SkyTalk") was too small for my needs, so I opted to pay the extra £5.00 to get the 40 Gig cap. Now less than 6 months on they are reducing my cap by 75% and want me to pay another £5.00 a month to climb above the soon to be newly imposed10Gig monthly usage.

Also comments about piracy and the Government bullying the ISPs because we are all dishonest and want high caps so we can rip off the media industry and pirate everything - don't hold water either. If this was the case then are we seriously suggesting that "Sky" is offering to turn a blind eye if we give them another £5.00 a month? I don't think so!

I am medically retired and physically disabled on a fixed benefit income and that extra £5.00 a month means a great deal to me. I don't drink, and I don't smoke but I do enjoy the Internet and what it offers.

At the end of the day I am the customer, and yes I can go elsewhere but why should I have to keep chasing a bargain? Whatever happened to being a customer when we were valued and looked after by our suppliers?

Finally - if "Sky" wanted to increase the price for their broadband service by £5.00 then why didn't they simply come out with it and say so rather than attempting to con people into believing that by cutting the service (they) "Sky" is doing them a favour. The reasoning given that reducing to 10Gig brings everything in line with the majority of customers is a foolish argument as if this is true then the winners are "Sky" anyway so why change it for the minority other than seeing us as cash-cows.

I am still MAD and your replies so far have failed to convince me otherwise but I do look forward to seeing more of them please.

trashcooky@sky.com

It is bad news and sky are clearly trying to make more revenue from existing customers. Not good for the customer but they are a business. From their perspective they are allowing you to leave but know that there are few ISPs that actually compete with them at that level.

Chances are that all ISPs will have to start increasing prices as usage goes up. As it stands broadband connections are not being charged at realistic prices - not good for those on limited incomes but that is the reality.

The next question is what profits sky make and if they are already making massive profits then they would be doing this for shareholder dividends rather than to cover costs.

Sky lose money on their broadband business overall, which is inevitable on the "free" package which isn't free to provide.

Phil

MaxDSL - goes as fast as it can and doesn't read the line checker first.

MaxDSL diagnostics
Are your kids pirates ? Limewire, Bearshare, Kazaa, BitTorrent, eMule are all tools of the trade.

well the customers who constantly chase bargains are they worth keeping?

a lot of them ended up on tiscali who ended up in a right mess since those customers dont make money.

so sky may well see it as any customer leaving over a £5 increase is not worth keeping.

Edited by Chrysalis (Tue 07-Jul-09 01:16:16)

In reply to a post by trashcooky:

Finally - if "Sky" wanted to increase the price for their broadband service by £5.00 then why didn't they simply come out with it and say so rather than attempting to con people into believing that by cutting the service (they) "Sky" is doing them a favour.

Because for many people 10GB a month is enough, and you're only being asked to pay more if it's not. In the current financial climate, all ISP's are cutting costs, even at the top end of the scale. Zen (my business broadband provider) has removed their binary usenet service to reduce costs.

Home ADSL: Sky Max LLU
Business ADSL: ZeN Office 8000

In reply to a post by yarwell:

Sky lose money on their broadband business overall, which is inevitable on the "free" package which isn't free to provide.

Yes, they do lose money on broadband. However, they provide it as a way to add value and tie in TV customers. Bearing that in mind they run it as a loss leader and therefore you can only look at sky as a whole not at individual divisions (if divisions had to make a profit in their own right then the pricing would be very different).

So, if Sky is continuing to make enormous profits as a company then this pricing change is only going to benefit the shareholders. If they aren't making a reasonable profit then the pricing change is reasonable.

And there are still few who can beat the price if you want the TV anyway.