Thinking of joining sky broadband

I'm currently with O2 and I'm thinking of joining sky with the unlimited broadband package with upto 20MB download speed. I currently get around 18-19 MB download speed with O2, when I phone sky they said I'm estimated at 8-10MB.

Will I still be getting the same speeds as O2 or will changing to sky really reduce my download speeds to 8-10MB?

Is SKY unlimited broadband truely unlimited or is there a hidden download limit

How reliable is SKY's broadband service

How good is their customer service and support

And finnaly, does sky have traffic management / traffic shapping and will there be any problems with torrent downloads

Thanks

You should get basically the same speeds as with O2, except in two respects.

First I think the default noise margin is 7 or 8dB, not O2's 6dB which at one point you had reduced to 3dB. I doubt if Sky would do that for you.

Second I would be almost sure you couldn't have Annex M on Sky. The result would be a rise in downstream, almost certainly cancelled out by the higher noise margin, and a fall in downstream to 1.3Mbps maximum.

Also!

If you are thinking of saving money by going Sky Unlimited plus Phone Line Rental, that is Full LLU and a total pain to leave.

Sky Unlimited plus Sky Calls is safe.

don't sky having problems across the whole UK

Depends on the area.....but then again o2 are also having issues in certain areas wth slow downs

I thought the default was 7db as well but I'm currently on 5.9db occasionally fluctuating to 6db

Sky unlimited is also a total pain to join when they don't send you a router!

talked to level 2 and they said they getting reports of problems all over the place

I'm in the same position as the author of this topic. That is to say, I'm with O2, but only getting about 6300kbps downstream with 48.5db loss. My noise margin is set to about 3-4db, I think.

Therefore, Sky's ability to actually deliver up to 20 Mbits over their network isn't really a concern for me. I'm more interested in whether I could use my own router. I have a DGND3300v2 that I like and don't want to consign to the drawer of electronic junk in my spare room!

I hear all sorts of nasty stories about Sky's abysmal routers and support for anything other than same being non-existent. Can someone clarify the position relating to settings and account login details etcetera? I suppose I'd like to also here that Sky don't shape peer to peer traffic, as I like to peruse the torrent offering on Pirate Bay every once in a while

In reply to a post by ukpm:

Therefore, Sky's ability to actually deliver up to 20 Mbits over their network isn't really a concern for me. I'm more interested in whether I could use my own router. I have a DGND3300v2 that I like and don't want to consign to the drawer of electronic junk in my spare room!

I hear all sorts of nasty stories about Sky's abysmal routers and support for anything other than same being non-existent. Can someone clarify the position relating to settings and account login details etcetera?

Not actually moved to Sky myself yet, but figured I�d reply to this as nobody else had. Based on what I�ve read it looks like Sky insist on you using their router, and their T&Cs state you must. They will not supply you with the user id and password details to configure your own, however if you do a bit of googling you should find ways to extract this information from your router without too much trouble. I guess as long as you plug their router in before asking for any support you should be okay.