Moving to Sky - Maybe

As the title suggests I am looking at moving over to sky for a cost saving purpose more than anything.

Currently with Xilo must say no problems with them whatsoever. But the 6 months free offered to me through sky would bring that £18 a month down to £0, then £7.50 a month thereafter.

I am a fairly heavy gamer and have noticed that sky have LLU at my exchange.

Is there anything else I need to know about sky? Any port blocking, restrictions or fair usage policy information?

Whats the generaly consensus here, particularly for gaming, are you getting good ping times?

Any advise appreciated, as ever.

Current stats are :

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 3098 kbps 767 kbps
Line Attenuation 61.5 db 38.0 db
Noise Margin 6.6 db 5.8 db

I would hope that I should have a similar connection with Sky.

Many thanks.

Sky's broadband is pretty good on LLU. Your connection speed may go down slightly as Sky use a 7dB noise margin. I am with Sky at the moment on a much shorter line and have had no problems with their broadband, but I am moving away from them as with a Be reseller I can squeeze a little more speed out of my line.

You are aware that you have to take the phone with them as well? And that if you want to move away from Sky it is a bit more difficult as you will be fully unbundled making the normal MAC process redundant - the process from full LLU is currently somewhat more hit and miss than the more established MAC process.

Ping times are pretty good, an importantly, stable. There is no FUP, it's properly unlimited with no shaping or port blocking. Noise margin is 7dB, not adjustable on request.

Only real downsides is that you must take their landline, and you must use their router. Some people manage to use their own routers (breaking the T&C), but it's not guaranteed to work either now or in the future.

Thanks to both for replying, I am aware that I have to tie myself in on the landline too, to stay with them sky have offered me both the line rental and broadband free for a full 12 months.

I have a dg834gt and would be looking at using this on the line to bring down the downstream attenuation down to squeeze a little more out of the line, I am sure there are ways and means of obtainnig the password to configure that router to use on their network too.

It will save me 12 bt line rental and 18 broadband cost = 30 a month, which obviously is a 360 saving over the year.

Fingers crossed and obtaining MAC code.

I have been advised that there will be a cancellation charge on my line due to:

Can we ask that you confirm with Sky if you are going on their SBVN "network". If so, they will not use a MAC even if one is supplied and this may result in a cease charge.

The reason we ask this is we see a few migrations to Sky, all asking for the MAC but because Sky do not actually use this (as they offer a fully unbundled MPF service), a charge is often made because they have ceased our service.

So I have to pay a cancellation fee to current provider?

Edited by deleted (Mon 16-Jan-12 17:10:09)

Well just spoke to BT they said it depends if openreach cancel the line on the old service instead of migrating, then there may be a £30 cancellation fee, so will hve to wait and see, I am a little unsettled about going over to sky as once I have moved over its not easy to jump ship back to BT and Xilo, of which it has provided me with a reliable service most of the time but at £30 a month.

I would rather pay that and get a decent service than get it for free with sky, but we'll see!

Found this -

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/products/534.html

First review says what I am going to have the problem with when porting over from Xilo

But watch out for one issue, in my opinion very unfair to the end user. When I switched over to SKY, I requested and received a MAC code, I made a point of phoning SKY to make sure they had received it. XILO informed me that unless the MAC code was used, the service would end up being a cease NOT migration, and I would receive a £30.00 `termination charge`. Sky failed to use the MAC, no amount of e-mails or phone calls to both SKY and XILO could sort it out. The Ofcom should look at this matter. Otherwise very happy with SKY.

The fee does not apply when the migration order is seen using the correct migration procedures, which does happen on occasion with Sky. Most of the time though, it does not and this is when such charge applies.

An even more frustrating move is Sky have started asking users to gain MACs but then do not use them (as they cannot), making the user think that Sky have correctly used this, and the loosing ISP have incorrectly charged a cease fee.

As stated in the ticket, we'll see what happens when the order is progressing and keep it on hold until it is complete and then double check if a charge is valid. Only once we know for sure, we bill the user.

Matt

Thanks Matt - surprised no one else has commented on this post! Everyone must be busy.

As I said I'll be sad to say bye to you guys, but the offer sky gave me with 12months free I'd be daft not to take up.

Might see you again in 12 months

Matt

Quite possibly! Sky are requesting my MAC Code when I go into my orders.

As long as I can game and have a similar sync speed I should be ok. Touch wood.