I just spoke to a Sky advisor online and he said the information is correct. I still find it very hard to believe as every single exchange that I check around here, even those with just a few hundred residential lines, are saying the same thing.

Chat InformationYou are now connected with Darren
Darren: Welcome to Sky, Home of HD. You're chatting to Darren. May I take your name please?

You: Hello. I'm interested in getting Sky Broadband but I'd like the unlimited "up to 20Mb" product. It doesn't look like it's available at my exchange yet, but when I put my phone number into your availability checker it says "Great news - Sky is expanding our broadband and calls network in your area! We'll be completing this rollout over the next 3 months." Could you confirm that is correct and possibly give me a rough date as to when that will happen?

Darren: Sorry we dont have dates when this would be updated

You: Ok, but is it correct that it will be upgraded over the next 3 months or is it an error with the Sky availability checker? Because a lot of people on the internet forums are getting the same message, even on very small exchanges.

Darren: Yes that is the correct information

You: Excellent. Do you know roughly how many exchanges Sky are planning on upgrading over the next 3 months?

Darren: NO sorry

Surely it'll be almost impossible for Sky to unbundle almost every exchange over the next 3 months?

There must be a fault as i just entered the details of a exchange with 234 residential lines and it came back as in the next 3 months .

The exchange is so small even BT have not enabled it for broadband and the residents of the village have a communal satellite system that provides there service over WIFI .

Edit: it seems that Samknows is now reporting said exchange as having ADSL now , so i will have to investigate a little more as im sure there is no ADSL at that exchange .

Edited by deleted (Sun 08-Aug-10 11:51:21)

I just got a reply to my email which asked if sky were unbundling my exchange as per the checker.

The reply I got was that Sky are extending their network, however it did tell me that the LLU services were only available in certain parts of the country but that I could have Connect which is excellent (I don't think so). It seems suspicious to me that they won't give a straight answer so I suspect that it's not the case that they are going to do this work to all the exchanges.
I have replied to them that in that case they should amend their checker to reveal the true state of play as it is misleading to say the least, if you didn't know better you could sign up to the connect package thinking you would be transfered to LLU within 3 months and that seems to be a falsehood, really not very honest and I'm not entirely sure it's legal

There are very very few non ADSL exchanges out there now.

BT's coverage is around 99% I believe.

Sounds as if Sky are just saying it so you sign up in the hope of getting the cheaper service.

It would not make business sense to unbundle an exchange with 100 lines!

They say the same for SWPM. Market 1 - line count given in Sam Knows is around 8,500 but this figure hasn't changed in over 5 years despite lots of building going on - both industrial and residential. I think the real number is now probably closer to 10,000.

No 21cn date here either. Im gonna add my query to the others Sky have had - see if I get the same non committal answer.. and if I do - tomorrow put in a call to OFCOM and Consumer Direct asking them to talk to Sky as this may be deceptive marketing.

According to Sky my exchange has been unbundled

Currently we estimate that the maximum download speed your line could support is 10 - 20Mb
Great news - you're in a Sky Broadband network area, so you can choose from Sky Broadband Everyday Lite or Unlimited.

According the Sam Knows though they haven't unbundled it, so who knows???

http://www.samknows.com/broadband/exchange/MYSCA

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

There are very very few non ADSL exchanges out there now.

BT's coverage is around 99% I believe.

Sounds as if Sky are just saying it so you sign up in the hope of getting the cheaper service.

It would not make business sense to unbundle an exchange with 100 lines!

That may well be the case , but i can confirm that Samknows is reporting Isfield NDIFS as having ADSL at the exchange and also Sky are reporting it as being upgraded in the next three months , it has no ADSL equipment in the exchange and is that 1% that BT do not provided any type of broadband service to .

Make of that what you will , but any body getting there hopes up may find they will be very disappointed as there is misinformation on Samknows and also of Sky checker and that's confirmed ......

Edit i have contacted Samknows and they have confirmed that the information on Isfield is incorrect and blame it on data being supplied by BT that the site automaticly updates with

Edited by deleted (Mon 09-Aug-10 16:14:45)

Just checked my exchange and a load of other random ones, all showing 3 months time.

Isn't it slightly illegal for them to advertise the promise that you will be upgraded to their unlimited package if it's never going to happen?

Called Ofcom and registered my concerns with them, but at this stage there's nothing they can do.

Edited by deleted (Tue 10-Aug-10 15:02:57)

Put in the call to OFCOM yesterday morning - after finding that Sky claim to be Un-bundling every exchange I checked round here - even a 40 odd line one in a village about 8 miles from here.

In reply to a post by warweezil:

Put in the call to OFCOM yesterday morning - after finding that Sky claim to be Un-bundling every exchange I checked round here - even a 40 odd line one in a village about 8 miles from here.

What kind of response did you get from Ofcom?