Considering signing up

Sky have just snuck some LLU hardware into my formerly market 1 exchange, so I'm considering moving from my currently congested BT Wholesale connection (via O2) in a hope of getting better evening speeds. I'm on a fairly long line which only synchs at 2-3Mbps but I'm currently seeing dialup speeds in an evening, so I'm thinking it can't get much worse.

Before I take the plunge and commit to a 12month contract, I've some questions I probably won't get straight answers from the callcentre droid:

1. Are the callcentre droids any good? Are they UK based, will I have terrible accents to cope with (scouse/scots/dehli)? How hard is it to get in touch with someone with a brain rather than a crib-sheet?

2. How do I access the call centre? 0800 number? Non geographic? Premium rate? What are the wait times like?

3. How good are they at resolving BT/openreach related infrastructure issues?

4. I guess they supply their own hardware, what is it? Is it any good? Is it locked down with custom firmware? How easy is it to peel back the skin and get access to the useful stuff?

5. Is there any way to determine how busy/congested Sky/Easynet's networks is at my exchange (SWUWN -Llanwern)? I'm hoping as they've not announced the upgrade locally then it'll be pretty quiet, but I don't really want to be jumping from the frying pan into the fire as far as congestion is concerned..

6. Are there any sneaky little contractual wrinkles that might trip me up (unreasonable FUP, undisclosed traffic shaping, etc)

7. Generally, would you recommend Sky? If not, why not?

Sorry if this sounds like some kinda market research questionairre, but I'm getting wary of signing up to a service that's got a minimum contractual term.

I have answered in line as best I can, as I only signed up on Saturday so I am not connected yet.

In reply to a post by gilesp:

Sky have just snuck some LLU hardware into my formerly market 1 exchange, so I'm considering moving from my currently congested BT Wholesale connection (via O2) in a hope of getting better evening speeds. I'm on a fairly long line which only synchs at 2-3Mbps but I'm currently seeing dialup speeds in an evening, so I'm thinking it can't get much worse.

Before I take the plunge and commit to a 12month contract, I've some questions I probably won't get straight answers from the callcentre droid:

1. Are the callcentre droids any good? Are they UK based, will I have terrible accents to cope with (scouse/scots/dehli)? How hard is it to get in touch with someone with a brain rather than a crib-sheet?

When I was asking questions prior to signing up 2 people I talked to were easy to understand and had british accents. However when I actually took the plunge the website wouldn't let me do it, the person I got had a very strong foreign accent and the background noise was so high I could barely understand her, when she went through reading out a statement with all the T&C's I couldn't understand her, I tried saying can I just have them in writting (which she said I would get them) but she still had to go through the motions of reading them all out even though I made it clear I couldn't understand them with the background noise.

In reply to a post by gilesp:

2. How do I access the call centre? 0800 number? Non geographic? Premium rate? What are the wait times like?

It is an 08442 number. Which if you have Sky Talk is free and finding a geographic number is impossible, when people find them and post the on saynoto0845 they get discontinued. Saying that if you mail them a message they will phone you back and you can then sign up.

In reply to a post by gilesp:

3. How good are they at resolving BT/openreach related infrastructure issues?

4. I guess they supply their own hardware, what is it? Is it any good? Is it locked down with custom firmware? How easy is it to peel back the skin and get access to the useful stuff?

5. Is there any way to determine how busy/congested Sky/Easynet's networks is at my exchange (SWUWN -Llanwern)? I'm hoping as they've not announced the upgrade locally then it'll be pretty quiet, but I don't really want to be jumping from the frying pan into the fire as far as congestion is concerned..

6. Are there any sneaky little contractual wrinkles that might trip me up (unreasonable FUP, undisclosed traffic shaping, etc)

They have assured me that they don't do any traffic shaping or have a FUP on their unlimited package.

In reply to a post by gilesp:

7. Generally, would you recommend Sky? If not, why not?

Sorry if this sounds like some kinda market research questionairre, but I'm getting wary of signing up to a service that's got a minimum contractual term.

In reply to a post by NickyJ:

I have answered in line as best I can, as I only signed up on Saturday so I am not connected yet.

NickyJ - thankyou for your thoughts - I'm aware of your impending move via posting on another board on this forum, so I'll be watching your developments quite closely.. I

I'm not sure when I'll make the move myself, as we're currently refurbishing the house so don't have a TV to enjoy any other Sky services on - when/if I do make the move, I'll probably go for a bundle, I'm currently weighing up their talk plan as well..

In reply to a post by gilesp:

I'm not sure when I'll make the move myself, as we're currently refurbishing the house so don't have a TV to enjoy any other Sky services on - when/if I do make the move, I'll probably go for a bundle, I'm currently weighing up their talk plan as well..

My parents have had Sky LLU since launch in 2006, and its been excellent - they have the broadband and TV only, none of the phone services (because they have two lines for my Dad's business, and SkyTalk can't cope with this).

As they now have BE on another line they're thinking of cancelling, but at the moment they have both.

(Anytime+ they find a waste of time as they don't have sports or movie subscriptions).