considering sky

Considering sky and have a few questions:

Sky only seem to offer broadband with phone these days. I am a bit nervous about handing over my phoneline. Just how difficult is it to switch providers afterwards? Has anyone successfully left sky?

The line speed checker seems to give a wider spread of values than the bt one, with a lower slow speed (11-18 v 15-18). Is this normal and are sky likely to be slower than BT?

Thanks
Dave

Usually will involve some extra cost when leaving, as new provider will want to charge for re-connecting the line to their kit.

Show us your attenuation, connection speed and noise margin figures and we can tell you whether estimate looks reasonable.

Sorry, can't provide any line stats as we currently don't have broadband! (other than via 3G).

Actually, it is one of the frustrating things about looking at ISPs - have no idea whether our phone line can actually support a reasonable speed. FTTC and cable are both available but would prefer to pay a little less if possible.

Was just curious why Sky provided a broader estimate

it is in my experience that SKY's DLM (Dynamic Line Management) has a habit of syncing a tad lower than what the line is actually capable of (10-20%), some people think its the Power Management Module in the ASSIA software thats "set too high" in an attempt to further save millions on energy costs because in most scenarios a small decrease in output power (signal) and thus speeds; results in large decrease in energy consumption, the PMM takes into consideration energy costs before profiling a users line - I have seen about 50 or so new Sky users in the last 3-4 weeks on Sky's forums all in same boat with 10-20% less speed than they had previously on ADSL2+ and/or what the line is capable of - I myself got 15,000k on a 25db line,,,quick call to sky and I now have 18,000k - my friend had 16,000k on a 20db line and now has 20,000k after calling sky to ask to be "uncapped", not all reps will/can do this either , another 3 of my friends in same boat too....

Sky are also having problems with many congested exchanges due to new users rushing to sign up to their recent 6 months free offer , my exchange isnt too bad but defo affected a bit - for same reason a lot of people are going without routers after activation date as demand is to high.... the annoying thing is Sky have a new offer on TV of 6 months half price, this will just make an already bad situation worse.

Iam on Sky's SVBN (Sky Voice & Broadband Network) for Broadband (LLu) but my phone service is actually provisioned through BTwholesale but still SKY LLu at same price ...why I dont know???, but I do know my phone line is going over to SVBN on 10th of April and Im hoping my broadband sync rate wont reset back to lower figures, I can only assume that their phone capacity in my exchange was full and now its not.

Probably currently on an older non-voice capable bit of kit at exchange, and when new capacity is added they will move you across

thanks for your reply Mr Saffron, I dont wish to steal the OP's thread but I have a thread started about this but put it in the Technical Issues section when it may have done better in the SKY section... I'd be gratefull if you could move it for me

its here

if you read my post you will see that It actually appears as if Sky's telephony capacity on SVBN become full and is going too be switched over (regardless of what sky rep says that my bb is not on svbn) when upgraded (if that scenario is possible) - ive had 2 other exchange/sky techies confirm Iam defo on SVBN for broadband. my exchange was only unbundled a few months back, it doesnt make sense that they would install easynet Dslam's to replace with Sky Isam's few months later.

anyway its all in my thread,

sorry to OP for slight hijack