In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Where these others on Sky LLU, or Sky Connect? Sky Connect, which is where there is no Sky LLU, has a very bad reputation.

Also, which Sky product(s) were they on? Before Sky went true unlimited there was traffic management, and unless they upgraded I expect they would still experience that.

They are all on sky LLU. High ping times/lag, couldn't watch streaming videos etc. They have said it has improved a little after months of complaining and being sent a new router two months ago. Still can't stream videos too well though.

There are two options when it comes to the Sky takeover. Either you wait to be migrated on a rolling contract basis, or you attempt to negotiate a better deal which will include a new minimum contract period. The trade-off for migrating to Sky on a rolling contract basis is that you will likely give up your best discount opportunity.

This reduces the choice to one based on whether you want to stay with Sky or not. If you want to stay with Sky, negotiate now - you can always reject the offer and migrate on a rolling basis. If you are not prepared to commit to Sky but have no desire to leave now, you may as well wait to be migrated to the Sky network, with your options open to bail out for another ISP.


As your current line rental is with BT, you can use the BT Wholesale availability checker (mentioned earlier in the thread by BatBoy), which should show the cabinet number if you are connected via a cabinet, also it may show future availability information and projected speeds for FTTC. Knowing whether you're likely to be sticking with ADSL for the next 12-18 months or whether FTTC is likely to be coming soon will be useful in deciding on a strategy.


There are many good ISPs in the 'pay a bit more for a better grade of service' bracket. I have been with Zen for the past ten years - they now have unlimited fibre packages on a modest price uplift from the mainstream consumer ISPs, and I expect them to launch unlimited ADSL packages in the next few months. The only significant omission in their service is the lack of native IPv6, which has supposedly been under development for some time but there is still no sign of a launch.

You should also bear in mind that there are plenty of users satisfied with the mainstream consumer ISPs. It may well be that the likes of PlusNet offer all you need at a lower price than Zen or IDnet.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Also, which Sky product(s) were they on? Before Sky went true unlimited there was traffic management, and unless they upgraded I expect they would still experience that.

Did you meant o search/replace Sky with O2 there perhaps?

As Sky LLU broadband has *always* been free of traffic management, since launch in 2008. Connect is subject to congestion problems, but I don't think any of that is deliberate traffic management.

How were their FUPs enforced?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

How were their FUPs enforced?

Can you point me at any FUPs that Sky have published since launch? Apart from Connect.

My parents had Sky from launch (something like 2008) until 2010 when my Dad's business needed static IP and he moved to BE. He never had any limit information.

Connect I guess was different, I know one person who has been on Sky Connect, and he was told he had a 40 GB a month usage limit. They never provided any information on how much you'd used in a month - so without a meter, any enforcement is arbitrary. I always assumed they would contact a frequent over user.

BE tried to introduce a usage limited service (BE basic) a few years ago, they tried for 6 months, and abandoned the project. Its obviously quite hard / costly, to retro fit usage based charging to a network designed for unlimited use.

Edited by jchamier (Sat 09-Nov-13 21:47:30)

In reply to a post by David_W:

There are two options when it comes to the Sky takeover. Either you wait to be migrated on a rolling contract basis, or you attempt to negotiate a better deal which will include a new minimum contract period. The trade-off for migrating to Sky on a rolling contract basis is that you will likely give up your best discount opportunity.

This reduces the choice to one based on whether you want to stay with Sky or not. If you want to stay with Sky, negotiate now - you can always reject the offer and migrate on a rolling basis. If you are not prepared to commit to Sky but have no desire to leave now, you may as well wait to be migrated to the Sky network, with your options open to bail out for another ISP.


As your current line rental is with BT, you can use the BT Wholesale availability checker (mentioned earlier in the thread by BatBoy), which should show the cabinet number if you are connected via a cabinet, also it may show future availability information and projected speeds for FTTC. Knowing whether you're likely to be sticking with ADSL for the next 12-18 months or whether FTTC is likely to be coming soon will be useful in deciding on a strategy.

There are many good ISPs in the 'pay a bit more for a better grade of service' bracket. I have been with Zen for the past ten years - they now have unlimited fibre packages on a modest price uplift from the mainstream consumer ISPs, and I expect them to launch unlimited ADSL packages in the next few months. The only significant omission in their service is the lack of native IPv6, which has supposedly been under development for some time but there is still no sign of a launch.

You should also bear in mind that there are plenty of users satisfied with the mainstream consumer ISPs. It may well be that the likes of PlusNet offer all you need at a lower price than Zen or IDnet.

I think I would rather pay the full price Sky product and have the choice of leaving when it suits me rather than locking myself into a long contract. That is why I was just going to leave it to migrate over itself if I wasn't tempted by another ISP by then.

As you mentioned, I would rather pay extra to ensure I got the service, supply and support that you are paying for.

I have used the availability checker and although it shows what cabinet I am connected to it shows no information about FTTC speeds or dates so I can only assume it will be a long way off IF it is actually going to be hooked up.

The ISP's I have looked into so far have been Vivaciti, Aquiss, Xilo, Zen and IDNet. These would be my preffered options if I were to migrate away from BE/Sky.

I'm back looking for a fibre ISP now.
It appears my cabinet IS being upgraded even though I already sync at the 24mb limit with BE. The fibre PCP is in place and expected live dates are in approx 2 months so looking into a fibre provider now.

I have been looking at either Zen or IDNet. Any other recommendations?

See my original reply in this thread .

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 20-Mar-14 11:51:21)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

See my original reply in this thread .

Just thought I should check incase anything had changed since this was last visited. Sounds good to me.
On another note, I recall reading that they usually started taking orders once a certain percentage of cabs had been done. Is this correct?

I think the cabinet percentage idea was debunked a while ago. But the exchange being enabled doesn't mean your cabinet is, even if its FTTC partner is physically present.

You need to keep checking here.