Bye bye VM - hello Sky and some install questions

Hi everyone - I've last week cancelled all my VM services and am switching to Sky for TV+phone+broadband. VM's consistently awful connection speeds (I get around 3mbps on a 20mbps line since October last year) and getting a different answer from them every week have pushed me to jump.

Anyway, I'm taking Sky+HD, Max broadband and SkyTalk. The dish and TV service are due to be installed, with an OpenReach letter on its way to tell me when a BT engineer will be here to install the phone line (a week or two later, apparently).

First question is this: will they definitely install a new phone line? That's what Sky have requested and I've paid the £20 for that. I do have (in-active) BT line here but it's about 7 years old, has the ancient ADSL1 face plate and was damned awful even when it was connected. So, will the OpenReach engineer run a new line and install new master socket? I'm within half a mile of the exchange and the Sky salesperson who took down the phone number of my next door neighbour suggested a sync speed of 17-18mbps, so I want to ensure I've got a nice shiney ADSL2+ line and master box to support that. And can I get him to install the filter-plate that I've ordered or will I have to do that myself once BT and Sky have done their bits?

Also, will the TV work straight away once it's installed next week or will it have to wait 'til the BT/SkyTalk line is working a week or so later? How does the TV box get connected to the master phone socket - is there is splitter thing to allow TV and phone to connect at same time?

thanks
jj

I think they'd just reconnect the old line and confirm it is working. I doubt a 7 year old line would be considered old, and should support ADSL2 services without issue.

will they replace the face plate with a new one (the old one was just stuck to the wall with tape - thanks BT...) and re-wire it as it needs to be in a different place now.

True that. Shouldn't be a problem.

It probably depends on whether or not they need to come into your property or not.

If there is an old line that can be re-connected, they may be able to do everything from the exchange end and so may not need to come out to you.

If, however, they do need to come into your property, I'm sure the BT Openreach engineer will fix it up for you - ask nicely and offer tea/coffee & biscuits!

Once the engineer installs the dish and box, he won't leave until your tv works properly, assuming you have your viewer card (he might bring it). He will no doubt tell you that the sky box has to be connected to a telephone socket as soon as it is available.

will the TV work straight away once it's installed next week or will it have to wait 'til the BT/SkyTalk line is working a week or so later?

I think they need to initially connect to a phone to setup your skybox...i posted a question on a sky forum for you...answer below...

"Strictly speaking you are supposed to have an active line, but this is not really needed to set up Sky TV. Some installers will just shrug it off, others will refuse to continue with the installation."

I've just had sky installed and i didn't want phone cables running through my house from the phone socket to the skybox, so the engineer used his own phone extension cable to set it up and then unplugged it once it was all setup and working, he then told me to look into getting a wireless phone extension kit if i didn't want wires running through my house as technically part of the sky contract says you have to be connected to the phoneline at all times.

Only need to have the phone connected for the first 12 months or permanently if you have a multiroom sub.

In reply to a post by Rockh:

Only need to have the phone connected for the first 12 months or permanently if you have a multiroom sub.

You say that but none of my 3 boxes are connected and no irrate calls from Sky.

In reply to a post by gstapleybo:

In reply to a post by Rockh:

Only need to have the phone connected for the first 12 months or permanently if you have a multiroom sub.

You say that but none of my 3 boxes are connected and no irrate calls from Sky.

You won't get an irate call from Sky - you'll get one letter, and if you ignore that, they will charge you for two (or in your case 3) separate accounts if you're on multi-room. They don't send out letters straight away, because they know that sometimes people have to disconnect boxes during decorating & building work.