Sky Fibre Pro or Zen Unlimited Fibre?

Hi all

Simple question, really. I'm currently an ex-BE user migrated over to Sky Broadband Pro package (limited to transferred users at the moment & not on contract). I was really concerned about the migration over to Sky as about 1.5 years ago I tried Sky for a week and evening congestion was terrible and managed to move back to BE. However, since being moved to Sky's new product I have noticed a 10ms drop in ping down to 10ms to London and sync speeds (for me) are about 500Kb/s slower than BE.

Speed Test Don't know why it says 200mil (I'm in Canterbury.)

Now onto my actual question. BT have installed a cabinet and I've contact them and the've informed me that orders should be available from about end-July.

I have my phone line with Zen & broadband with Sky. Now both their Fibre offerings look almost identical on paper. Similar price, similar speeds, same contract. My gut instinct is to get fibre from Zen (smaller ISP and their tech-department has always been good.) As for Sky their history is mixed, right now it is really good.

Overall I'm concerned about sinning a contract and then hitting congestion. (Contacting Sky about upgrade and it's impossible without sining a 12 month contract naturally.) My main reason for wanting fibre is the upload speed (19Mb) and maybe a slight reduction in latency, the extra speed is a bonus.

What are your suggestions? Could I expect their to be no congestion if I'm on Sky's Pro Broadband and move to Sky's Pro Fibre Broadband. And if I sign a contract and there ever is congestion what is the best solution, does it allow me to contend the contract?

PS: I'm currently contact Sky's Pro department for support (ex-BE support members) and they are really good. Little.John has been amazing. But as for the rest of them I question if I'm even speaking to a human sometimes. Does Sky's Fibre Pro package also use the same tech support people? It appears to as it is listed in their Pro Support Forums (Limited to ex-BE and I suppose Sky Fibre Pro users).

Edited by deleted (Wed 28-May-14 14:04:20)

Hi,

Actually all Sky Fibre products are now 18 months, Zen are still 12 months. Zen Fibre is £5 a month cheaper and Zen give you a static IP address.

Zen also allow you to use our own router, unlike Sky where you have to use their home hub.

Zen line rental is a little more expensive (but I believe Sky are increasing prices in September) and they do not offer an unlimited calls pakage, it is 5000 anytime minutes to 01, 02, 03 and 0845/0870 numbers.

In my mind I would be going with Zen, they have a fantastic reputation. I will be looking to switch from plusNet to Zen shortly.

Cheers

Skilty

Zen Line Rental + 5000 minutes = £22.06
Zen Fibre 80/20 + £30.00
12 months minimum term

Sky Line Rental + Unlimited Calls = £20.40 [Does that include 0845/0870 ?]
Sky Fibre 80/20 + £30.00
18 Months minimum term

So Sky is marginally cheaper then Zen but with a longer minimum term.

I don't think Zen provides a free router. You can choose which router to use.

Is one better than other? Well it really depends if you want sport or not.

Does the little extra you would pay with Zen give you added value? IMHO, Yes.

For those happy with copper, that Zen line rental package that includes 5,000 minutes, is ONLY £17:35, not much more than line rental with the likes of BT. ALSO, there is NO 60 minute restriction to calls before incurring extra charges, the way other 'Anytime' call packages often con folk. Either way, a very good deal for the service supplied. As for sport, it's ALL free if you know where to look. http://www.zen.co.uk/home-office/voice/phone-service...

Edited by professor973 (Tue 29-Jul-14 11:41:47)

Well I can confirm that on Sky in Canterbury I'm getting 80Mbps solid

Only slow down I saw was when my line dropped to a lower sync but a reboot of the router brought speeds back to where they were.

In reply to a post by Skilty:

Actually all Sky Fibre products are now 18 months, Zen are still 12 months. Zen Fibre is £5 a month cheaper and Zen give you a static IP address.

Sky Fibre Pro gives you a static IP too FWIW

Is that the case for all customers or just those bought over from Be? I didn't think Sky did static on any product but provided it for ex-Be users because that is what they used to have before sky took over the customer base.

Zen!

Use your own router.
Better Reputation.
Shorter Contract.
..........................................................The list could go on...

All customers with "Fibre Unlimited Pro" (has to be Pro) - it can be configured in the "My Sky" bit.

That makes sky a possible future move then - don't currently have static but it is always nice to have the option...