All I can say is I was on BT with around 35 devices connected (smart lights, alexa, google home, etc). It never had a problem. With Sky if I reboot, the first 5 or so devices get an IP, around 12 hours later DHCP kicks in and allows approx 15, within 48 - 72 hours all my devices have an IP assigned. Provided I don't reboot / get a powercut I am then okay... That being said, had an electrician around yesterday and work laptop has not yet got an IP. Workaround is a static IP, but my smart lights cannot be assigned static IPs and currently the bedrooms have not got IPs so they don't work. Crazy TBH.

The boosters (part of their whole home wifi) seem to slow my speeds down to around 35Mbps, despite all being linked with a solid (approx -55 to -60RSSI) signal on 5GHz. On BT, their whole home WiFi didn't slow my speeds at all, I was getting 74Mbps on speedtests with 2 boosters in the same location.

Customer service wise, definitely had a better experience on BT, when I had a fault they auto compensated me, with Sky, they're umming and arring back and forth whether I get compensation for this issue as they see "some" data throughput... Sure, the few devices that work have data throughput, but overall I do not have a working connection so I expect compensation. The Exec team have agreed £4 discount which doesn't nearly cover the issues faced.

I am looking into switching ISP if they do not issue a firmware update soon. I am working with the trials team to test the proposed fixed firmware, it was promised last thursday, then friday, then saturday, and on Sunday they pulled it until they get further info... So it's not even in trial currently, let alone rolled out to mass market.

Another issue they had which was quite bothersome, their calls over internet (effectively you plug your phone into their router not the phone socket). This was broken for months as their time server got messed up on the same firmware which broke DHCP. It told my Panasonic handset that the time was one hour out, this meant if someone called, my handset didn't ring as it thought the call was at a different time. Instead it just showed a missed call for an hour out. Sky actually did not fix this, instead the daylight saving that just occured fixed it as the time now aligns.

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/08/isp-sk...

Overall - not impressed. It all feels very basic, and I question their internal testing. On the other hand, TV has been perfect.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 24-Nov-20 12:20:32)

Just to clear up your FTTP On Demand - that is a product where you can pay to get FTTP run to you but costs are well into the £1000's for install and then you have to take a business product for at least a year. Few providers do it - the most popular seems to be Cerberus but you need a big wallet in most cases to get it - unless you really really need more than 80Mb/s then it isn't relevant to you.

There are also other providers than BT and Sky. There are over 200 providers out there and others might provide better value or services. Whilst BT, Sky and TalkTalk are the big providers there are loads of others with products that could suit - but you could spend the next month investigating them all....

BT tends to add other things into the bundle that add value but do have a small price impact.

The BT 80/20 product varies between £29.99/m and £31.99/m depending on when you buy
The Sky 80/20 product is £25/m to £27/m on same criteria.

One reason for the lower price is those further from the cabinet with Sky will be put on a slower and cheaper for Sky product.

Another reason is the network for Sky from exchange to the Internet is cheaper than what BT use.

Another reason no big provider survives if they price service more than the big old provider that is BT. Have had both on a longer slow line and no real difference between the two. Wi-Fi did improve over the years as new routers appear and that is why lots of people who switch after years of using old hardware see the new provider as a lot better.

Re BT checker:

In reply to a post by em_x:

My VDSL ranges from 80-67mb/s downstream, with 20-19mb/s upstream, and a downstream handback of 60-64.2mb/s.

Realistically you should see a minimum downstream line rate of ~60Mbps once a stable line rate has been established after 10 days of a WBC FTTC service. I assume your neighbor is running throughput speed tests and getting 40-50Mbps with BT retail?

Don't forget we have no idea of the neighbour's setup. For a start, they are probably talking about speeds received over wifi.

Yes I totally agree but one might like to give the neighbour benefit for providing a plausible estimate from an optimized setup within their property