Sky Broadband.

ClonNGB · 18-04-2013 10:57pm

I was on Sky and speeds dropped 90% in the evenings and weekend

petersburg2002 · 19-04-2013 1:41am

Vico1612 wrote: »

Mixed bag really , depends if you are on a LLU exchange ...
Check out the comments on the Sky forum ..
http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/ROI-Broadband-Talk/bd-p/ROIbroadbandtalk

I'm with Sky on a LLU exchange, and speeds drop by 25% in the evening ...
Would stay on UPC

The phones in Sky's new call centre must be hopping judging by the number of complaints on their forum. God help their newly recruited staff.

lewis · 19-04-2013 10:46am

I wonder how long it`ll take Eircom to roll out there fiber?

Vico1612 · 19-04-2013 4:58pm

I asked Sky if they had any plans to offer fiber once Eircom bring it to market.
Here's the reply I got from their CS.

Thank you for contacting Sky Help Centre.
At the moment we currently are not in a position to roll out broadband through the Fibre Network. With this in mind it is something that we will be looking at in the future just unfortunately not at this time.

Dav · 19-04-2013 5:14pm

Hello all,

I was contacted by Sky as a result of the issues people are having and are talking about on this thread. They asked if I'd post the following on their behalf:

Sky Ireland wrote:

We are aware that some Sky Broadband customers have been experiencing a reduction in broadband speeds at certain times. We are currently working to address this issue and this will be completed over the next few days. We’d like to apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. If customers would like to contact us for further information, they can do so by calling Customer Care: 0818 719 819 or emailing MySky@bskyb.com.

We're going to be having a chat with them about taking a more active approach in trying to sort out your issues via Boards next week.

CivilServant · 19-04-2013 5:20pm

Good news, hopefully this isn't customer coddling and they will actually fix the problem. Can't see what the problem is really, unless sky are being very stingy with the bandwidth, other providers seem to have no problem providing a good service even at peak times.

AidenL · 19-04-2013 7:25pm

Yeah, this will be interesting.

degsie · 19-04-2013 7:37pm

They posted the same guff on the Sky Help Forum. I seriously doubt they can fix this "over the next few days" without major infrastructure changes. Guess we can just wait and see....

keno-daytrader · 19-04-2013 7:43pm

This has been going on for 4 weeks, and this is the first time Sky has acknowledged the problems publicly.

The fact that they were ignoring the problem and sending people on hopeless troubleshooting bs is what angered so many of us, more than the speed issues itself.

I was finally told in an email yesterday that the problem wont be fixed anytime soon, so I switched to Eircom, now they say fixed in a few days???? Great organization over there at Sky.

AshtownGuy · 19-04-2013 11:36pm

Yeah, I was a Sky fan until I discovered the usually fast 14Mb speed barely reached 2Mb speeds in the evenings. So disappointed. I mistakenly understood that they had no congestion. They certainly do at peak times. If your current provider gives good speed at all times, then you should not switch to SKY!

AshtownGuy · 20-04-2013 12:24am

Dont go near SKY broadband if you expect that you can game, netflix or apple TV etc in the evenings. http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/ROI-Broadband-Talk/Speed-drops-evening/td-p/965358

johnj1969 · 20-04-2013 11:38am

If we could get skys TV & UPCs BB,that would be the package...

petersburg2002 · 20-04-2013 12:38pm

you mean the sky tv that loses the signal every time we get bad weather? No thanks

Nonoperational · 20-04-2013 1:06pm

petersburg2002 wrote: »

you mean the sky tv that loses the signal every time we get bad weather? No thanks

Your dish is not properly aligned, or else your talking complete nonsense! Either way, never once have I lost satellite signal in any weather.

AidenL · 20-04-2013 1:19pm

Same here, signal is always perfect.

I know Sky TV is expensive - but its a superb delivery, yes, at a premium price.

Thats why it surprised me so much when their BB offering was so weak structurally.

phoenix999 · 20-04-2013 2:41pm

Nonoperational wrote: »

Your dish is not properly aligned, or else your talking complete nonsense! Either way, never once have I lost satellite signal in any weather.

I think your the one talking nonsense. I have had that same problem. Had technicians out from Sierra several times. I'm on an exposed hill and it always goes off in heavy rain or wind. Then comes back on as soon as the weather improves. Just because you get a perfect signal, doesn't mean everyone else does. So I wont be touching their broadband. But their channels are hard to beat (hence my reluctance to change).

tinkerbell · 20-04-2013 2:45pm

Lumi wrote: »

+1
I've had a steady 10mb since I switched over in December. No noticable drop off at all

Have you been checking it during different times in the day? Reason I ask is because when I switched, I was getting over 10mb per day and I just randomly checked today (hadn't done so for a good few weeks) and it's 6mb today.

peking97 · 20-04-2013 2:55pm

petersburg2002 wrote: »

you mean the sky tv that loses the signal every time we get bad weather? No thanks

I would suspect something wrong with your setup probably dish alignment like Nonoperational suggested or something else which is causing excessive losses in your system. While one might expect to lose signal under extremely heavy weather conditions it would certainly not be normal to lose it *every time we get bad weather*. HTH.

petersburg2002 · 20-04-2013 3:08pm

peking97 wrote: »

I would suspect something wrong with your setup probably dish alignment like Nonoperational suggested or something else which is causing excessive losses in your system. While one might expect to lose signal under extremely heavy weather conditions it would certainly not be normal to lose it *every time we get bad weather*. HTH.

Well as Phoenix999 states above, it is usually very stormy weather, which seems like every other week these days. And its something Sky's technicians haven't been able to sort. A quick Google search shows how common the problem is. But anyway, lets keep the thread to topic.

tfitzgerald · 20-04-2013 3:12pm

Nonoperational wrote: »

Your dish is not properly aligned, or else your talking complete nonsense! Either way, never once have I lost satellite signal in any weather.

I have to tell you that you are very lucky. Because any bit of bad weather and I lose my signal and I have had my dish checked. Channel 4 and more 4 are the worst for bad signal

Kenny Logins · 20-04-2013 3:18pm

Dav wrote: »

Hello all,

I was contacted by Sky as a result of the issues people are having and are talking about on this thread. They asked if I'd post the following on their behalf:
We're going to be having a chat with them about taking a more active approach in trying to sort out your issues via Boards next week.

Great! Thanks. I've just been investigating my reduced speeds (or packet loss? -can't even watch a Youtube vid now) before making contact with Sky, it would be great to see them on here.

degsie · 20-04-2013 3:19pm

tfitzgerald wrote: »

I have to tell you that you are very lucky. Because any bit of bad weather and I lose my signal and I have had my dish checked. Channel 4 and more 4 are the worst for bad signal

And this has what to do with Sky broadband?

Kenny Logins · 20-04-2013 3:22pm

BTW, for anyone else reading - I'm sorry I left Vodafone now as I never had a problem with them (bar their terrible website, but that's another story), and I'm only saving ~€4 pm for switching to Sky.

Right now I'm feeling it really wasn't worth it.

lewis · 20-04-2013 3:55pm

Nonoperational wrote: »

Your dish is not properly aligned, or else your talking complete nonsense! Either way, never once have I lost satellite signal in any weather.

We`re the same, any bit of reasonably bad weather and the channels go all wonky, have had numerous Sky lads out to sort it, for some reason they were all on there own.

The first lad dropped the dish off of the roof, while I was in the garden, landed 5 foot from me, this is from a two story house.
The second lad was a complete twat, was a know it all, but he could`nt even get the bloody ladder on the roof, he even as for my help, turned out that he swore it would be better off on the side of the house, 100% best signal from there, I was like sure go for it, I don`t want ya falling off my roof onto my car.

Few days latter had to call out another dude, he found out that the dish was`nt even bolted right, the bloody thing was loose, this dude sorted that problem out, but we still lose the signal when there`s bad weather.
It`s only on certain channels.

Rant over...

Lumi · 20-04-2013 6:17pm

tinkerbell wrote: »

Have you been checking it during different times in the day? Reason I ask is because when I switched, I was getting over 10mb per day and I just randomly checked today (hadn't done so for a good few weeks) and it's 6mb today.

We have had no issues with Sky BB so I don't tend to check the speeds all that often tbh, maybe once a week out of interest and yep, at different times. Netflix, youTube, gaming etc are all working flawlessly in the evening and that's all that really matters to us because we never got above 4mb with Eircom.
Test just now

Skidfingers · 20-04-2013 6:30pm

Lumi wrote: »

We have had no issues with Sky BB so I don't tend to check the speeds all that often tbh, maybe once a week out of interest and yep, at different times. Netflix, youTube, gaming etc are all working flawlessly in the evening and that's all that really matters to us because we never got above 4mb with Eircom.
Test just now

Where you from?

Lumi · 20-04-2013 6:56pm

Skidfingers wrote: »

Where you from?

Galway city

keno-daytrader · 20-04-2013 7:13pm

Lumi wrote: »

Galway city

LLU= good Sky speeds

Bitstream = horrible Sky evening speeds.

Unfortunately the majority of exchanges in Ireland are Bitstream, with no LLU.

I wish I was on the Galway exchange, but Im out in Loughrea which means ****e speeds from Sky in the evenings and all weekend.

So the majority of Sky broadband users in Ireland are experiencing really bad speeds in the evening and all weekend.

BArra · 20-04-2013 7:33pm

i am on an exchange that is NOT LLU...but i had eircom NGB before sky which was touted by eircom as alleviating any slowdown in speeds... i never had any issues with eircom with speed drops.

so now i have switched to sky why are my speeds suddenly rubbish in the evening times?

ClonNGB · 20-04-2013 8:08pm

48 people sharing 17Mb connection that's why! Even though you were told it was uncongested and would never slow down. Same as paying for a new car and being given a 12 year old banger! Make sure you quit before the 30 day cooling off period expires. They will fob you off for as long as they can hoping you will pass that date.

churchbay · 20-04-2013 8:55pm

ClonNGB wrote: »

48 people sharing 17Mb connection that's why! Even thoug you were told it was uncongested and would never slow down. Same as paying for a new car and being given a 12 year old banger! Make sure you quit before the 30 day cooling off period expires. They will fob you off for as long as they ca hoping you will pass that date.

Hi ClonNBD, I joined Sky April 7. Have spoken to countless Sky reps about appalling broadband service. Useless evenings and weekends. Have secured discount and acceptance that I am not bound by 12 month contract. I have been assured that my case is being investigated by tech team. Here's hoping! I am located in Leixlip and can see exchange from my house.

keno-daytrader · 20-04-2013 8:58pm

BArra wrote: »

i am on an exchange that is NOT LLU...but i had eircom NGB before sky which was touted by eircom as alleviating any slowdown in speeds... i never had any issues with eircom with speed drops.

so now i have switched to sky why are my speeds suddenly rubbish in the evening times?

Sky didnt invest in their backhaul to deliver a stable product, and they ignored and bs'ed customers until they were found out.

For now they are not enforcing contracts and you are free to switch without penalty. However make sure you get it in an email or writing as I wouldnt put anything past the rotten customer service that most have received from Sky until now.

ClonNGB · 20-04-2013 9:05pm

I left Skyandreturned to Eircom thinking they would be best bet, but having signed up for their 24mb ultimate package I am only getting 7mb. I have now been told they have me on the 8mb package.getting a little tired of spending my spare time on the support lines getting a different answer every time I call. Why the hell cant someone supply the service you order ? Bad and all that it is at least the speed is constant unlike Sky but not happy paying for 24 and getting 8.

peejay1986 · 21-04-2013 10:30pm

Just here trying my mothers newly installed Sky broadband. Ordered it for her on Paddy's Day and had it installed last Monday.

The speed at the minute is 0.7mbps down, and that's with the router showing 9mbps for the ADSL line.

I specifically asked about congestion when signing up and was told that IG was uncongested. Very disappointed. Based in Louth for what its worth.

sfag31 · 21-04-2013 10:36pm

am just after posting on the topic of congestion on a different thread before spotting this one. Im in Louth and the speed is dropping to 1mb download in the evening (from 6mb in the morning). Its looking pretty woeful. Their helpdesk told me to wait 10 days then things will settle - anybody any experience with that ?

peejay1986 · 21-04-2013 11:00pm

sfag31 wrote: »

am just after posting on the topic of congestion on a different thread before spotting this one. Im in Louth and the speed is dropping to 1mb download in the evening (from 6mb in the morning). Its looking pretty woeful. Their helpdesk told me to wait 10 days then things will settle - anybody any experience with that ?

Yep. Same situation here.

Told we'd get 15mb (24mb package). Modem showing 9mb on line. Actual speed is 0.7mb at the minute. Upload is same speed as download currently. Absolute joke.

Any point I'm me phoning support, or will I just be fobbed off because we're new customers and the line needs to 'find the right speed'? Funny how 'finding the right speed' only becomes a problem at evenings and weekends.

airuser · 22-04-2013 7:56am

History is repeating itself.

What is happening with Sky is very similar to what occurred when BT was taken over by Vodafone a few years ago. Slow speeds, drop outs, and variable speeds between 7 and 12 PM.

Same excuses, same have you done this and that? Exception is that one can get in contact with Sky. It was nearly impossible to contact VF.

Cannot understand why Sky did not research what could happen here before moving into the market.

Dav · 22-04-2013 11:54am

I see people talking about "congestion" and as it's a personal annoyance of mine, I just thought I'd post a quick note to say that there is no such technical term as "congestion" - it's simply a BS marketing term that some ISPs have coined to suggest that they have lower contention than others. Contention is the ratio of customers on a line and the closer it is to 1:1 the less overall traffic on the line and therefore the faster your connection will be.

Any time some sales rep talks about "congestion" you should tell them to stop with the nonsense and tell you the actual contention ratios.

naughto · 22-04-2013 12:12pm

thanks dav.how are things going with sky will they have a thread where you can post to there reps about peoples broadband isssus?you might need to get a new server to deal with the load as i can see ther be ing a lot of traffic on the thread.

tfitzgerald · 22-04-2013 1:02pm

peejay1986 wrote: »

Yep. Same situation here.

Told we'd get 15mb (24mb package). Modem showing 9mb on line. Actual speed is 0.7mb at the minute. Upload is same speed as download currently. Absolute joke.

Any point I'm me phoning support, or will I just be fobbed off because we're new customers and the line needs to 'find the right speed'? Funny how 'finding the right speed' only becomes a problem at evenings and weekends.

Can I ask you what test you are useing to test your sleep. I am useing utv Internet and when I check useing speedtest I am getting speeds of 5mb. But when I try to open a page it's like watching paint dry

peejay1986 · 22-04-2013 1:09pm

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Can I ask you what test you are useing to test your sleep. I am useing utv Internet and when I check useing speedtest I am getting speeds of 5mb. But when I try to open a page it's like watching paint dry

Speedtest.net

Tried all of their servers too. Speed varies a small bit but never going above 1mb.

You issue may be Ping related? Try pingtest.net

Kristopherus · 22-04-2013 1:22pm

naughto wrote: »

thanks dav.how are things going with sky will they have a thread where you can post to there reps about peoples broadband isssus?you might need to get a new server to deal with the load as i can see ther be ing a lot of traffic on the thread.

Naughto, how are your speeds after 7.00pm.? Mine was excellent until 2 weeks ago. Some nights I got less than 1mbps. Rather than contact Sky to be fobbed off, I tethered my phone and got 4mbps, which was acceptable, as I wasn't streaming. I note that Sky have at last taken note of the complaints of its Irish customers. Maybe, just maybe, things might improve.

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/ROI-Broadband-Talk/Broadband-Speeds/td-p/1068380

Mollywolly · 22-04-2013 1:41pm

I never realised that so many were having problems with Sky BB. We signed up last December and haven't had any problems (so far). 'Course, we were never getting massive speeds with Vodafone (up to 5mb) and now doing a little bit better with Sky at 5.2mb and it's consistent and never varies. We had massive problems with Vodafone last year with constant drop-outs and having to reboot the router all the time, so this is much better.

Just to give you an idea, I've attached the report from "SamKnows", the EU broadband monitoring project, for this year.

Live in Co Limerick if that helps.

airuser · 22-04-2013 1:41pm

I use www.speedtest.btwholesale.com

plus www.speedtest.net

Both vary

naughto · 22-04-2013 1:42pm

the only time i have noticed a slow down is sat/sunday i usually max out my connection any other times bar these.
i cannot steam any content like netflix but that could be down to the sky hub which is a piece of crap even when the sky hub in the same room its bluffering.

peejay1986 · 22-04-2013 2:45pm

An absolutely pathetic response I've just received on the Sky Help Forum in relation to these speed issues...

Hi all,

Thank you for taking the time to post.

The lines that Sky use on the Eircom network have the potential to become congested at peak times. This is explained as part of our key facts that are read to customers when they sign up to Sky broadband.

I can fully appreciate your frustration at being affected by this, unfortunately at this moment in time there is no troubleshooting we can offer to help increase your speed at peak times. Any updated information we receive will be cascaded as soon as we receive it.

Thanks

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband-Speed/Slow-speeds-in-Republic-of-Ireland/m-p/1072582/highlight/false#M37015

peejay1986 · 22-04-2013 3:14pm

The only way I see Sky resolving this issue quickly is if they wee subject to public criticism in the media. Sent a tweet to Silicon Republic to see if they'd cover the story (not hopeful - imagine they get lot of requests for stories). As it is, they're probably still signing up new customers every day who are blind to what is happening.

I'm giving the situation a week at most. At the minute though, I'd be surprised if I see out half of that. Horrible customer service.

degsie · 22-04-2013 3:14pm

So Sky are now blaming Eircom for the slowdown! UNBELIEVABLE! It's hard to fathom the total incompetence being demonstrated by Sky. I can only hope that Eircom are monitoring this thread....

peejay1986 · 22-04-2013 3:29pm

Another reply...

Hi again,

The information I posted above was given to me by our Sky Ireland broadband tech team. I apologise if my post came across as though I was shifting the blame to Eircom, this was not the case.

Although you may have been using the same line with Eircom, Vodafone etc as your Sky landline is now on, these companies have a much larger exchange capacity than Sky at the moment, meaning we are more likely to suffer from congestion issues during times when more users are online. This is because Sky broadband in Ireland is very much in its infancy stage.

If you would like to discuss your contract regarding your service please see the contact us page on how you can best reach us.

Thanks

pajodublin · 22-04-2013 4:51pm

Just off the phone with Sky for the 100th time
Have missed 2 calls from "tier 2" tech support due to them ringing the wrong number (they ring my missus' number and not mine when they've been told several times)
So I ring back and the note left on the account is "congestion at peak times"
He tried to go through the basic troubleshooting with me again (how many phone lines? is there a splitter? etc)
Told him I've been working in the industry for 15 years and he can't pawn me off with his poxy know nothing jargon
told me to call back when i'm home so they can troubleshoot some more
Never had "congestion" problems with eircom and as much as i hate them i would consider going back if this isn't resolved.
I'm getting 15-20mb/s during the day but anything from 0.06 to 0.85mb/s in the evening and weekends
That is simply unusable. Congestion does not cover speeds that low.

Sky Broadband.

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