Sky Ireland Fibre Broadband

Steviemak · 05-02-2014 12:15pm

mattb74 wrote: »

I called them yesterday re this and was told that they really don't know, they're using Eircoms fibre and Eircom are having issues with it so Sky won't be proceeding before the issues are all ironed out. So none this wiser!

Really? Sounds like they are trying to deflect here.

positron · 05-02-2014 12:45pm

I was told Feb by another support guy when I rang late December. To be honest I have no hopes of them going fibre anytime soon.

I have just come off contract with Sky, I am going to look at what Vodafone / Eircom has to offer in the area and see.

Kristopherus · 05-02-2014 12:51pm

positron wrote: »

I was told Feb by another support guy when I rang late December. To be honest I have no hopes of them going fibre anytime soon.

I have just come off contract with Sky, I am going to look at what Vodafone / Eircom has to offer in the area and see.

Did you ask Sky to give you the €27.50 offer they have for former triallists?

SpaceTime · 05-02-2014 12:55pm

mattb74 wrote: »

I called them yesterday re this and was told that they really don't know, they're using Eircoms fibre and Eircom are having issues with it so Sky won't be proceeding before the issues are all ironed out. So none this wiser!

Eircom are having no issues with it. It's actually working very well. Many other companies including Vodafone, UTV, Digiweb and Magnet are using eircom wholesale fibre access products with great success and the feedback on forums here would support that it is an excellent product.

Most people who have the product seem to think it's excellent.

It's a bit low to be blaming eircom when it's sky who are the only major company without a fibre product.

The FTTC rollout seems to be a new beginning for eircom in terms of rolling out a consumer broadband product very rapidly that's really pretty good from a technical point of view.

Speeds will even improve this year when they switch 'vectoring' on. This cancels out line noise on the copper wiring that goes from your house to the cabinet and improves performance.

positron · 05-02-2014 1:07pm

Kristopherus wrote: »

Did you ask Sky to give you the €27.50 offer they have for former triallists?

Thanks, I didn't know there was such a deal... Hmm, still Vodafone is only €35 for fibre... free calls to Spain is the only benefit with Sky - which is not a big deal when I can get exceptionally cheap rates with Tesco mobile for that... Hmm.

Kristopherus · 05-02-2014 1:09pm

SpaceTime wrote: »

Eircom are having no issues with it. It's actually working very well. Many other companies including Vodafone, UTV, Digiweb and Magnet are using eircom wholesale fibre access products with great success and the feedback on forums here would support that it is an excellent product.

Most people who have the product seem to think it's excellent.

It's a bit low to be blaming eircom when it's sky who are the only major company without a fibre product.

The FTTC rollout seems to be a new beginning for eircom in terms of rolling out a product very rapidly that's really pretty good from a technical point of view.

Speeds will even improve this year when they switch 'vectoring' on. This cancels out line noise on the copper wiring that goes from your house to the cabinet and improves performance.

I'm not defending Sky for a second. They have had plenty time to get their act together. But since Christmas, Eircom have prioritised the repair of phone lines that have been weather-damaged. So new connections to efibre are on the back burner for the time being.This will push Sky's plans back further. And Eircom are endeavouring to provide a service, while, at the same time, trying to offload 2000 staff. I would not be surprised at all if Sky walked away.

SpaceTime · 05-02-2014 1:26pm

Eircom have to prioritise fixing storm damaged lines. That will be customers of all companies using their access network, including Sky. You can't leave people without landline services.

Sky's fibre product is being delayed because they haven't implemented it themselves. They need to put backhaul, interconnection with eircom wholesale and whatever customer services and back office systems they need in place. This stuff isn't done at street cabinet level, it's sky's core network that needs to be setup to deal with it.

Storm damage is storm damage. Nothing can be done about it.

Huawei are actually building out the FTTC cabinet network for eircom and wiring is getting done by KN Networks crews. Eircom technicians and crews aren't all that heavily involved with installations.

They're outsourcing most of their build out.

If sky 'walk away' they simply won't have fibre access at all.

I honestly don't think eircom is the issue. They're performing very well with this FTTC stuff and the rollout has been extremely fast and effective by any standards.

Bear in mind eircom is significantly ahead of their own initial schedule on this rollout. Many of their target dates were moved forward.

Our area was initially set to get FTTC in Jan 2014. We got it in Sept 2013.

Kristopherus · 05-02-2014 4:22pm

Ah, yea, Eircom are ahead of schedule, but thats only because the third party contractors are beating a faster path than Eircom can keep up with.

Anyway, back on topic. Sky have again given a fob-off answer on their support forum this morning.

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband-Talk/Sky-Fibre-Ireland/td-p/1597441

SpaceTime · 05-02-2014 5:44pm

I couldn't quite understand why Sky spent so much time and effort pushing unbundled ADSL2+ though. Seemed like a bit of a silly thing to do when FTTC was launching almost at the same time as they were launching ADSL!

They spent a fortune on ads when all their competitors are on VDSL2 (fibre to cabinet) up to 70Mbit/s (and will go beyond that this year when vectoring switches on possibly >100Mbit/s) and while UPC (their main competitor) is offering 200Mbit/s on cable (faster than any of their competitors in the UK!)

I would really have thought they'd have launched with FTTC products from the word go.

Chris The Hacker · 05-02-2014 7:01pm

SpaceTime wrote: »

Eircom have to prioritise fixing storm damaged lines. That will be customers of all companies using their access network, including Sky. You can't leave people without landline services.

Sky's fibre product is being delayed because they haven't implemented it themselves. They need to put backhaul, interconnection with eircom wholesale and whatever customer services and back office systems they need in place. This stuff isn't done at street cabinet level, it's sky's core network that needs to be setup to deal with it.

Storm damage is storm damage. Nothing can be done about it.

Huawei are actually building out the FTTC cabinet network for eircom and wiring is getting done by KN Networks crews. Eircom technicians and crews aren't all that heavily involved with installations.

They're outsourcing most of their build out.

If sky 'walk away' they simply won't have fibre access at all.

I honestly don't think eircom is the issue. They're performing very well with this FTTC stuff and the rollout has been extremely fast and effective by any standards.

Bear in mind eircom is significantly ahead of their own initial schedule on this rollout. Many of their target dates were moved forward.

Our area was initially set to get FTTC in Jan 2014. We got it in Sept 2013.

My area is live since October but I don't have a cabinet yet. Is there any way of of encouraging them to build a cabinet for my estate that doesn't involve money? How do they decide which housing estate gets a cabinet first?

degsie · 05-02-2014 7:28pm

Chris The Hacker wrote: »

My area is live since October but I don't have a cabinet yet. Is there any way of of encouraging them to build a cabinet for my estate that doesn't involve money? How do they decide which housing estate gets a cabinet first?

Do you have a Government Minister/ Local Councillor living in your estate? A promise of a vote might help :pac:

SpaceTime · 05-02-2014 7:31pm

The cabinets basically connect to existing cabinets that are just big junction boxes where the individual telephone lines to each house are connected to a big bundle of lines in a sealed cable that goes back to the exchange.

The first phase of rollout put fibre cabinets next to these.

There are some areas where there aren't any existing cabinets and lines are connected underground to junctions and are basically feed directly from the local exchange.

In areas like that they need to modify the phone wiring to add a distribution cabinet as well as install the fibre cabinet.

Those areas seem to be getting done in a second wave of rollout in areas mapped as complete.

The whole centre of Dublin and Cork cities are like that for example..

bk · 06-02-2014 12:16pm

Kristopherus wrote: »

I'm not defending Sky for a second. They have had plenty time to get their act together. But since Christmas, Eircom have prioritised the repair of phone lines that have been weather-damaged. So new connections to efibre are on the back burner for the time being.This will push Sky's plans back further. And Eircom are endeavouring to provide a service, while, at the same time, trying to offload 2000 staff. I would not be surprised at all if Sky walked away.

Not true, while Eircom will obviously prioritise repairs over new installs, most of the new installs are being down by KN Networks and other subcontractors and installs are continuing at pace.

In fact my parents just got Vodafone VDSL installed yesterday by KN/Eircom guys after ordering just last week *

The rollout is going extremely well.

Sky staff are lying through their teeth, the problems aren't on Eircoms side, they are on Skys side. It seems Sky were totally unprepared for the rollout of VDSL.

Sky's launch of Broadband in Ireland has been a total disaster. Their pricing isn't all that special, being more expensive then Vodafone. Mostly they are selling based on a big expensive advertising budget and some very questionable advertising (claiming BB is only €10, when in fact you also have to pay €30 for a phone line). Meanwhile they seem to be having massive problems with congestion on their network, with this forum being full of complaints of awful performance.

I've also heard that take up hasn't been so good and the sales staff are under loads of pressure to sell.

On the whole, Sky's entrance to the Irish BB market looks to be a mess and a complete disaster.

Fortunately for Sky, Eircoms entrance into the TV market with eVision doesn't look to be much better.

BTW If Sky do walk away, it will be an admission of failure on their own part. Vodafone seem to have no problems competing strongly with Eircom. If Sky can't do the same, it is only because of their own bad management.

Also I don't Sky will walk away, they really need to be in the BB triple paly market, specially as Eirocm is now doing IPTV and Vodafone will likely eventually do the same. Can't let these effect Skys TV cash cow.

* BTW the engineers were super nice and very quick and professional, great job. My parents are getting the full 70mb/s and the engineer said the line is capable of 100mb/s without vectoring! My parents house is basically sitting on the cabinet, which is 10 meters away on the garden wall outside the house

Dav · 12-02-2014 1:33pm

Hello all,

I was asked to post the following on behalf of Sky:

Sky Ireland wrote:

We’re pleased to see that there is high demand and interest in a Sky Fibre broadband service. We are committed to launching our new fibre service later this year. We are continuing to trial the service to ensure we launch with a quality product which offers the best possible experience for customers.

Nonoperational · 12-02-2014 2:21pm

Screw them. What are they trailing? Who is trailing it? Same bs for a year now. Glad to be rid of them.

Kimbot · 12-02-2014 2:25pm

I got sky installed in January and the agent on the phone told me he was trialing the fiber with them and it was horrendous for the first while but they seem to have ironed out alot of the issues so I would say it will be soon enough when they have it.

Nonoperational · 12-02-2014 2:29pm

They are just reselling Eircom VDSL. What is there to trial?

degsie · 12-02-2014 3:02pm

Nonoperational wrote: »

They are just reselling Eircom VDSL. What is there to trial?

Installation, modem, provisioning, backhaul....

positron · 12-02-2014 3:12pm

jonny24ie wrote: »

agent on the phone.

Various agents on various posters here have promised various stuff. I personally was told Nov 13, Jan 14, definitely by end of Feb 14, and no later than June. I think they are none the wiser than us, and all they know is the same vague responses that Sky's PR department sends out in the back of an envelop.

keno-daytrader · 12-02-2014 3:23pm

Dav wrote: »

Hello all,

I was asked to post the following on behalf of Sky:

Why do you post on behalf of Sky? Why dont they man up and come on here themselves?

Because posters wouldnt put up with the bs that they post on their own Sky forums.

They have been trialing fiber for at least 9 months now, and keep reposting the same bs since last July 2013.

Let them open a thread in the "talk to" forum like all other companies who want to interact with customers, not just one way posts "on behalf of"

Nonoperational · 12-02-2014 3:27pm

degsie wrote: »

Installation, modem, provisioning, backhaul....

There's certainly no need to trial a modem for 9 months. The technicians are doing it already for the other networks. It's not rocket science. Come in, install a NTU and sort the cabinet.

I suspect they don't have the backhaul or else they don't want to replace the Sky hub which may not be vectoring compatible and would require replacing.

degsie · 12-02-2014 4:44pm

Nonoperational wrote: »

There's certainly no need to trial a modem for 9 months. The technicians are doing it already for the other networks. It's not rocket science. Come in, install a NTU and sort the cabinet.

I suspect they don't have the backhaul or else they don't want to replace the Sky hub which may not be vectoring compatible and would require replacing.

Vodafone/Eircom etc had pre-launch trials also, as is always required to iron out any unforeseen problems.

channelsurfer2 · 12-02-2014 5:30pm

well i wont hold my breath for sky fibre. it its like what they charge now they will actually be 10euro more expensive for me than vodafone where i can 70mb and calls included for 40euro and i get another 3 euro discount for having an 087 prepay mobile bringing it to 37 euro. Sky will charge me 50 euro for 6mb based on my exchange and I doubt they will even match that vodafone price if they do get around to it.

Nonoperational · 12-02-2014 6:14pm

degsie wrote: »

Vodafone/Eircom etc had pre-launch trials also, as is always required to iron out any unforeseen problems.

Of course, but this Sky saga has been going on for about a year.

degsie · 12-02-2014 7:05pm

Nonoperational wrote: »

Of course, but this Sky saga has been going on for about a year.

VDSL services haven't been available for a year, have they?

positron · 12-02-2014 7:11pm

Kristopherus wrote: »

Did you ask Sky to give you the €27.50 offer they have for former triallists?

I just rang sky about this and the guy said there's nothing like that he's aware of. And about fibre he said they hope to do it this year but it could be last quarter or perhaps even later etc. Over all, sorry mate, there's nothing I can do for you, is there anything else I can do for you?

Anyhoo... waiting for a call back from Vodafone now. Switching time. Sky TV is also going (Saorview, DVB-S & Plex media server is plenty for now). But I do hope Sky brings out a kick ass fibre product in time - their customer support and service in general is is very good indeed.

Chris The Hacker · 12-02-2014 7:12pm

degsie wrote: »

VDSL services haven't been available for a year, have they?

Almost 9 months - 20th of May.

AlanS181824 · 12-02-2014 9:37pm

I'm done asking Sky about Fibre... Been getting the same "We're currently trialling the service as we want the best for our customers" since June! It's ridiculous. My contract ends on 18/4 but I'm going to ring up on 18/3 to tell them I'm leaving.

Kristopherus · 13-02-2014 12:48am

Dav wrote: »

Hello all,

I was asked to post the following on behalf of Sky:

Unbelievable !!!! Yet another version of the answer they have been spouting, for the past 12 months

Here's what they posted in their support forum last Sunday.

"In regards to Sky Fibre in ROI, just to reiterate what my colleagues have stated and the sticky thread - we're currently trialling with the aim to release it later this year at some point. When we have further updates we'll make this available to the community and we thank customers for their patience."

Can you spot the difference ?????

degsie · 13-02-2014 1:44am

Dav wrote: »

Hello all,

I was asked to post the following on behalf of Sky:

Still curious as to why Sky don't engage in the 'Talk To...' forums instead of drip feeding information via the Mods.

markad1 · 13-02-2014 8:55am

Kristopherus wrote: »

Unbelievable !!!! Yet another version of the answer they have been spouting, for the past 12 months

Here's what they posted in their support forum last Sunday.

"In regards to Sky Fibre in ROI, just to reiterate what my colleagues have stated and the sticky thread - we're currently trialling with the aim to release it later this year at some point. When we have further updates we'll make this available to the community and we thank customers for their patience."

Can you spot the difference ?????

:mad: boil your blood :mad:

channelsurfer2 · 13-02-2014 9:09am

Yes I do wonder why Boards entertain such drivel from sky when Vodafone etc who do get a lot of flack from posters at least have the decency to use the Talk to forums and not use a third party messenger.

AlanS181824 · 15-02-2014 4:26am

I know the 3 months free offer with Vodafone is over but when it's time to cancel I might mention that to Sky and see what they say. I would hate to get tied into an 18 month Vodafone contract only for Sky to release ultra cheap Fibre (unlikely) a month later. That's what happened to me last year, joined Sky in April, Fibre began rolling out in May, I'm in a Fibre area and all so as far as I'm concerned that's 9-ish months that I've been missing out! The Vodafone Router has a USB port on it too which I think is a big plus.

sawdoubters · 15-02-2014 4:28am

they use eircoms line so I don't know if eircom have to allow them to use its fiber

SpaceTime · 15-02-2014 11:49am

sawdoubters wrote: »

they use eircoms line so I don't know if eircom have to allow them to use its fiber

Eircom are required to have wholesale access products available to other companies. This is because eircom originated as a state owned legal monopoly.

Sky (or anyone else) can use the eircom lines and FTTC cabinets.

So far, Sky hasn't opted to do that.

crawler · 15-02-2014 6:04pm

SpaceTime wrote: »

Eircom are required to have wholesale access products available to other companies. This is because eircom originated as a state owned legal monopoly.

Sky (or anyone else) can use the eircom lines and FTTC cabinets.

So far, Sky hasn't opted to do that.

Not exactly - eircom has significant market power therefore the product is regulated to avoid monolopy situations which are not generally good for consumers.

the wholsale Regulated access products (including bitstream plus / VDSL) is available to any access seeker that wants it.

skydish79 · 15-02-2014 6:05pm

Why dont sky just get in bed with the esb and start rolling out fibre broadband, would allow them to properly compete with upc

SpaceTime · 15-02-2014 6:17pm

crawler wrote: »

Not exactly - eircom has significant market power therefore the product is regulated to avoid monolopy situations which are not generally good for consumers.

the wholsale Regulated access products (including bitstream plus / VDSL) is available to any access seeker that wants it.

The market's only regulated like that though because the main player is hugely powerful because it was a legal monopoly for about a century.

Without regulation we'd still have TE running everything.
TE / eircom didn't get into the dominant position they're in by out competing other players.

Opening that market was fairly challenging.

Vodafone and O2 similarly had the advantage of being a duopoly for years. So similar arguments apply there too.

positron · 15-02-2014 7:48pm

skydish79 wrote: »

Why dont sky just get in bed with the esb and start rolling out fibre broadband, would allow them to properly compete with upc

That makes sense, but didn't we read that ESB has selected Vodafone for final stage of negotiations? I wonder if that would mean existing Vodafone eFibre connections would get a choice to switch.. To early to think about all that I suppose..

Ah-Watch · 18-02-2014 11:06am

I rang Sky yesterday to port out to Vodafone. When I tried to port out to Vodafone Sky had some active order pending which meant I had to ring them AGAIN but they came back and asked me why I was moving to Vodafone , was it fibre or cost and I said both. He offered me 6 months broadband unlimited for €20 p/m inc line rental and VAT. There are no calls included but thats exactly what I wanted. I now have 6 months broadband for €20 and can move to Fibre with them IF it becomes available when my towns enabled or switch to Vodafone for fibre then. Thankfully they didnt tie me into any contract yet couldnt tell me when they'd be launching fibre

positron · 18-02-2014 12:22pm

Fair play. I would have done the same as you if Sky were to offer me that for six months. They didn't, so I am getting Vodafone Fibre enabled today, and terminated Sky TV as well. I hope they do come up with some great fibre offer this year, I look forward to switching back to them.

ElNino · 18-02-2014 1:10pm

positron wrote: »

I hope they do come up with some great fibre offer this year, I look forward to switching back to them.

Aren't you tied into an 18 month contract with Vodafone now?

positron · 18-02-2014 2:10pm

^^ Yep I am. I chose that for 35 pm compared to staying with Sky at close to 50 pm and with the uncertainty of fibre etc, also average speed is like 3 mbps here.

Alessia7 · 18-02-2014 8:28pm

Well done ah-watch for getting sky to give you it for €20 a month

I'd never switch to voda was with them for 1 month a true nightmare and they let me switch without paying a disconnection fee! Sky are really longing out the fibre release. It'll be at least 6 months I reckon!

kaizersoze · 20-02-2014 1:29am

Sky biggest stumbling block against them launching fibre is their lack of network and backhaul capacity. The same problem they're having with their DSL service.

Their sales and provisioning isn't that much different than what they're already doing.

AlanS181824 · 20-02-2014 5:47am

I'm ringing up on 18/3 to try cancel for my contract that ends 18/4, I hope they give me some no contract discounted offer then I can stick around hopefully long enough for them to launch Fibre. I don't want to leave as I really like their little Hub, I've heard some people say it's atrocious but it uses so little electricity and It's lovely and small.

crawler · 20-02-2014 12:03pm

AlanS181824 wrote: »

I'm ringing up on 18/3 to try cancel for my contract that ends 18/4, I hope they give me some no contract discounted offer then I can stick around hopefully long enough for them to launch Fibre. I don't want to leave as I really like their little Hub, I've heard some people say it's atrocious but it uses so little electricity and It's lovely and small.

...and will need to be replaced when you get fibre anyway

(It's ADSL only)

AlanS181824 · 20-02-2014 12:20pm

crawler wrote: »

...and will need to be replaced when you get fibre anyway (It's ADSL only)

Yeah with the little black Hub. SR102, should hopefully be as good or better than the current.

Chris The Hacker · 20-02-2014 1:25pm

AlanS181824 wrote: »

Yeah with the little black Hub. SR102, should hopefully be as good or better than the current.

They're both pieces of shít, to be honest. I don't ever want to see a router/hub as restrictive as the Sky hub. Anyway, I read the review of the newer one and it's almost as shít:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/sky-hub-2013_Peripheral_review

positron · 20-02-2014 1:37pm

AlanS181824 wrote: »

I really like their little Hub..It's lovely and small.

I agree. You should see the Vodafone fibre modem - about the size of an A4 sheet - or as wide and half as tall as my HP microserver. In white. It's really thin and flat, but as far as I can tell it's not wall mountable as all the cables are coming out 90 degrees to the wall. Eircom router is also just bad I think - but black. Disgusting coming from small Sky setup.

Sky Ireland Fibre Broadband

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