removing phone connection from sky?

mcw92

hello.
i currently have a sky subscription.
i have the box connected to my phone line all the time as sky says to do.
but i am now thinking of removing the house phone, and thinking of getting a bill phone on vodafone instead.
i would just like to know if my sky box would suffer and if sky would know that i cancelled my phone line.
i am with eircom lines but BT provide my phone package.
any help appreciated.

kbell

If you only have one sub to sky then you'll be fine, however if you have multi room then you'll not be able to disconnect your phone.
You could always cancel the multi room sub and use the box for fta channels thus saving you €15 per month too.

madarekrap

Sky can be very sticky on this issue, i'm not totally sure why because the box functions perfectly without it unless you are using the interactive features like voting where it would normally use the line to dial. The contract clearly states that the phone line must be connected at all times and I think they reserve the right to test your line at any time and yes, they will actually fine you if they find that it is not connected (absolute rubbish). Hope this helps!

mcw92

oh ok then.
no i just have the one box in my sitting room.
i know i will not be able to order any box office or check my bill yes?

woodsl

i can't remember where i heard this so take with lots of salty goodness but iirc, through the phone line they can monitor what you watch (as in neilson ratings stuff although i'd question whether this is true or not) and also that's how they get more money out of you through stupid games and by making it really easy to get sky movies/sports/porn etc which i'd say is the most likely reason for it.

hope that helps

woodsl

by the way mine's been unplugged since day one (interferes with broadband) and no hassle from sky (sky+ and not multiroom)

madarekrap

mcw92 wrote: »

oh ok then.
no i just have the one box in my sitting room.
i know i will not be able to order any box office or check my bill yes?

I don't even know how to check the bill on the sky box and i can't remember ordering box office ever so I can't help there. I do know that we did some work on the house there so things were all over the place for a while and we didn;t have either of our boxes plugged in and we didn't get any hassle from Sky at all!

Wizard007

Hi, With just one box it's not a problem, you don't need the phone line plugged in permanantly. With Multi-room you do. Reason - when Sky sell a Multi-room package they need to know that all boxes are in the one household. A ping is sent back to the boxes via the line the call backs were done from, several times a month. If your boxes don't show up on Skys system as being active on that phoneline, they send you three warnings to connect your phone line to all your boxes. After warning number three, you will be billed your full package sub amount for each box. Unfortunately when this happens it is impossible to get Sky to drop the extra charges.

madarekrap

Ah, is that the box that comes up when I turn on the Sky box so?? I've seen it several times alright but we havn't been fined so far!

SoundWave

Wizard007 wrote: »

A ping is sent back to the boxes via the line the call backs were done from, several times a month. If your boxes don't show up on Skys system as being active on that phoneline, they send you three warnings to connect your phone line to all your boxes. After warning number three, you will be billed your full package sub amount for each box. Unfortunately when this happens it is impossible to get Sky to drop the extra charges.

Ive had sky multiroom at home for over 2 years and the only time the phone line has even been connected is when it got installed, and when i upgraded the boxes... and ive never had a single notice, call or charge to my account from sky for not having it connected, so i think its more a case of sky saying they do it... but rearly action or enforce it.

rondeco

I hve a loose connection and every so often I get a message from sky telling me to reconnect. So be careful..

greendom

I thought that once you had the box for a year you were no longer obliged to have the phone line connected. Is this no longer true?

madarekrap

greendom wrote: »

I thought that once you had the box for a year you were no longer obliged to have the phone line connected. Is this no longer true?

I thought about that but I wasn't sure so maybe you're right, it would make sense that after a year they know that you are not trying to scam them

GigaByte

After 1 year you can remove the telephone line. I've never had a telephone line connected to my sky HD box and got them to pair up the card by satellite for me


http://packages.sky.com/

General: Your Sky box(es) must be connected to a fixed telephone line for 12 months.

butts

Like SoundWave, we have multiroom but have had the phoneline unpluged from the boxes for at least six months and have never had a call. However we already had the equipment for 12 months when we unpluged the lines so maybe that explains why.

Edit: GigaByte just got in before me - his post seems to confirm the above

Wizard007

Madarekrap - Just hit the back up button on your remote. Ignore it.

Sorry, left that bit out, after twelve months you own the equipment so it doesn't matter whether they're connected or not, unless you're used to using box office and other interactive services that need the line in.

watty

You own and are 100% responsible for the gear from day1, but may have a contractural obligation to have a minimum subscription period and/or phone. You can pay to get out of either obligation early.

Always disconnect phone line and mains if on holiday or if there is a storm. Especially the phone line during storms to avoid induced voltage on phone line damaging the box.

A lightning strike within a few 100m of the line ANYWHERE between you and exchange can be enough voltage to damage anything on the line.


If you have Multiroom, they may complain eventually if they don't get validation that both receivers are on the same phone line. On ACTIVE Multiroom Mirror Subscriptions you must have both boxes on same line, even after the year, unless you cancel.

Pablod

I've had Sky for close to 3 years now,
and never have the phone line in all the time.
But, the only problem I have had is on the box office movies
Would probably get 1 or 2 movies a month.
and for about a month last year I didn't have the phone cable in the box
But it is always in when ordering movies.

Then towards the end of my billing year, I received my normaly monthly bill, but it was double the amount.
Because, (I didn't even notice myself) but the box office movies were never charged on each monthly bill like they should be.
Instead I got a bill for an additional €60 for the box office movies.
Sky's excuse was that the phone line must not have been plugged in.
When infact it was. Surely when you use the phone line to order the movie, thats it, you shouldn't have to have it in again so they can charge you????

kbell

It's not an excuse on Sky's behalf, its an explanation of why you were not billed for your movies for that particular time, ie.. the box couldn't call home to deliver purchase information to Sky.

When you order a box office movie the Sky box will check that it is connected to a phone line, eg.. it detects a dial tone.
It then allows the cost of the movie to be credited to your viewing card.

Then, when sky send their "callback" signal to all accounts (except no phone line), your box will call home to sky and deliver any purchase information to them, and in the case of multi-room subs, confirm that the boxes are connected to the same active phone line.

A couple of years back i ordered a prem + game, Chelsea V's Newcastle, by plugging in a phone extension,ordering the game then removing the line.

Dec '07 i was renovating my living room and i ran additional phone points as i wanted to put in multi room.
I plugged my box in just to check that the box could detect the tone, but i forgot to plug it out again.

Two weeks later i was landed with a bill for the game that was nearly 2 seasons previous.

ScrubsfanChris

Sorry for bringing this thread to the front again but it came up in a search and I would just like to add something.

I got SKY in 2001 (8 years this July) and since the day it was installed to as I write this now, a phone line has never come next or near my SKY box. Never got a call form SKY about it, no trouble form the installer. I've never wanted to use Sky Box office or order wrestling so I really never needed it.
Now I might just be lucky but 8 years is a long time for it to go un-noticed.

Hope that helps.

rotinaj

Have multi-room for over 5 years now and have got 3 "fines" for having my box disconnected from the phone line. Fine in the region of €40.

Each time I rang them. Told them i recived no warnings(white lie)and they just credited the money back to my account.