Sky broadband launches in Ireland

Hogzy

Mellio wrote: »

I think as mentioned sky are just getting a bundle together to give upc some sense of competition albeit a false one in the hope it will entice people back or to Sky with just the one bill.

If they were interested in offering people a good deal they would have done it by now on there tv packages instead of charging extortionate prices for sports channels, multiroom and HD content.

Either way even if they bring the price down to 60 or less for a basic package you will still not get as minimum:

• 25mb broadband
• ESPN
• HD Channels

Unless you pay more on top.

The offer would have to be pretty good for me to change from UPC. Only time will tell, I wouldnt hold your breath though.

Don't you have to pay UPC for HD aswell?

Mellio

Hogzy wrote: »

Don't you have to pay UPC for HD aswell?

Yes but not €15 a month.

I pay €5 a month for a HD+ box.

I also get ESPN HD with this deal where as sky you either have to pay
€16 a month for ESPN or take out sky sports for €33 a month just to get it.

Throw in the €15 a month for Multi room and sky is getting more expensive by the second.

No brainer for me.

aindriu80

Sky launches on-demand TV, promises broadband soon
12:44, 16 October 2012 by Adrian Weckler
http://www.businesspost.ie/#!story/Home/News/Sky+launches+on-demand+TV%2C+promises+broadband+soon/id/19410615-5218-507d-471b-34bfe4141037

Sky has launched an on-demand TV service
Sky Ireland has launched an on-demand film and television service with over 6,000 hours of movies and TV series content to be downloaded. It will also soon launch a broadband service.
The on-demand service, which requires a broadband connection of at least 2Mbs to view in high definition, gives access to 500 films on demand and over 100 hours of childrens’ television.
The broadcaster also has a new movie-rental service called Sky Store, with over 1,000 films available to rent through download.
A spokeswoman said that films were available up to ‘full HD’, but that users had to pick the quality they wanted manually. She said that an HD film took between 800 megagybes and 1,000 megabytes (1 gigabyte) of broadband data to view. Standard definition films, she said, take around half that amount.
The broadcaster has also launched a new wireless broadband connection box which links a wifi signal to existing Sky set-top boxes. It has also launched a new set-top box with 2,000 gigabytes of storage, enough to store 600 standard-definition films.
A spokesman said that Sky is hopeful of adding RTE and TV3 player services to its on-demand service in the New Year.
Sky recently signed an exclusive deal to broadcast the Harry Potter series of films.
The spokesman also said that Sky will launch a broadband service in Ireland “in a few weeks’ time”. The service will be based on a deal with BT Ireland, which has over 80 unbundled exchanges through Ireland.

Anyone know the list of BT Ireland enabled exchanges ? I read that they were going to have 100% broadband coverage from the start but obviously not.

bealtine

aindriu80 wrote: »

Anyone know the list of BT Ireland enabled exchanges ? I read that they were going to have 100% broadband coverage from the start but obviously not.

Not officially as it's a closely guarded "commercial" secret...

bealtine

aindriu80 wrote: »

Anyone know the list of BT Ireland enabled exchanges ? I read that they were going to have 100% broadband coverage from the start but obviously not.

I see IoffL have published a list of LLU exchanges on their website. That should give you an idea of where Sky broadband will be available.

aindriu80

bealtine wrote: »

I see IoffL have published a list of LLU exchanges on their website. That should give you an idea of where Sky broadband will be available.

I see IrelandOffline put up an article over there about it.

I will still be interested in reading what Sky will offer when they finally go with broadband later this month/year. Even if things are looking to be 100% the same.

clohamon

The doyen of Dublin gadget reviewers explains why Sky is onto a winner .....though maybe not.......or perhaps yes after all.

What Sky is after here is bundled packages, a similar strategy to the one that UPC has pursued very successfully over the last 18 months. There seems little reason to doubt that it will work, especially if the company can offer fairly decent broadband speeds (meaning over 10Mbs) for a relatively modest additional monthly fee.
However there is the basic question of it still being a landline solution meaning that it will be limited compared to faster alternatives. Still there's a healthy market for entry-level and mid-tier broadband packages. Sky looks to be onto a winner here.

Adrian Weckler - Sunday Business Post 21/10/2012

dahamsta

Gotta hedge those bets, keep the advertisers on board and never be proven wrong.

bealtine

clohamon wrote: »

The doyen of Dublin gadget reviewers explains why Sky is onto a winner .....though maybe not.......or perhaps yes after all.




Adrian Weckler - Sunday Business Post 21/10/2012

Another one that's swallowed to Sky marketing machine nonsense that somehow Sky can wave a magic wand and make "stuff" happen

aindriu80

clohamon wrote: »

The doyen of Dublin gadget reviewers explains why Sky is onto a winner .....though maybe not.......or perhaps yes after all.




Adrian Weckler - Sunday Business Post 21/10/2012

he doesn't know much else that what has been posted here.

cgarvey

Less of the attacking the journo please (against the charter). Feel free to correct his opinion.

TheChizler

Just got a call from Sky saying we'd been selected for the initial Sky talk/broadband trial. Anybody else get this? The whole package was for €10 a month, free line rental, free Irish landline numbers from 7am to 7pm, and unlimited 15 Mb broadband (when pressing the agent for the true limit in the small print he said it was 100 TB). Forgot to ask about the length of the contract but got them to call back later. Also forgot to ask was there a contention ratio. Must ask about mailbox and other phone stuff.

On Eircom's 24 Mb NGB at the moment, in reality we only get around 15 Mb anyway (15120 Kb absolute max, not sure if they're using binary or decimal prefixes) so the reduction in package terms wouldn't affect us at all. Was assured latency wouldn't be affected as they have their own Irish servers set up.

Opinions? Considering our last bill came to just under €140 I reckon it's a steal...

Edit: It goes without saying that we'll lost studyhub and sportshub, so must consult with others first, but they weren't used much anyway and hardly worth €120 pm.

aindriu80

they didn't say how much broadband was on its own (with whatever package you already have with sky)?

Headshot

Did you register your interest on their broadband before you got there trial?

PogMoThoin

TheChizler wrote: »

Just got a call from Sky saying we'd been selected for the initial Sky talk/broadband trial. Anybody else get this? The whole package was for €10 a month, free line rental, free Irish landline numbers from 7am to 7pm, and unlimited 15 Mb broadband (when pressing the agent for the true limit in the small print he said it was 100 TB). Forgot to ask about the length of the contract but got them to call back later. Also forgot to ask was there a contention ratio. Must ask about mailbox and other phone stuff.

On Eircom's 24 Mb NGB at the moment, in reality we only get around 15 Mb anyway (15120 Kb absolute max, not sure if they're using binary or decimal prefixes) so the reduction in package terms wouldn't affect us at all. Was assured latency wouldn't be affected as they have their own Irish servers set up.

Opinions? Considering our last bill came to just under €140 I reckon it's a steal...

Edit: It goes without saying that we'll lost studyhub and sportshub, so must consult with others first, but they weren't used much anyway and hardly worth €120 pm.

100TB? Really? You sure that's not 100GB?

aindriu80

Headshot wrote: »

Did you register your interest on their broadband before you got there trial?

Yes I registered my interest but didn't get any trial. My eircom 1 year contract is up and I was thinking of changing it. Not too many details from Sky so far and no real time line.

TheChizler

Headshot wrote: »

Did you register your interest on their broadband before you got there trial?

Yeah did it a couple of months ago, had forgotten about it though!

Regarding the 100 TB thing, definitely not GB, was very specific when I got him to clarify, mentioned that other providers had a real number in their small print, but he was very clear that it was properly unlimited, and when pressed for a number he found that. Must ask about a fair use policy though.

Didn't mention how much it was on it's own, I can ask though!

Going to ask about new modem, contention ratio, mailboxes, international calls and other out of package calls, and to doubly clarify on the download limit when he rings back in 10 minutes.

PogMoThoin

Their computer is broke if that's the case, its not possible to download even a fraction of that amount.

Hogzy

PogMoThoin wrote: »

100TB? Really? You sure that's not 100GB?

Really interested in the answer to this aswell.
100GB wouldnt be a great download allowance (especially with Sky On Demand), 100TB however would be perfect. I wouldnt go through half that in a year.

TheChizler

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Their computer is broke if that's the case, its not possible to download even a fraction of that amount.

I'm well aware of that! They're just putting that down as an absolute limit, effectively unlimited.

aindriu80

I just hit 105GB combined upload/download in November for the first time, I thought I would never go past 80GB but with updates and games etc it pushed things up, thankfully eircom have no limit. Vodafone has a limit with their broadband but its reasonable. I hope Sky doesn't have something like 100GB.

Webmechanic

Just been contacted myself. The deal I was offered was for unlimited broadband at €10/month and unlimited talk time on the phone for €7.50/month.

The broadband has an 'effective' unlimited download, i.e., the cap is at 1TB notionally. Upload is 768Kb. My own line is limited to 17Mb/s and they will deliver at that speed - so they say. I expect it depends on the size of pipe to your house. They expect you to use their own Skyhub router which has all the usual wireless encryption standards as well as four Ethernet sockets, so I presume you can use something else for the wireless component if their hub doesn't have good enough WiFi.

The phone includes unlimited local and national calls as well as 9 different international destinations. I was only interested in the UK so didn't enquire about the rest. You need to follow the 'hang-up after 59 minutes' approach to ensure you don't get charged extra. It includes line rental.

This is an 'introductory offer' and is for a 12 month contract, however it's a rolling one month contract after that so should be easy enough to cancel. They will be setting their prices over the coming months so don't expect it to stay this cheap but it seems worth a punt for now.

Also got a €50 reduction offered during the call so the first two months and a bit are free.

I forgot to ask if it included VAT so I'm not sure on that point, perhaps someone else can answer that question.

Cheers,
D.

toby2111

Is the unlimited talk time anytime or evenings and weekends?Also does it include calls to mobiles?

Webmechanic

The unlimited talk time is 24/7 but I don't think it includes mobiles.

clint_silver

has someone got a contact number for them? cant find anything on their site

"sky broadband ireland" not throwin much back in the almighty joogle other than a few links to boards

Kristopherus

clint_silver wrote: »

has someone got a contact number for them? cant find anything on their site

"sky broadband ireland" not throwin much back in the almighty joogle other than a few links to boards

Afaik you must register your interest online and they will (eventually) ring you. From what I have read in the couple of forums on Boards about this subject, there seems to be a couple of different offers. I presume its pot-luck as to what offer you will get.

aindriu80

can you get broadband only or do you have to pay for calls ? What is the cheapest option (but with no cap)

Webmechanic

aindriu80 wrote: »

can you get broadband only or do you have to pay for calls ? What is the cheapest option (but with no cap)

You can get broadband only, €10/month unlimited but you'd still need a phone line from somebody. They also offer a 'broadband lite' option but as it's capped at 2GB I didn't even ask the price as that's pretty much unusable. Bear in mind if you use their new 'on demand' service it'll count towards your downloads so unlimited is the only way to go in that instance.

aindriu80

Webmechanic wrote: »

You can get broadband only, €10/month unlimited but you'd still need a phone line from somebody. They also offer a 'broadband lite' option but as it's capped at 2GB I didn't even ask the price as that's pretty much unusable. Bear in mind if you use their new 'on demand' service it'll count towards your downloads so unlimited is the only way to go in that instance.

Clearly, thanks for that. I am with Eircom and would like to move to Sky should it become available for anything less than what I am paying at the moment (€52/month, 8Mbs speed, Cap unlimited). While the speed and CAP I'm happy at, the price is too much.

How does Sky offer broadband if they need a phone company to provide a line ? Not all phone lines are unbundled?

Webmechanic

aindriu80 wrote: »

Clearly, thanks for that. I am with Eircom and would like to move to Sky should it become available for anything less than what I am paying at the moment (€52/month, 8Mbs speed, Cap unlimited). While the speed and CAP I'm happy at, the price is too much.

How does Sky offer broadband if they need a phone company to provide a line ? Not all phone lines are unbundled?

As I understand it they did a deal with BT who still have infrastructure over here, any areas not covered by that will be Eircom's LLU, like everyone else. However, I imagine that Sky is subsidising it's offering at the outset so as to build market share quickly. It remains to be seen what prices they quote when they open it up fully. Hopefully it will force Eircom et al to lower their own exorbitant prices but I wouldn't hold my breath on that (disillusion and pessimism are hard habits for me to break in Ireland these days). :-)