Is Eircom sabotaging SKY or is SKY just useless?

Trampas

over 8mb this morning

i'm glad i am only paying €10 a month for unlimited

CivilServant

Sky's plan reduces bandwidth at peak times. Youtube being the largest culprit with hardcore throttling taking place. Any kind of streaming video is throttled to a fraction of what you can get in the morning. Not well known sites are lightly throttled to half or a third of maximum bandwidth. That's been my experience. If I had known right from the start I wouldn't have taken the offer up. You live and you learn, never trust SKY!!

Pings remain stable throughout the evening, which suggests traffic shaping and not congestion.

keno-daytrader

Well I did all the troubleshooting BS with Sky support for the almost non existent broadband speeds in the evening, use ethernet, change microfilter, reboot router, using a different device, feking bla bla bla. So after 2 evenings on the phone doing all this BS , Sky tell me that it is down to congestion at the evenings. WOW REALLY???? Then he tells me that he simply can not help me anymore with the problem because its congestion. Why, I say didnt this happen when I was with Eircom, he couldnt answer that. I dont blame the CS rep, he was nice enough, just had poor training from a bad company.

I expected so much more from Sky, I would expect this kind of product and service from a few cowboys who run a local wireless ISP but not Sky. I hope many potential customers take note of the many complaints here and dont give them your money!

Nuno

I raised a complaint today with the Advertising Standards Authority because I believe it's misleading to customers of the Sky Broadband Unlimited package.
If you also feel compelled, complaints can be made here: The Advertising Standards Authority: Make a Complaint

Copy of my complaint.

Sky Broadband offer a number of packages one of which is called the ’Sky Broadband Unlimited’ package. One of the claims Sky make to customers on their website is the following: "We won’t slow your broadband speeds down at peak times" I am a Sky Broadband subscriber and am on the Sky Broadband Unlimited package and recently raised a complaint with sky that in the evening times my broadband speed slowed right down to near unusable levels. A Sky customer service rep. informed me that I am on what’s known as a ’bitstream’ product, and that I will experience slow down at peak times as the line can be shared with potentially up to 48 other users. Sky claim that they are not responsible for the slow down in my speed at peak times, it is just the nature of the product I am on. I believe the claim made by Sky to ’not slow down broadband speed at peak times’ would unfairly lead customers to believe their broadband speed would not be reduced at peak times if they sign up to this package with Sky. This is clearly not so in my case and potentially the case of other sky customers I’ve seen complaining on Boards.ie

Harry Deerpark

Nuno wrote: »

I raised a complaint today with the Advertising Standards Authority because I believe it's misleading to customers of the Sky Broadband Unlimited package.
If you also feel compelled, complaints can be made here: The Advertising Standards Authority: Make a Complaint

Copy of my complaint.

Sky aren't slowing down their speeds, high contention is.

Solair

Yeah, they're probably not intentionally slowing anyone's speed. It sounds like they've insufficient capacity.

They should be able to resolve it by simply purchasing more capacity. It's not like BT and eircom don't have any spare, it's more a case of just writing a big enough cheque.

Sky really heavily marketed the service, and it was highly anticipated and the price is very good, so maybe the uptake was vastly higher than they'd expected?

Sky are in a rather unique position, already having a relationship with a huge % of Irish households (and especially in non-cable areas). So, they'd get a lot of DSL subscriptions very quickly.

Other DSL providers would have to fight a lot harder to get customers to notice them as they've no ability to 'warm call' or write to a vast database of satellite subscribers.

keno-daytrader

Harry Deerpark wrote: »

Sky aren't slowing down their speeds, high contention is.

Its clearly misleading, it reads like there will be no slow down at peak times, thats how I would read it and most other normal consumers would read it. Its misleading plain and simple.

"We won’t slow your broadband speeds down at peak times"

thund3rbird_

Dcully wrote: »

Its not just a salesman, i already said above every provider ran a test and the result is 16-18 mb.
People about 1k from the exchange can get 12-14 mb and im 500 m awaythere is nothing wrong with my line.
Both myself and another friend are on the sky trial, ie we were among the first in the area to get it, that was before the exchange upgrade,nothing has changed for us since, its obvious we are stuck on old BT gear @ the exchange.

stats are

7168 kbps 384 kbps
Line Attenuation 18.0 dB 12.0 dB
Noise Margin 14.3 dB 19.19 dB

I'm a bit late now - looks like u left sky??

from the above stats it looks like (as you suspect) you are connected via ADSL1 - the 7168/384 is a giveaway.
I'm with sky on bitstream & my sync speeds are the same - unfortunately it doesn't appear the exchange will be upgraded to adsl2 anytime soon.

I doubt your estimation that you are 500m from the exchange - maybe your house is but the line is longer than 500m.

my router is showing d/s atten @ 13.5 & I am 900m away:

Broadband Link     Downstream     Upstream
Connection Speed    7168 kbps    384 kbps
Line Attenuation    13.5 dB    7.5 dB
Noise Margin    14.4 dB    19.19 dB

an attenuation of 18dB would suggest a line length of 1.3km.
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/max_speed_calc.php

IF you do happen to get higher speeds with eircom then someone plugged your line into the wrong card when you went to sky.

thund3rbird_

by the way - anyone wishing to monitor their speed over a period of time..

have a look at http://www.gmwsoftware.co.uk/

program can be let run constantly & it will run a test every hour

Nuno

Harry Deerpark wrote: »

Sky aren't slowing down their speeds, high contention is.

The average consumer is not gonna know the difference between Sky slowing down the speed and contention ratio. Reading the advertising blurb would lead most people to believe they won't experience a slow down in their internet experience at peak times.

aindriu80

Can anyone clarify if Sky's broadband contention problems will improve in the future ?

Its a right sham in the evenings but I was wondering would it improve when exchanges got fiber. Mine is getting upgraded in May.

Solair

aindriu80 wrote: »

Can anyone clarify if Sky's broadband contention problems will improve in the future ?

Its a right sham in the evenings but I was wondering would it improve when exchanges got fiber. Mine is getting upgraded in May.

No, that shouldn't make any difference. The problem is not lack of fibre at the exchanges, it's a backhaul issue on sky's network by the looks of it.

Any exchange that has "next generation broadband" already has access to tons of fibre backhaul. There are some exchanges that could only offer up to 8mbit/s that might have been a little congested, those are mostly rural/small exchanges. However, if you have seen your speed drop since you switched provider, then it's nothing to do with the local exchange at all. It's something to do with the new providers' network.

The rollout of 'fibre broadband' involves putting fibre from the exchange to the local cabinets, i.e. in the local network, it's not about backhaul / backbone networks. Eircom already upgraded those and they've been fibre-based for many, many years.

The pinch point is somewhere in Sky's network by the looks of it as the same problem's being experienced by lots of customers and on exchanges that should simply have no issue with congested fibres at all.

aindriu80

Sky's entry into the Irish market is a sham then. They should have had their network matching the numbers they quote to customers.

I will stay with Sky for a bit but will have to jump ship unless they fix their network. I can't take them serious. They remind me of those developing countries I have visited.

BArra

i was one of the first on skys new broadband service, at the start it was perfect, better than eircom. i was getting stable 17MB from sky at the start, but now like others in the evening my speeds are way down, sometimes only 2mb making youtube and other things near useless....

Mits

Can anyone suggest a good broadband in the Bettystown, co Meath area?

I was on vodafone's broadband for years, the only problem I had with them was the price, consistent speed of 8mb.

Joined sky broadband on 6th March, first couple of weeks fast during the day 12mb download, slow at the evening 1mb or less. Phoned support was told it was a training period and speeds would settle down.

Two weeks later with problem continues, so again phoned support but when I phoned the speed was 13mb, support said no problem. Decided to monitor it daily and the issue is only happen in the evening.

Phoned support tonight, speed .5mb, told them my story and that I noticed a lot of complaints on boards.ie regarding the same. Support engineer said he would ring me back after running test. When he came back he said the problem was the bitstream and that there is nothing they can do about it. He also said that I could leave sky without penalty as they could not deliver the service.

So looks like back to vodafone unless I can find a better supplier.

I suppose you have to thank sky for bringing in competition which has lowered the prices.

Harry Deerpark

Mits wrote: »

Can anyone suggest a good broadband in the Bettystown, co Meath area?

I was on vodafone's broadband for years, the only problem I had with them was the price, consistent speed of 8mb.

Joined sky broadband on 6th March, first couple of weeks fast during the day 12mb download, slow at the evening 1mb or less. Phoned support was told it was a training period and speeds would settle down.

Two weeks later with problem continues, so again phoned support but when I phoned the speed was 13mb, support said no problem. Decided to monitor it daily and the issue is only happen in the evening.

Phoned support tonight, speed .5mb, told them my story and that I noticed a lot of complaints on boards.ie regarding the same. Support engineer said he would ring me back after running test. When he came back he said the problem was the bitstream and that there is nothing they can do about it. He also said that I could leave sky without penalty as they could not deliver the service.

So looks like back to vodafone unless I can find a better supplier.

I suppose you have to thank sky for bringing in competition which has lowered the prices.

Unless UPC is available in your area, you're stuck on bitstream - high prices on Eircom/Vodafone or low prices and bad speeds with Sky.

Sky will sort their problems out after a while. I'm with Sky and I'm not really bothered by the speeds in the evening - once I can still check Facebook and my emails.

Mits

Thanks Harry Deerpark,

The sky support guy said the problem will not be sorted out any time soon.

I have six people in my family and since we moved to sky they are not happy.

The speedtest on eircom and vodafone indicate NRG available.

I am sorry it did not work out with sky, as the price was great. But I was paying 86 to Vodafone that now looks to have dropped to 52 inc Vat so I still gain.

paulski999

All,

Is this a case of false advertising?

http://www.sky.com/ireland/broadband...and-unlimited/

Under "Features"

"We won’t slow your broadband speeds down at peak times"

Like others my speeds slow down considerably after 6pm!! What to do? Any ideas? Am out of 30 day "trial"

Thanks
Paul

the_syco

paulski999 wrote: »

"We won’t slow your broadband speeds down at peak times"

Like others my speeds slow down considerably after 6pm!! What to do? Any ideas? Am out of 30 day "trial"

As it has been said, Sky is not slowing you down, the contention is what is slowing you down.

paulski999

the_syco wrote: »

As it has been said, Sky is not slowing you down, the contention is what is slowing you down.

And who controls the contention? I was on a re-badged Eircom connection, Sky upped the speed during the day, but contention kicks in after 6pm, case of false selling methinks... because Sky says on website "We won’t slow your broadband speeds down at peak times" so someone else is slowing down speeds at peak times? Who is the contract with i.e. Sky, not BT or Eircom

Harry Deerpark

paulski999 wrote: »

And who controls the contention? I was on a re-badged Eircom connection, Sky upped the speed during the day, but contention kicks in after 6pm, case of false selling methinks... because Sky says on website "We won’t slow your broadband speeds down at peak times" so someone else is slowing down speeds at peak times? Who is the contract with i.e. Sky, not BT or Eircom

"We won't slow your speeds down" suggests they won't deliberately slow your speed down, a.k.a.: throttling. Sky are not throttling their speeds at peak times.

Nuno

paulski999 wrote: »

All,

Is this a case of false advertising?

http://www.sky.com/ireland/broadband...and-unlimited/

Under "Features"

"We won’t slow your broadband speeds down at peak times"

Like others my speeds slow down considerably after 6pm!! What to do? Any ideas? Am out of 30 day "trial"

Thanks
Paul

You'll have to go through the trouble shooting steps with the tech support guys. If at the end you're problem is still not fixed, you can ask Sky to release you from your contract with no penalty. Up until now, Sky have been letting people move away from their broadband product without trying to enforce contract periods (which to me suggests they concede that the fault lies with them)

Sponge Bob

Harry Deerpark wrote: »

"We won't slow your speeds down" suggests they won't deliberately slow your speed down, a.k.a.: throttling. Sky are not throttling their speeds at peak times.

They simply have no bandwidth from Cork or Galway to Dublin and tehy know it.

Maybe they dimensioned for ADSL only after much of the customer base cuts to VDSL and BT can pickup in more exchanges. But if they deliberately did dimension fro the ADSL only rump they will always be left with then:

1. The transfer to VDSL cannot happen fast enough.
2. What happens if the network is still crap after a lot of customers cut over to VDSL over the summer and more later this year.

Sponge Bob

Dude you could get into trouble unless you are a "verified representative". Read CAREFULLY!

http://www.boards.ie/content/terms

13.2 Verified Representatives and "Talk to..." Forums:

Cabaal

-MOD-
Hi SkyHelp,

Welcome to boards.ie, for now your post has been deleted.

Please read http://www.boards.ie/content/terms Section 13.2,

If you are not a verified rep then you will be banned if you post again, as such its very important you read the above link.

Cabaal,

keno-daytrader

SkyHelp wrote: »

SpongeBob,

Thks - how does one get verified?
Geniune account, Not Customer Service but Product for Sky Ireland - interested in getting solutions/answers/updates out

Are you serious? there have been no solutions/answers/updates from any Sky rep what so ever.

Ive tried Sky forums at http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/ROI-Broadband-Talk/bd-p/ROIbroadbandtalk with absolutely no help , just pure stonewalling from Sky, almost like they are setting out to infuriate customers in the way they respond.

I filed an official complaint and got a automated replay back with a reference number and they would get back to me with 48 hours, that was weeks ago, with not a word since.

I even emailed the CEO got a response back from a rep, and guess what, more BS.

Shocked at how unprofessional Sky have handled the rollout of broadband in Ireland. Should be a template to large multinationals on how NOT to rollout a new product and total lack of customer service in a new country.

This thread alone has almost 10,000 views and 175+ posts, so Im not alone.

BArra

same deal as everyone else, joined sky broadband as a trial user, great speeds at the start but recently its crawling in the evening time. they have a bandwidth issue for sure

cant even use youtube most nights, horrific :mad:

Nuno

Just following up on my earlier post in this thread about filing a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority.
I received a letter in the post yesterday from the ASA and they "Acknowledge the receipt of the complaint, and will be in contact in due course about the matter."

So we'll have wait and see what they make of it all.

uck51js9zml2yt

got this email from sky after 4 months of hearbreak .....


Sorry for the late reply to your message.
We have been investigating your issue with regards to your speed and it has taken a little more time than I had anticipated.

I have spoke with our re-sellers and we have exhausted every avenue to increase your line speeds. If the profile is changed you will experience intermittent connection so for that reason we would leave your profile at the current speeds.
The product was sold as up-to 12 megabits and this would be the contract you agreed at point of sale.

You are approximately 2.03 Kilometres from your telephone exchange.
On the profile you are allocated to there is no contention on the line.

ColmH81

Mits wrote: »

Thanks Harry Deerpark,

The sky support guy said the problem will not be sorted out any time soon.

I have six people in my family and since we moved to sky they are not happy.

The speedtest on eircom and vodafone indicate NRG available.

I am sorry it did not work out with sky, as the price was great. But I was paying 86 to Vodafone that now looks to have dropped to 52 inc Vat so I still gain.

The problem is Sky didn't expect so many customers so soon.. The bandwidth they have doesn't cater for what customers want... I'd say it'll be a few months before its fully fixed and doing what it should...