Sky Broadband -Opinions?

ABajaninCork

Am thinking of changing from Voda to Sky BB. I've been having serious problems with the connectivity and stability of the BB connection, am looking around for suitable options.

I'm attracted to Sky as I call home to the UK often, and Sky do offer the unlimted any time calls, and Voda do not (not with the Superfast option AFAIK.) Sky's service is also unlimited.

Does anyone have any opinions good, bad or indifferent they'd like to share?

TIA

Faith

We're with Sky. We were with them in the UK as they were the only provider in our area, so we just transferring the services to our new house in Ireland because we were still in contract. I've found them extremely pleasant to deal with, actually. Any phone conversations have been with very helpful and polite individuals who seemed to really care about getting things sorted. We have a phone line and broadband. It was activated way before they initially advised - phone was up and running on Monday, after being ordered on the Friday, and the broadband equipment arrived and was activated by the Wednesday. So far, we've had no problems with either service. I've not noticed any drops in connection, and we're online constantly. We get speeds of 12-13Mps, which is a lot lower than UPC but completely sufficient if you're not a gamer/heavy downloader.

It's costing us €30 a month for the first 6 months, and then it goes up to €40. The phone package you're interested in is another €7 per month, which is good value if you'd use it a lot.

mordeith

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Am thinking of changing from Voda to Sky BB. I've been having serious problems with the connectivity and stability of the BB connection, am looking around for suitable options.

TIA

Same here. Also with VF and the speed of the connecton lately has been brutual. Barely getting 1mb from a 4mb lilne (and that's on speedtest). YouTube is becoming unwatchable. Used to be fine before. Looking at SKY as well maybe when current contract runs out.

.red.

Im pretty sure that vodafone and sky are both running on eircoms lines so if one of the 3 of them is poor then it could be the exact same with the others.
Im with vodafone on a 3mb line and its shocking. They have told me its my own fault cos the lead going into my modem is longer than 1.5m.

hoodwinked

i am with eircom, my neighbour is with sky, she regrets it, as she is constantly having problems, same as my mum had with vodafone tbh,

also the fastest speed they gave her was 4mb where we are on 30mb for €10 more.

ABajaninCork

.red. wrote: »

Im pretty sure that vodafone and sky are both running on eircoms lines so if one of the 3 of them is poor then it could be the exact same with the others.
Im with vodafone on a 3mb line and its shocking. They have told me its my own fault cos the lead going into my modem is longer than 1.5m.

Eircom provide the Fibre Optic trunking, and look after the main lines. Voda and Sky are simply re-sellers of the same lines.

Meanwhile - it's been a while since I put up the thread, so it's worth putting this out there in case anyone else was interested. I was paying for 8MB, and some nights was barely even getting 1MB!! The BB kept dropping out as well. Complained to Voda both here and via 1907. No joy. Their teccies don't know what they're talking about. I was even told that my modem (300mbps no less) couldn't handle the line speed!!! This went on for about six weeks. Eventually, I got fed up and made a complaint about Voda to Comreg.

They've upgraded the line to 70MB (we get approx 50-60MB which we're happy with - for now!), and have given me credit for the past six weeks BB.

We'll see how we go with that...

mossie

.red. wrote: »

Im pretty sure that vodafone and sky are both running on eircoms lines so if one of the 3 of them is poor then it could be the exact same with the others.
Im with vodafone on a 3mb line and its shocking. They have told me its my own fault cos the lead going into my modem is longer than 1.5m.

I was getting 2mb with eircom, now getting 4 with Sky.

Ludo

Well don't even think of switching to sky do. They dont provide fibre service so you would be back to 3 megs. They have no plans to provide it either.

Sephiroth_dude

Anyone in ballincollig area have it?

Jimjay

Ludo wrote: »

Well don't even think of switching to sky do. They dont provide fibre service so you would be back to 3 megs. They have no plans to provide it either.

Sky do have plans for fibre, they just wont tell anyone yet

Ludo

Ok fair point. They are losing lots of potential customers I imagine though until they clarify their position.

joelanderseen

Sky is very good. Very fast internet connection with me.

MrFrisp

Has anyone got sky broadband with a deactivated phone line?

We have a phone line,but it was last active about 10 years ago. Wouldn't mind trying Sky,as what we have is going down the drain.
.

Jimjay

MrFrisp wrote: »

Has anyone got sky broadband with a deactivated phone line?

We have a phone line,but it was last active about 10 years ago. Wouldn't mind trying Sky,as what we have is going down the drain.
.

As long as they can find your address in the database you will be ok.

Why_oh_why

I had a non active line, phoned Sky with the old number and they were able to tell me straight away. With them now no problems.

MrFrisp wrote: »

Has anyone got sky broadband with a deactivated phone line?

We have a phone line,but it was last active about 10 years ago. Wouldn't mind trying Sky,as what we have is going down the drain.
.

scuby

managed to get the initial offer from Sky, where it costs €17.50 a month for 12 months - for BB and phone line. had 3mb with VF and now getting 13mb with sky, no problems since transferring.

mystickey

Anyone in Ballincollig using the SKY BB if so what speeds do you get on it???

gimmick

Has the vodafone/eirom fibre power been rolled out anywhere yet?

We are with Vodafone and they said in June it would be in my area (Shanakiel) "soon". Heard nothing since and my BB speeds are lucky if they hit 3.5mbps.

ABajaninCork

Should be imminent Gimmick. Fibre Power has been in my area (Ballyvolane) since May. Call Voda and ask them.

gimmick

Look at this map below - it seems to go around the area I am in which I am not sure is it a good thing.

http://www.nextgenerationnetwork.ie/ngn-access

I emailed them a while ago as I really couldnt be putting up with a call centre person.

evilivor

gimmick wrote: »

Look at this map below - it seems to go around the area I am in which I am not sure is it a good thing.

http://www.nextgenerationnetwork.ie/ngn-access

I emailed them a while ago as I really couldnt be putting up with a call centre person.

http://www.eircom.net/efibreinfo/map/

Enter your phone number in Can I get It and it'll tell you.

gimmick

Thanks. Cannot get it yet. Doesnt give an indication of when either though.

evilivor

gimmick wrote: »

Thanks. Cannot get it yet. Doesnt give an indication of when either though.

Yes- they seem to be remiss is that regard - it's ridiculous that the city centre hasn't gotten it yet.

Karl Stein

You've tried UPC Gimmick have you?

gimmick

Ya, those fúckers have said to me each year since 2007 that they will be in my area "next year".

gimmick

Had an eircom "rep" doing door to door at my place the other night. He said eircom fibre BB will be rolled out all over the City in the next 10 days.

SpaceTime

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Eircom provide the Fibre Optic trunking, and look after the main lines. Voda and Sky are simply re-sellers of the same lines.

Meanwhile - it's been a while since I put up the thread, so it's worth putting this out there in case anyone else was interested. I was paying for 8MB, and some nights was barely even getting 1MB!! The BB kept dropping out as well. Complained to Voda both here and via 1907. No joy. Their teccies don't know what they're talking about. I was even told that my modem (300mbps no less) couldn't handle the line speed!!! This went on for about six weeks. Eventually, I got fed up and made a complaint about Voda to Comreg.

They've upgraded the line to 70MB (we get approx 50-60MB which we're happy with - for now!), and have given me credit for the past six weeks BB.

We'll see how we go with that...

That's not quite correct.

Eircom own the lines to your house and the local exchanges (and fibre to cabinet if you're in an e-fibre area).

Other providers can use that local access network to reach your home.

Some providers use local loop unbundling (LLU) which means they collocate their own equipment in eircoms exchange building. Your line will be connected to that gear either for ADSL only or ADSL and voice service.

Other providers use eircom local exchange equipment but traffic is routed back to the other company's national network. This can happen at every major exchange or at various handover points depending on how much infrastructure the other company has.

A lot of companies use multiple wholesale providers to build their network.

Sky for example uses BT Ireland and in many local exchanges BT has their own ADSL2+ gear installed.

The products are not simply eircom broadband resold. Depending on how well setup the networks are, you may experience different levels of speed, ping times and congestion.

Fibre to cabinet (efibre) uses eircom local cabinets on the street. The data is handed over to other providers at key locations too. So that's also not just resold service. Only the local access element of it is in common.

However if your speeds are poor because it's very long or noisy line from the exchange to your house, changing network won't do anything on ADSL services.

Changing to fibre will drastically improve things if it's available.

Things like congestion (slow speed at peak times) and bad ping times on DSL can be down to choice of provider though. However there are some small exchanges with very limited connections to the outside world. In this case all providers will be hit by the same bottle neck. That's usually only the case in small (mostly rural) exchanges not on the NGN network yet

ABajaninCork

That is exactly what I said. I simplified my post for reasons of brevity, but did not got into as much detail as you. I know exactly how the system works having worked in telecoms for over twenty years!

Most people don't really want to know the ins and outs. All they want is a BB line that is fast as well as reliable for a reasonable cost.

SpaceTime

No you said that eircom owns the fibre trunks and everyone else was just a reseller.

That just isn't the case and it's a common misconception that distorts the market.
Some ISPs are really quite bad due to congested back haul so I think it's absolutely vital that customers understand what they're buying is not just eircom broadband relabelled.

Both Vodafone and Sky are sitting on BT Ireland's wholesale network.

Also if your speed was dropping at night that would indicate network congestion, not a line or access network issue. Quite possibly nothing to do with eircom infrastructure at all.

Most people want to know why their broadband isn't working and how they can avoid picking a dudd product. The advertised speeds are often hypothetical from many ISPs, especially on ADSL services.

It's worth reading honest reviews before signing anything.

Sephiroth_dude

gimmick wrote: »

Ya, those fúckers have said to me each year since 2007 that they will be in my area "next year".

We were told eircom need too update the exchange.

evilivor

gimmick wrote: »

Had an eircom "rep" doing door to door at my place the other night. He said eircom fibre BB will be rolled out all over the City in the next 10 days.

Cork city centre was meant to be going live this month now it's "Cork Central eFibre launching Jan - Mar '14".

SpaceTime

The reason the city centre is slower is because unlike suburban areas, there are no distribution cabinets. EFibre cabinets are normally installed next to distribution cabinets and your line is connected to the VDSL service there.

In the city centre, lines are distributed in large underground vaults rather than cabinets.

The same delay is hitting large areas of central Dublin and Galway.

There's a lot of civil engineering work and reconfiguring the wiring required.

There's also a rumor that eircom could even use FTTH in those areas bringing fibre directly to end users. There's an FTTH spec in their wholesale documents.

gimmick

There are 2 cabinets within 500m of my place, and I do not live that far from the main eircom building, so I hope to see it pretty soon.

SpaceTime

All that matters is your proximity to the cabinets. There's no e-fibre / VDSL2 service from the exchange buildings at all.
Even if you're right next-door to the exchange, your service will still come from a cabinet.

---

The way this stuff works is basically like this:

Good diagram here : http://www.powernet.co.uk/connectivity/fibre_to_the_cabinet.shtml

Only difference is that eircom's setup has the modem and router combined into one unit and the street cabinet and DSLAM are two separate boxes side-by-side. The layout is otherwise identical though.

gimmick

So its good the cabinets are nearby?

The area around the exchange is up and running as far as I know anyway.

What does DSLAM mean?

SpaceTime

Yup, all that matters is how close you are to the cabinet as that's where your e-fibre service comes from. The distance to the exchange is no longer relevant at all with e-fibre as you're not going to be directly connected to it anymore.

The DSLAM is just the device that your modem talks to in the cabinet if you're using e-fibre or in the exchange if you're using traditional ADSL.

It literally means "digital subscriber line access multiplexer" but, in reality it's just a device with hundreds of DSL modem ports that connect to each line and provide you with your ADSL from the exchange or the higher speed VDSL (e-fibre) service if it's coming from a cabinet.

----

Basically your line connects to the cabinet which contains a small DSLAM that handles all the lines connected to that local cabinet and provides them with e-fibre VDSL services. That cabinet is connected back to the local exchange with fibre optic cables.

So, basically what it's doing is moving the 'exchange' closer to your house and making your line much shorter which is what allows for the much faster data rates.

For all intents and purposes, the cabinet is now your 'exchange'. So you can really just forget about the location of your local exchange building entirely.

---

Depending on which provider and which package you go with, you can also opt to either keep your existing voice services from the old voice exchange or ditch your voice services entirely and just get broadband from the cabinet without a dial tone at all.

Where you opt to keep voice services, the line from the old exchange still runs to your house for voice, but the data services are spliced onto it at the cabinet. So, you have both the traditional phone service and the new e-fibre service sharing the same line into your house and being split off by the new phone socket they supply.

At the moment, it seems all the fibre providers except eircom are offering broadband-only options.

If you don't have a dial tone from the exchange, you can use VoIP for your phone using the broadband service or, you can just use your mobile and ditch the landline entirely.
...

If you're not a big landline user, you can save quite a bit by going with a broadband-only product. Vodafone definitely does it and I think Magnet and Digiweb do too.

SpaceTime

One other thing:

The modem/routers they're all providing contain VoIP equipment. So, they can provide voice service straight from the router, much like the way UPC does it on cable lines.

As yet, eircom isn't using this but their modems have the capability of doing it. I don't think Vodafone's using it as yet either, but again their modems have the gear built into them. So, I would assume they'll launch something at some stage.

I think Digiweb and Magnet do use it though and offer pretty cheap phone packages. So, you can get voice, without actually having a traditional phone line.

The other option for phone is to go with something like Blueface or Goldfish and you can just provide your own VoIP phone or adaptor and plug it into the broadband. Typically you'd get a package for voice calls and a landline number for about €10 / month and it would work extremely well over a e-fibre broadband line.

It's all relatively easy to setup. They typically send you out pre-configured phones or whatever you opt to buy and you just plug them in to the router.

You can even just use Skype (Philips do Skype cordless phones for example)

Also, a lot of Android phones have built-in SIP VoIP clients that are compatible with Blueface and Goldfish and many other providers. So, you can just use your mobile on WiFi as a landline.

I use my HTC One phone as a landline like that and it's really handy!


NB:

Watch out for the caps. Some of them are genuinely unlimited, others have quite sneaky caps. Worth reading T&Cs carefully!

You can really blaze through a lot of data if you're watching TV and stuff online and when you've got fibre, you'll tend to do that a lot more. Especially if you've netflix or sky on demand etc etc.

Boots234

Anyone in the Douglas area using the SKY BB and if so what speeds do you get on it??

wonka

In Mount Oval and getting 3.5MB. same as what i got previously with UTV Connect. Very happy with the unlimited usage policy!

Faith

I'm in Turner's Cross and I'm getting 13Mbps download with Sky. So I guess it depends what side of Douglas you're talking about.

Boots234

Faith wrote: »

I'm in Turner's Cross and I'm getting 13Mbps download with Sky. So I guess it depends what side of Douglas you're talking about.

The Maryborough Woods area

SpaceTime

With Sky, it's ADSL2+ from the Douglas exchange (which is just beside the C of I Church in Douglas).

Depending on how long your line is, the speeds will vary. If you're in Mountoval / that far away from Douglas it's crap.

Get fibre instead! It will come from a near by cabinet and give you pretty decent speeds. There are cabinets right out to the very edge of the Douglas exchange foot print.

Or, get cable.

gimmick

Apparently the exchange I work off is Churchfield.

Anyone any idea when the roll out for there is? Or where it can be found?

EDIT: There is an eFibre map on the eircom website. Says Churchfield is available. But I throw in my address and says not available yet.

Beginning to think it will be the same as UPC which is just not available in our estate.

SpaceTime

Loads of the Cork City exchanges are fully enabled for e-fibre but what matters is how close you are to a cabinet and if your house is connected to one.

There are some addresses that may not be connected to a cabinet e.g. rural areas on the edge of the city with overhead feeds from multicore cable running along the road or, some housing estates which never had distribution cabinets and where lines were direct fed from the exchange instead.

Being in a particular exchange's footprint doesn't necessarily guarantee that your line's connected to a cabinet capable of VDSL service or to a cabinet at all.

Unlike ADSL services, this stuff comes from a local cabinet and not the exchange itself. So, the availability is entirely down to local issues. It would involve a fair bit of civil engineering work and wiring work, so I think they're possibly hitting 'low hanging fruit' first i.e. places that already had the distribution cabinets in place.

The rollout's still on-going though, so it's possible they may come back to retrofit cabinets in those pockets of housing that were direct-fed.