Sky multiroom phone line no longer required

photofinish

Great news you’ll no longer need to install phone lines!

From 18 December 2013 we’re removing the need for customers to have an active telephone line connected to any of their Sky boxes. This change applies to new, upgrading or moving home multiscreen customers. It doesn’t impact existing customers. Existing customers who already have multiscreen will still be required to have their boxes connected to an active phone line.

Why we’re making the change?
Offering the best service in the country isn’t just about having great products, it’s also about making things brilliantly easy for our customers. By removing the need to install an active phone line we’re making it really simple for our customers to get connected to our On Demand service and removing the need to run phone lines in their homes – something we know has led to challenging conversations in the past.

What does this mean for our multiscreen customers?
It’ll be even easier for them to connect to our On Demand service through a Wi-Fi enabled box or a wireless connector without the need for cables or wires - about 85% of UK homes have Broadband making it simpler for our customers to get connected.
If the customer does not have Broadband, a Wi-Fi capable box or a wireless connector they can still take advantage of multiscreen without a phone line being installed. But they will not be able to take advantage of our On Demand and interactive services.

What happens if the customer insists on a phone line being installed?
We know you all strive to offer our customers the best service possible and this means that there may be
times where it’s the right thing to do. We anticipate the number of times this is likely to happen to be very
small but understand that this can vary across the country. We need you to continue to be flexible enough
to deliver for each and every customer’s specific needs.
Some scenarios where we think you might still need to complete phone line work;

Moving home customers that want exactly the same set up they’ve been used to
Customer that don’t have Broadband and are not intending on getting Broadband
Service calls that might require phone line work to faulty lines

CLI Violation Service calls
If existing customers fall into the CLI violation process and request a phone line to be installed we will be
making these customers exempt. This will also apply to new customers from 18 December. We will no longer be issuing these types of service calls but there might be occasions where this happens. You might still receive service calls to repair faulty phone lines if the customer insists.

We need your help to understand the number of times this is happening If the customer is insistent on getting a phone line installed then we trust you to make the right decision and do what’s right for that individual customer. To allow us to capture the number of times this is happening we’ve added a question to the end of day survey on your MFT Device. Can you please help
and support us by completing this accurately at the end of each day. It will ask you whether or not you’ve completed any phone line work throughout your day and why this was needed.

How will this impact new/upgrading customers with an HD non-recordable box?
If the box is not connected to Broadband wirelessly they’ll not be able to rent a movie or event from Sky Box office via their box. They’ll also not be able to use the interactive service when a phone line is not connected. This will only impact new/existing customers that upgrade to multiscreen and have one of
these boxes installed or relocated.
Customers can still access these services online through sky.com or phone to book a box office or PPV
event through the IVR, or by speaking to an advisor.
We’re working on changing this…
Wireless capability will be available in Summer 2014 to the HD non-recordable box. Our On Demand service
will still not be available on this box as it doesn’t have a hard drive. However, the customer will be able to
rent a movie or event from Sky Box office via their box.
What if the customer has been told they need a phone line?

Please let the customer know that the phone line is not needed and explain the reasons why. If the customer is insistent then please do what you feel is right for that individual customer.
Sky.com will be updated on 18 December to reflect this change. If the customer needs some reassurance then please direct them to the following web address, or show them on your device

http://help.sky.com/tv/set-up-your-sky-tv/watch-sky-in-different-rooms?country=ie

steveon

Bout time too a great piece of news at last....bye bye UPC for a lot more people Id reckon.

alfreg

So does this mean that it will be possible to break sky's t's & c's & have multiroom boxes at different address.

MrFrisp

alfreg wrote: »

So does this mean that it will be possible to break sky's t's & c's & have multiroom boxes at different address.

I'd very much doubt it.

I'd think since your going to have to use broadband, you'd still be tied down via your IP Address.

Sky aren't that silly to allow a method to be able to move the boxes around to different addresses.
.

fatherted1969

I seen this this morning on one of the threads. I have a full subscription to all the channels for around 18 years now. I also have multiroom for a long period as well. I was thinking of getting out the phone as both myself and wife have a great mobile phone package and we'd hardly use the landline at all. I wanted the extra sky box so had to have a phone to enable me to for this. In the middle of Nov i rang sky and they said id make savings if i switched my landline to sky as well which to be fair was a better deal than eircom. I had a 30 opt out which would have expired on 12th Dec.

This new deal was out on 18th. Think its incredibly bad form of sky to tie a customer into a 12 month contract 6 days before they announce that you don't need a phone anymore only a broadband connection.

I only ever had a phone in for the internet connection and my phone bills will show this. I'm probably going to be out of pocket to the tune of over €400 over Sky's sneakiness. Bad bad form on their part

fatherted1969

I seen this this morning on one of the threads. I have a full subscription to all the channels for around 18 years now. I also have multiroom for a long period as well. I was thinking of getting out the phone as both myself and wife have a great mobile phone package and we'd hardly use the landline at all. I wanted the extra sky box so had to have a phone to enable me to for this. In the middle of Nov i rang sky and they said id make savings if i switched my landline to sky as well which to be fair was a better deal than eircom. I had a 30 opt out which would have expired on 12th Dec.

This new deal was out on 18th. Think its incredibly bad form of sky to tie a customer into a 12 month contract 6 days before they announce that you don't need a phone anymore only a broadband connection.

I only ever had a phone in for the internet connection and my phone bills will show this. I'm probably going to be out of pocket to the tune of over €400 over Sky's sneakiness. Bad bad form on their part

shamelessidiot

MrFrisp wrote: »

I'd very much doubt it.

I'd think since your going to have to use broadband, you'd still be tied down via your IP Address.

Sky aren't that silly to allow a method to be able to move the boxes around to different addresses.
.

Most people have dynamic IPs in this country though, so how would that work?

MrFrisp

shamelessidiot wrote: »

Most people have dynamic IPs in this country though, so how would that work?

Not totally sure.

But it has to have some catch somewhere.

Would there be something built into the new sky boxes with the wifi? Or those new wifi connectors?

They have to have some way to GeoLock the boxes to the same address as they do with the phone lines now.

Personally I have a static IP, but I do understand that most probably do have dynamic IP's.
.

byte

Even with dynamic IP's, I'm sure they could make the boxes "phone home" within a few minutes of each other or indeed simultaneously, where the IP is unlikely to change.

Irish Steve

The old system worked on the basis that one box would grab the phone line, and if the other also called at the same time, it wasn't on the same line, so sending a check to both boxes a few minutes apart, then a check to both at the same time was an easy check,

Similar concept for IP addresses, if box 1 replies, and box 2 replies from a completely different IP address, it's not at the same location. Not hard.

Dont plug any box into a phone line.

Simples.

Dr. Nick

So not available to current customers.....I have fixed wireless b/band and could get their phone service if I didn't need the phoneline for sky, saving hundreds per year.

As I live in the countryside it would be easy to re-apply as a new customer. Would I also need to change the bank account in that scenario? Alternatively I could 'move house' I suppose.

Patty O Furniture

Does that mean you can now use a sky on demand box for the multiroom, although the sky+ multiroom could never get much on it anyway as it kept telling me that i need a sky+ sub, also i was told by someone else that it could be the cordless phone that's causing it?

kaisersuzy

That's great....now what about those free HD subscriptions

azzeretti

If this is true then I can't see how this won't be abused. It wouldn't be to difficult to force all Sky traffic over a tunnel to the location of the original Sky box which would then appear to be coming from the same external IP address. Might not be doable for everyone and you'd need to separate download traffic for callbacks but soon, this will be common.

Scartbeg

Most likely they would implement some form of master/slave watchdog where the multiroom boxes poll the main Sky box over the local network - if they are on the same network then response time should be a few milliseconds, anything excessively high would flag a possible location violation. Or just plain checking that MAC address of each box is present on the home LAN, otherwise the watchdog shuts down the multiroom box.

azzeretti

Scartbeg wrote: »

Most likely they would implement some form of master/slave watchdog where the multiroom boxes poll the main Sky box over the local network - if they are on the same network then response time should be a few milliseconds, anything excessively high would flag a possible location violation. Or just plain checking that MAC address of each box is present on the home LAN, otherwise the watchdog shuts down the multiroom box.

Easily overcome by proxing ARP requests.

They either have something very smart or this is wide open to abuse! We'll find out soon though.

jca

azzeretti wrote: »

If this is true then I can't see how this won't be abused. It wouldn't be to difficult to force all Sky traffic over a tunnel to the location of the original Sky box which would then appear to be coming from the same external IP address. Might not be doable for everyone and you'd need to separate download traffic for callbacks but soon, this will be common.

Do you think? Most people I know struggle to change the wifi password in their router, never mind setup a VPN :pac:

Johnboy1951

Scartbeg wrote: »

Most likely they would implement some form of master/slave watchdog where the multiroom boxes poll the main Sky box over the local network - if they are on the same network then response time should be a few milliseconds, anything excessively high would flag a possible location violation. Or just plain checking that MAC address of each box is present on the home LAN, otherwise the watchdog shuts down the multiroom box.

I use two WAN IP addresses and have three LANs set up ...... if the boxes were on different LANs and different WAN IP addresses I cannot see how they could check anything.

Sure that's not normal ...... but then I suppose it is not 'normal' to have the Sky boxes in different locations either ......

Dr. Nick

Sorry to dig up an old thread but I've been told that if both boxes are connected to the internet I don't need the phoneline.

Is this true?