Sky Broadband - Speeds Halved overnight.

TezPatrick

A bit of a saga, I'll try to keep this as brief as possible.

Moved into house early 2018. Went with Sky bundle TV etc, got line tested, they said we could get 60/70Mb down. Great. Got it installed.

Once installed, the line never went higher than 30Mb, fine. But there were issues with latency, so I called Sky. They sent out an eir engineer who fixed the fault on the line I guess, and got the line stable, he said it should come up to 60Mb too over the next few days -they couldn't understand why it was half the rated amount and were certain the fault was the cause and it should be fine now- Engineer told us he'd get back to us never did. Par for the course.

Happy that the latency issue was fixed at least, I left it. Not too bothered. 30Mb down would just about suit my needs, and 4Mb up would allow me to stream a bit on twitch and do some remote vocal sessions. At least it was stable.

Fast forward to this year.

KN Group were laying cable out the front, all the way along the road past my house, back during lockdown IIRC. I asked the guy what they were laying and he said it was conduit for the fibre, and the fibre would be blown through in the coming weeks. Cool I thought. Finally we'll get FTTH?! Working from home and having remote voice-over sessions regularly, a better connection would help massively.

I waited, checking every now and then, and I noticed something, when I check with my eircode or number it comes up as the usual overpriced lower speed rural stuff. But tells me the max my home can get is 15MB. Weird. Still getting a stable 25/30Mb...

Then over the last few weeks I noticed my upload is "going off". Some days it spends hours down as low as 1.5Mb, I call support, tell them it used to be 3-4Mb up and they just fobbed me off. Next I start getting random DCs, where the broadband just cuts off for a long while, and no amount of reboots bring it back, it's just gone. It was then that my wife told me that she saw KN group working at one of the manhole covers a couple of days before it all started happening.

On the second major outage, I call Sky and they run the usual checks and confirm there is a fault on my line. They say they will stabilise it in the meantime but an engineer will have to come out to fix the fault, and that they would get in touch to make an appointment.

After the call, the broadband came back up at a rock-stable 30Mb, I'm talking boom, needle hit's 30 really fast and never shifts. I get no more disconnects and hear nothing from the engineer.

Today, I'm trying to work and notice my uploads are slow again. I run a speed test, the line is at about 14.5Mb down and 2Mb up... I check in with Sky to see when this engineer is coming out. And after the (genuinely really helpful and friendly) agent checks the line she sees it is still registering a fault. She investigates it for me and after a new and lengthy hold, it turns out that my notes say the engineer came out yesterday (unannounced) and logged it as fixed. They weren't able to get in touch with me (I was home all day with my mobile - no missed calls - and saw no sign of them) and as a result not able to get access to the house but still said they fixed it (the manhole cover is in the back of my neighbours - and I guess they need to get in to check the wires behind the socket too to finish the fix?). Anyway that is by the by, the rep got back to me with an appointment later this week, so hopefully it will be resolved.

What is concerning me though, is the fact that when I check any provider for availability, it registers me as only being able to get 15 down, when I've had 30 all this time, and when I moved in, was rated for around 60. It's just odd. The fact that I'm only getting 15 right now, AFTER a KN Group engineer supposedly fixed the issue, is also weird... Does this indicate anything to those initiated in these things? Have I been switched to some other line now? Was I on some old line that was better? And the new line I'm on is weaker because they are giving priority to the newer faster fibre connections? Connections I still can't seem to be able to get. We're also one of 2 small houses next to a larger (probably more profitable) estate, could we have been bypassed and downgraded in the process?

We'll see later this week, but I wonder if anyone has had similar experiences, or if anyone has any tips on how to check if that is in fact residential fibre a few metres from my door? Are there any tips or tactics to get connected to it when you have a pre-existing connection. I seem to recall that houses with zero connections can get it easier than people who already have some kind of line coming into the house.

I'm contemplating getting a 4G router from Three at this stage, the latency is slightly worse, but the speeds are better and it is half the price of what I'm paying. I just don't know.

EDIT:
Update: Today it has fallen to 6Mb and wont come up again... Unreal.

ED E

Sounds like your copper is likely in bits somewhere. "It will come up over the next few days" is DLM, applies in the UK but not the ROI but sky support never seem to cop that.

Line is faulting, line was automatically rerated while the fault existed -> lower rate. Fix the fault + wait = renewed rating at correct speed. Marking as fixed without showing up or calling, classic KNN. Nothing you can do. If they show for the appointment hopefully theyll fix it properly. If you get a good tech he might explain where the fault is as the notes logged that support will read back can be spartan.

TezPatrick

ED E wrote: »

If they show for the appointment

That's my concern, as the first time around it was never followed up on too.

If I do get a helpful tech I'll be sure to pick their brains if they have the time or patience, if nothing else because I love to learn about this stuff, but it would be good to know what is actually going on with the line.

Thanks for the explanation / breakdown, seems to fit with the pattern of events.

TezPatrick

The Engineer came out yesterday. Long story short; tested the line, said there was no fault on it. The only notes were "No Dial Tone" Asked when it would come back up to 30 (he tested the line - is capable of 30) He said it wasn't them that downrate it, but Sky took care of that.

Called Sky just now. Told them the engineer had been out asked when it would be brought back up to the previous rating/profile (whatever), put me on hold, eventually came back and said that they (the T2s?) wouldn't do it. Once it's been dropped down they cannot bring it back up again. ?!?!?

Overnight, I went from a previously stable 30/4 Mb connection to a 15/2Mb connection. Still paying €55 a month like a chump. Feel like I've been shafted. I mean I work from home, I've a kid with a neurological condition that needs to remote school right now, so loss of bandwidth is just another nail in the coffin for this BS year.

I'm going to complain, for what it's worth. And probably cancel I think.

The Technician did tell me something interesting yesterday, apparently they "repaired" a line of cable that runs past our house a couple of weeks back, which is around the time we started getting drops. I can only guess that There is some shenanigans going on. Make the Broadband ****e so everyone jumps to the new fibre as soon as it is available? Bit of a conspiracy theory... Or maybe there is too much strain on the network?

The Sky tech today, could see that the line was originally rated for 70Mb, and said it should never have been as 15 is all the line can handle. However, I had plenty of calls with his predecessors back when we got connected who tested it several times and saw it was able for it. Even the original Eir engineer that came out in 2018 showed me on his device. And the Open Eir / KN guy yesterday said it was absolutely fine for 30.

I'm at a loss with how to deal with this. I know 4G is going to be ****ty at peak times, and with a lot more people remote working these days, it's going to be unreliable. Looks like slow or unreliable is my choice I guess.

Feel kinda at their mercy, how can they get away with the ****tification of someone's service like that?

Frustrated.