Disconnect your phone lines Now

carrolls

At the present time it is not required to have your phone line
connected to your digibox in the Republic.

When Sky bring Interactive Ireland online in the Summer, this may change, ie, they may force everyone to get it connected.
If everybody was was aware of this and disconnected their phone from their Digibox, it would be more difficult for them to bring in a blanket rule later on requiring all households to have their phone connected.

A number of problems exist.
1: The phone cable supplied with the Digibox was the wrong size (UK standard instead of Irish standard)
2: A lot of people don't have their phone near to their TV so they will have to get an extension.

Unless people specifically need Interactive functionality, they should disconnect their phone line now and leave it disconnected..

Genghis

Mine's never been connected, except at installation, and even then it didn't work, so I had to go through CS at Sky for activation. A friend of mine has no phone line in the house.

Realistically, what will they do - forgo the €53 I spend per month, not counting PPV movies, or cancel my subscription for the sake of the couple of € I might have spent on the interactive services.

If it comes down to it (say they disconnect me and tell me reconnection is only possible if I connect to the phone), then I will temporarily reconnect and then put the line away.

No reason not to be connected (no FTV card, or anything), just don't like the idea of Sky accessing my digibox.

Our man in Havana

Surely this will not apply retrospectively.
Maybe they will make all NEW customers connect the phone. Is there a statement in the current contract requiring the phone?

They certainly isnt in mine!

carrolls

There is a statement in the current contract requiring that the phone line is in fact connected, but 3rd party dealers in the Republic refused to incur the cost of installing extension phone lines or replacing the UK extension phone leads with Irish ones as their profit margin would be reduced.
Sky also refused to incur this cost for similar reasons.
Sky eventually agreed not to force this issue with the dealers.
The eventual outcome was:-
1: You have to own a phone.
2: It does not have to be connected to the Digibox.

NIBBS

the options here are very limited and before SKY they were even more so............what have NTL and Chorus done since Sky came to Ireland ??????
continued to let their services get worse and the prices have gone up, at least the Sky service is a good quality one..........I know Sky is quite expensive, but if you got NTL's digital offering and compare the twos premium services (I get Sky World) NTL actually come out more expensive, I just don't understand what you have against them, all media companies in this company force you into things because they have monopolies in their said areas, it's just the way things are and it's not going to change..........I'd love not to have to deal with Eircom for example, but there isn't a choice if I want a landline....

I for one welcome the addition of interactive services, I've actually waited for them to happen for quite a while and although it will be quite some time before they are of any real benefit to us surely it's worth bringing them along........although I agree that people shouldn't be forced to connect to the telephone point, I don't see how they will force older subscribers or people without phone lines to connect to it ????

carrolls

So Nibbs,
What do you want us to do?
Get down on our hands and knees, install the extension phone line ourselves, hook it up,

....and then pray to the big metal bird in the sky that brings us such happiness.

bucks73

When I signed up for Sky last July the dealer told me that the box must be connected to a phone line for the first twelve months and that I must install a phone socket near the TV myself.

I ran an extension line from the phone to the TV and it has been connected ever since. I unplug it when using the FTV card but when my 12 months are up it will be unplugged for good.

_Kaiser_

mine was connected the day it was installed - we have 2 lines you see and theres a box close to where we put the decoder in so it wasnt too much hassle....its been over the 12 months since last October but I havent bothered to disconnect it...its hooked into the same line as the one I dedicated for internet use so it's never been a problem.

(Course if I get one of those BBC cards that will change.... )

ShaneOC

Originally posted by carrolls


So Nibbs,
What do you want us to do?
Get down on our hands and knees, install the extension phone line ourselves, hook it up,

carrolls,

The installer is meant to put in the phone extension as part of the standard install. Most installers should be doing this now (since last June I think) so it should not cause you any trouble.

Sky are highly unlikely to demand that all existing customers must connect the phone line, however they are quite entitled to say that certain features/services require the phoneline to be connected.

Some people on the board are interested in mirror subscriptions. These will only be available if both boxes are connected to an operation phoneline. This is because Sky require a method of checking that both boxes are being used at the one address. Otherwise we would all be sharing subscription costs.

....and then pray to the big metal bird in the sky that brings us such happiness.

lol

I for one will not be using any of the interactive services as they currently stand.Sky can take my money for the package I have now and I'm delighted with that(except for the obvious lack of UTV etc).And thats all they are going to get from me.
I don't use their Box office, so no phone line used there either, a dvd every now and again is better.

Since I discovered the magic of Dolby pro-logic 2,I'm not that pushed about Sky's lack of Dolby digital 5.1 anymore to ordinary digiboxes.
mm

Tony

Originally posted by carrolls
At the present time it is not required to have your phone line
connected to your digibox in the Republic.

Not strictly true as it it a condition of contract sine June 2001, sky have chosen not to enforce this condition so far.

Regards Tony

Tony

Originally posted by ShaneOC


carrolls,

The installer is meant to put in the phone extension as part of the standard install. Most installers should be doing this now (since last June I think) so it should not cause you any trouble.

.

This has only been the case with direct sky installs IE Sierra. Most independent installers will only connect the phone line if the socket is within a couple of metres of the digibox otherwise the customer will be asked if he requires a phone connection and quoted accordingly for the extra work. With the money Sky pays for installs it would kill sales stone dead if they ever tried to force independent installers to carry out this work at no extra charge. The guys in Sierra have no choice as they contracted to work this way.

Regards Tony

Pauge 2

I was connected to Sky last June, the installer (a jordy lad) would not connect the phone line although I asked him to, he said it was a UK connection and would need a converter ( which I purchased without checking the digibox) when I went to plug this in I found the phone connection was Irish, I then plugged the phone line, I used this for Box0ffice movies which I found very expencive, also at times when I went make a phone call I found the line was dead ( I guess Sky were uploading info??) so I disconnected the line and have not used it since

carrolls

There are now around 230,000 Installations of Sky Digital in the Republic. The vast majority of them don't have the phone-line hooked up.
When interactive comes to Ireland in the summer, Sky are not going to risk alienating their entire Irish customer base by forcing
them to pay to get the phone line hooked up to their digiboxes.

ShaneOC

I think that everyone agrees with you.

I did not realise that it was just the Sky installers who were connecting up the phonelines now. My installer (an independant)was complaining that now the installs take ages as he has to do the phones.

Tarabuses

My installation was done by Sierra last August. When I asked if he was going to connect the phone, he replied "No - unless you want me to". I didn't bother since I could see no point.

byte

Yup, installing these fonelines can be a right pain and it can take longer to install foneline than to install the dish and stb.:( There are some cases where installing the foneline is just not practical so I don't leave line connected (just a temp connection to activate card). I have noticed that it is now a major pain in the ass to ring Sky to activate card. Last time when I rang the 1800 number, I was told to ring 0044*** for card activation dept where they will eventually "switch it on" though they do ask why it's not being done via modem.:(

Mossy Monk

i don't care what Sky say if they approach me about a phone connection. when i got Sky there was no mention of a phone connection at all. only in the UK. i have Sky for 17 months and all the equipment is mine

mocar

i have never had the phone line connected and i use the free phone number to order ppv movies v. rarely as i too find them expensive.

dmeehan

i got the foneline connection when my sky was installed, but i never leave i connected because the double adapter leaves a terrible buzzing noise on the fone so i just pulled the plug...

redzer007

I dont even have a phone line, at first they were slightly reluctant to install but did so in the end, if I do get a line I wont be hooking up my digibox(s), I don't like the idea of sky noseing around my digibox.

Red

AJC

What if your STB was not in the ROI,and you hooked up to the phone. Do you think SKY would determine that it was calling from outside the ROI using calling line ID?

In that case you would activate the card in Ireland before bringing it out of the country-the problems come later if they enforce the phoneline thing
mm