Sky Mobile, coming to Ireland

iOS 18.2 includes an official carrier file for Sky Mobile. But there seems to be an issue with it on the iPhone 13. You need to download a configuration profile to override the APNs it seems…

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/ios-help

It's an odd one, I was wondering that myself. It did affect me, I had a signal but no data connection and had to download that profile to get it back. They had sent me a text last night about the issue. but I hadn't updated my phone yet.

I can see a few differences now that the update is installed. On unapproved carriers, it's possible to lock an iPhone on 2G or 3G, but those options are removed with official carriers. So the 2G and 3G options are now gone. Another one was that the Sky SIM would show 4G as LTE in the options, as well as beside the signal strength meter at the top of the screen, but it now shows as 4G, like most of the other networks do. The last one is that it now shows the network name as Sky IE in the network settings rather than Tele2 if the roaming mode on the SIM had ever been enabled.

The LTE vs 4G one is a curious one for me, I think it's something to do with how American networks marketed their service. AT&T pushed Apple to display 4G for their 3G DC-HSPA service, so LTE meant that you were on true 4G. I saw someone on Virgin Mobile with an iPhone and that also displayed LTE like Sky did.

Regarding Sky in general, I've had no obvious issues so am happy enough.

Could it be that it's configured to look for IP6 connections, which may cause problems or dataless connections if there are virtual IP6 layers available but non functional on the carrier? Better to just force IP4 only.

I got to the stage where Vodafone were to start charging me €40 per month for unlimited calls and texts with 10GB of data. That wasn’t paying for a better service, it was just robbery. I honestly would have been better off on a prepay service with them if I were to stay on.

They mustn't have road tested their own front end at all. There's probably a developer who can properly implement a multi user profile with porting, but his job was done, and the rest is down to the level of training and the competence of the customer facing staff. They seem to be dependent on the existing Sky media/broadband/tv staff to deliver this whole new service. The early bird often gets eaten by the worm unfortunately. It happens in all technologies and services, even though MVNO provision is a well established game, Sky probably added their own bells and whistles that few up there fully comprehend. They're learning at your expense it seems.