Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Just to prove that these can happen to all ISPs:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01...apacity_after/

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Well nobody is perfect. :(

Although it is disappointing to hear, from what I deduce from my, admittedly, short time with Sky BB they are relatively quick to provide extra capacity.

Unlike certain other providers who can take forever to relieve congestion in certain areas, particularly those areas with a large student component. ;)

In the meantime my SkyFibrePro remains rock solid and performs as per my sig. :)

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

someones popular :LOL:

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

As you say, all isp's can have these issues so you would have to compare how often, how many areas and how long it takes them to resolve the issue.

Sky seemed to have been honest and admitted the problems along with a fix time a few weeks away. If you look at the register article you will see one of the affected areas is Bristol and there is a very good reason for that. Virgin customers have been switching to other isp's in the area big time due to massive problems which have taken forever to fix. They claimed to the Bristol advertiser that it was just 8 nodes in the area and it would be fixed by the end of December. Now they have had to admit that the problem is bigger and they are still trying to fix it now after 6 months. This VM Bristol thread was created after months of problems and is still going, 120 pages later.

Virgin have lost a lot of customers due to oversubscription and Sky will do the same if they have as many as virgin and take as long to fix them as Virgin do. The article would suggest Sky will be fixing these problems about 4 or 5 months quicker than it would take Virgin though ;)

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

I think it's fair to say that customers of ANY company will sometimes have problems. The real test of that company is how they deal with with those customers, and how quickly those problems are resolved.

I suspect all ISPs have capacity problems from time to time, but we hear more about Virgin because a) they serve more customers and b) we are primarily a forum for Virgin Media customers.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Would be interesting to know how many signed up to the forum as a virgin customer but are now with another provider.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Their results are out in the next couple of weeks so that should give an indication at a high level as they will publish their latest churn figures.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

But the same can be said of other forums used by many Sky/other providers customers who then move to Virgin.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

MMmmm I used to be with NTL and still would be if I could get it. The only option would be offnet - but that's pretty dire so BT is best for me at the moment. Still when I move I hope to get cable broadband again.

Oversubscription - well I'm sure most if not all isp's have had this problem.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Well said :D Sorry Ben, but your spin, I feel is back firing.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Morning Victor and nice to see you are in your usual form this morning.;)

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

What spin?

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Hmmm.., Just had a thought.

The vast majority of Sky's BB services are totally unmanaged while all of VM's BB services are extremely managed with not one but two systems. One wonders if Sky employed the same extreme network management techniques as VM would Sky still be suffering over capacity problems? No way to know for sure but their is a good possibility they would not.

As the BB services offered by these two providers are so different a direct comparison is not possible. The only valid comparison is how responsive the relevent company is to:

Admitting they have an issue and what it is.

Fixing the issue in an acceptable timeframe.

From what I see and hear Sky appear to be winning hands down.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

The irony is that Sky's issue in 1 of the 2 areas (50%) mentioned is probably due to VM's own utilisation problems in the area which are still ongoing 6 months later. All the customers virgin lost in that area caused an unexpected surge for the other isp's they went to.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Is that a possibility or a fact?

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Yeah We believe you

As someone mentioned above, this happens to all ISP's, and its down to how they choose to deal with it, Looking on the VM forum, most utilisation faults take at least 1 year to be fixed, often being delayed 6 months at a time until cleared after 2+ years. The only utilisation fault I have seen on the Sky forum happened over christmas, the fault was raised to networks early January, on the Friday, with a fix date of Monday, it got delayed to the Tuesday, and was closed then, ISP and customer both happy with the result

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Or is it due to giving it away free for 6 months and upselling to existing customers?

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

I doubt a few meg here and there from ADSL customers will tip the balance, more likely they didnt anticipate the high FTTC takeup

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Well i have just moved to Sky BB from BT and previously Virgin and by far the best provider has been Sky .BT managed their network as to be practically unusable and the BT hub is just plain crap ,with Virgin i was on 50mg and got 30mg with Sky i get what i pay for which is up to 10mg at all times ,Sky do not manage the network at all and my speed is rock solid and the Sky hub is far superior than other hubs

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

An educated guess based on following the saga alongside my own Virgin oversubscription issues. Also have friends in that are who left \virgin for over providers recently. Some of them could only get adsl as there was no other fibre option but they switched anyway as it was better than what they had.

VM's special forum updates over the problem after the press got involved: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...3/td-p/1611132

Bristol customers posts 1200 replies: http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...ce/m-p/1493882

Bristol post article about it with many comments: http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Virgi...ail/story.html

Guessing Brighton is fixed after a year of issues but South London is still on track for taking a year to resolve but hopefully they will sort out the Worthing area's quicker...

---------- Post added at 17:19 ---------- Previous post was at 17:18 ----------

See above ;)

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Indeed. This is why I still have far more faith in BT than I do in VM - in multiple occasions where I've seen people's speeds drop to 10% of normal, they have always fixed it within a week and without needing to report it.

That said Sky boast about being the first ISP with a 100Gbit backbone, so it really goes to show just how much data people are pushing these days...

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

VM's problems in Bristol seem horrendous :( I can't say I am surprised, just sorry for those affected and glad I am not one of them.
---------- Post added at 17:19 ---------- Previous post was at 17:18 ----------



I am surprised you still read posts from this troll whose only purpose on this forum is to big up VM by attempting to discredit anyone daring to criticise VM and to disrupt threads by turning posters against each other by making off topic posts to create a sky vs VM argument.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Glad others are noticing this too :tu:

Been a bumpy ride for the Bristolians, hopefully an end in sight. Heavy student areas seem to get more than their fair share of problems.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

That's rich coming from 2 people who spend all their time bigging up sky and dissing vm.

Also my postmarking the question is the over subscription due to increased demand due to offering 6 months free? And you have a problem with that.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

All I see is well presented fact

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Looks like Bristol is an issue for sky customers too?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/news/a453446/sky-admits-to-broadband-slowdown-blames-demand.html

---------- Post added at 18:18 ---------- Previous post was at 18:10 ----------


I wonder why? Sky customer possibly

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

This was already covered in the original article at the very start of this thread.

"Subscribers to Sky Broadband Unlimited in Doncaster, North Wales and Bristol have complained of connections grinding to a halt especially in the past three months. This is despite the company promising "we'll never slow your Unlimited broadband down, even at peak times".

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Its more than just those areas, its loads!!

http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-b...ange-list.html

---------- Post added at 18:41 ---------- Previous post was at 18:39 ----------

Yeah mate, my ISP determines whether information is fact or fiction. You are running the line on my Peter/Carl.Waring pile

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Holy smokes SKY must have been signing up new customers, and upgrading exsisting customers left right and centre over the past couple of months. Good to see they are acting so quickly to resolve the problem. I'd expect those customers affected will have their bills amended accordingly.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

As I pointed out earlier in this thread, the only example I have seen with Sky is utilisation issues over christmas, raised as a fault early Jan on a friday, with fix date on monday, was delayed until tuesday, and work was completed that day. So 3 workin days from ticket raised to ticket closed. A lot more impressive than Ussain Bolts cable company, with fix dates going for at least months, most utilisation issues stretching years.

All of Skys utilisation faults have been ongoing for 2 or 3 weeks now, and all tickets were raised this morning, all exchanges on the list were given fix dates of either early Feb, mid Feb, or late Feb.

It is going to be good to see how many of the 101 exchanges are fixed on time. We are talking between 1 and 4 weeks to fix utilisation on one hundred and one exchanges, if Sky pull that off on time, then it just shows how bad Virgin are, as the ones they get sorted on time get done in 6 months for 1 node, never mind a whole exchange area lol

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Must admit I looked forward to Virgin upgrading my 100mb to 120mb last year, but in never happened. Two anticipated dates came and went. My Virgin Media suggested I had been upgraded, and I was enjoying my new speed which was utter BS.

http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/10...-page-131.html

Come late October I downgraded my broadband to 60mb and in December cancelled.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

http://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky-Fibr...ht/false#M9056

1 exchange with work completed on the date given. No delay or BS excuses

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Seeing some on VM forums waiting 3 weeks to get a fault number but no fix date given for oversubscription problems. Going to take 2 to 4 month to get fixed for one guy although he hasn't been made aware of it. Good old cat-c work they knew they had to do at least 6 months ago, if not longer

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Last year I left Virgin Media because of utilisation in my area (B21). It went on for months and months with fix times constantly being put back.

As soon as I could I left and now on Sky Fibre and I love it. No slow downs or drop outs.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Congrats on joining the ever expanding happy club.

Guessing that postcode is a Bristol one so you are proof of what I have been saying.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Actually its in Birmingham not Bristol :nono: so basically it does not add any credence to what you are saying dear chap.:)

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Doh! Bristol is BS, close but no cigar. You and your masters caught my mistake quickly! Any comments regarding another virgin customer moving to sky due to oversubscription issues with Virgin though? Thought not ;) not only that, no issues since moving like the rest of us.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

But there is two very important things you have left out and they are there are many people who also move in the opposite direction thus also remember it is a very small minority who have issues and you can apply that across most broadband providers and Sky are no different in that respect.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Of course people move between different providers. Many have stuck with virgin broadband in the past even if they had major issues due to lack of decent alternatives that were not adsl. Now openreach fibre is hitting more areas I expect the numbers will go up and most of the provider changes will be towards alternative isp's from virgin customers

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Without starting a bun right, we will see in the next couple of weeks. It's expected that sky will have increased bb subs by driving triple play into their existing base. There seems to be a lot of interest in the impact of now tv as you can subscribe to that whichever bb supplier you a with. It's also expected that vm have done very well so not sure who is leaving and joining who or are they simply swapping customers as contracts end and they chase the cheapest deal?Should be interesting to see how you view has done?

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

This is one of the banks views on Skys numbers - could be the reason for congestion issues - This is Morgan Stanleys view

As for Sky’s key subscriber metrics, the bank expects around 30,000 net new pay-TV additions, around 120,000 HDTV additions and an impressive 140,000 broadband additions. However, the bank warns that churn might be up, from 9.5 per cent this time last year to nearer to 10.5 percent now.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

I wouldn't be shocked if take up was slow , at launch it was free for a month then £15 monthly , its now free for a month then £8.99 a month for the next three months. Now TV currently only offers movies as opposed to Netflix and Lovefilm which both offer TV series , subscriber numbers will be interesting too see once Sports and Entertainment are also added , currently Netflix and Lovefilm are also available on more devices something Now TV is playing catchup on.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

The difference here is SKY consider it a fault, they have quick fix times (under 3 months) and its a blip, not the norm as is on VM. They also listed the exact exchanges affected.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

The latter bit is a bit moot... VM don't have exchanges and congestion does not occur at the exchange level.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Qas are you saying skys own statement is wrong, the issue is with a few exchanges backhaul needing upgrades.

So yes it is at a exchange level although in some cases multiple exchanges could ab affected if in the case of a exchange been daisy chained of an affected exchange.

Whilst VM dont have exchanges they do have nodes and headends. There is no statement from VM which are affected by congestion.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

No, I'm saying Sky have a few exchanges needing upgrades and VM have zero not because they're liars but because they have no exchanges.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Worth considering,

Some parts of sky network are suffering over subscription and the network is completely unmanaged, if sky were to introduce traffic management like say for example Virginmedia do, skys problems would disappear over night.

Some parts of the virginmedia network are suffering over subscription and the network has heavy and enforced traffic management, if virginmedia were to turn off all management like sky the network would collapse over night.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

traffic management doesnt necessarily mean congestion dissapears, VM are living proof of that they have 2 forms of traffic management and have worser congestion than sky.

A big chunk of modern broadband traffic is coming from services such as netflix.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

VM's STM is supposed to deal with things like Netflix... BT's old usage policies the same, but apparently they don't need that anymore even with BT Vision pumping down the pipes.

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

I've never understood why Virgin has data caps.

Even some mobile phone companies can provide unlimited data and I'm sure if Sky can do it then why can't Virgin?

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Probably their network couldn't handle it :p:

Were virgin the first to introduce traffic management?

Was smiling like an idiot yesterday on the train, streaming a 720 mkv from my home pc to my phone with zero buffering issues. The fact my sky home broadband upload speed is fast enough, stable enough and no limits/managements, along with unlimited data on Three mobile, meant I could stream without any loss of quality or transcoding. No data limits makes a huge difference. Could probably do the same with 1080 as the Galaxy S3 can handle it.

Not having to worry about traffic management or lowering video quality to keep within limits changes the user experience in such a positive way :)

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Plusnet I think started the trend on TM, although VM may have been the first of the big isps to use it but not sure as was years ago when it all started.

QTX you miss STM and the congestion?

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

Like a hole in the head :D

Once you break those shackles off you will never willingly put them back on. Nice to be congestion and limit free on sky ;)

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/s...12-02-2013.png

Re: Sky admits to oversubscription
 

There are no mobile companies that do it.

All mobile companies have traffic shaping and/or STM-like caps

---------- Post added at 01:18 ---------- Previous post was at 01:17 ----------

VM were pretty late with STM actually, at the time they did it BT were already capping heavy 8Mb users down to 128k at peak times.