Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

OK... just got the call from Sky... I can now have their broadband 16MB for £10 a month as it has been enabled in this area.

To get it I would have jump away from NTL (10MB)... reconnect to BT land line... and have an extension run upstairs. But the cost saving is ....well...worth having....and the speed looks impressive on paper.

Is it worth my effort?

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

Even NTL's offering and reported rumours look good 'on paper' but as we all know its not all as pretty as its painted, especially as you'll be running down BT's circuit (read old copper cabling) to the exchange, however far that is away from you!!

and as a comparison heres my "up to 10meg" speed test on an empty cache

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:42:22 GMT
1st 512K took 578 ms = 885.8 KB/sec, approx 7299 Kbps, 7.13 Mbps
2nd 512K took 203 ms = 2522.2 KB/sec, approx 20783 Kbps, 20.3 Mbps
3rd 512K took 266 ms = 1924.8 KB/sec, approx 15860 Kbps, 15.49 Mbps
4th 512K took 250 ms = 2048 KB/sec, approx 16876 Kbps, 16.48 Mbps

Overall Average Speed = approx 15205 Kbps, 14.85 Mbps

These results appear to be rather fast - this page was probably in the browser cache. To repeat this test from the source server click here.

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

Erm up to 16Mb, how close are you to the exchange? Have you got a quote for an extension to be added or is it being done as part of the install? ADSL based speeds are governed by the quality of your line, the equipment on your line, how far you are from yoru exchange, the quality of equipment in your exchange...... well you see what I mean. There is no guarantee of 16Mb, just a speed up to 16Mb ;)

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

I got the call about 2 months ago from Sky.

Congrats you can now have 16 meg broadband. Here is the code just give that to sales and they do the rest. So i did. Had my old BT line turned back on.





Then




Sky tell me i cannot have there 16 meg broadband only the 2 meg and its a mistake. they only know this when they go to enable your line.

Outcome


They had to pay for 3 months line rental till the BT line was turned off again.

I was only going to use the Sky for leeching on the newsgroups anyway.


If you decide to do this make sure you have it in writing they can provide it ?.

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

Even at 8MB .... and taking into account some of NTL speeds even on the "ultra fast" 10MB connection..... it is £25 per month cheaper!!

---------- Post added at 21:56 ---------- Previous post was at 21:55 ----------

Thanks - just the kind of advice I was looking for.

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

Do yourself a favour, check with a neighbour, find out if they can get ADSL and what maximum speed, it will be a guide, and if the best speed is nowhere near 8Mbit, stay with ntl.

Value for money is always good, but cheaper is often not better.

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

I had a load of problems with fast adsl and I was only 2.2 k from the exchange was ment to be able to get upto 8 got 6 meg from morning till evening then an unstable connection all night and nothing they could do. Better the devil you know for me

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

My advice would be to try it.

Get the BT line reconnected (this will tie you to a 3 month contract with BT totalling £33) then get Sky to connect you and see if you like it.

Cancel NTL and away you go. If you don't like it you've only lost 3 months worth of BT line rental and you'll know not to go with ADSL in your current property. Personally I like my Sky BB.

It's been down today and was a bit of a hassle to get them to listen to me when I told them the equipment in the exchange had fallen over (second time recently) but for £10 a month it's very reasonable. Certainly more reliable than my Ntl connection was. :)

Re: Should I Stay Or Should I Go (Sky Broadband)
 

A friend of mine has Sky broadband and he says it it utter crap. The wireless router they give you doesn't work properly with all wireless cards, and the whole thing slows down unless he power cycles the router every hour or so.

Further to this, it is an ADSL connection, but Sky will not give you the details needed to use your own ADSL router - you are stuck with theirs. This is, in my mind, totally unacceptable.