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Originally Posted by Horizon
Has there actually been a Sky customer yet on the York FTTP network? I know there are TalkTalk customers now using the FTTP service.
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Yes, though considerably after TalkTalk.
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Originally Posted by Horizon
If the FTTP trial is as cheap as you say, I wonder why Sky aren't going at it full throttle? Why bother getting involved at all if they don't intend to use it? They must have spent quite a wodge of money on it. Quite bizarre. Unless they're waiting for a better deal on Openreach's infrastructure and are just waiting to ditch CityFibre at the first opportunity.
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The point wasn't regarding how cheap or not the FTTP trial is, but to illustrate just how much money Sky are prepared to throw at content and how little they are prepared to invest in infrastructure. They lose the Premier League they will feel the impact immediately, they invest in FTTP it'll take years if not decades to recover the investment.
Sky are run on a short-termist basis, even more so than many.
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Originally Posted by Horizon
On your wider point about whether they are really interested in FTTP at all considering they have 10 million+ satellite customers, I think they are based on their past broadband activities.
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Based on what past broadband activities? They bought a national network operator, expanded the unbundled network that operator had already built and that's about all.
They internally tested sub-loop unbundling and VDSL but it came to nothing. They have run a few trials of FTTP both in co-operation with Cityfibre and independently, involving aerial fibre and underground.
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Originally Posted by Horizon
They have a massive satellite tv base, but most pundits predict that the future of tv will be IP delivered and I believe we will see more activity from Sky in this area in the future. Now TV is already in place and I think this service will expand more as their attention gradually shifts onto IPTV.
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You don't need to build your own local loop to run OTT services - Netflix don't own a local loop and account for over 1/3rd of all US broadband usage. Sky can happily continue to shift the risk of network investment onto Openreach just as they have kept the risk of operating a satellite platform on SES Astra - BSB's Marconi satellite was allowed to disappear into the ether.
They would be doing their shareholders a disservice if they weren't constantly doing the FTTPR activities. Their aim is for Openreach to provide a point to point fibre network they can unbundle and take full control of just as they have full control over MPF copper. Their reluctance to get involved with FTTC was, to a large extent, because it's a bitstream product.
Were Sky to start seriously building a network they would have to obviously invest in construction of that network but would then also have to maintain that network and run truck rolls to customer properties when it goes wrong. The extent to which they could outsource this as they outsource the installations and repair activities for their current DTH products is debatable.
We'll see if they take the plunge with the new PIA products, however I would be inclined to look to other new entrants and, possibly if they can't hook up with Liberty Global, Vodafone.