Sky misleading information

[AndyCambs]

Just checked the Sky pages about their version of events with Virgin Media.
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skyco...ntentid=646110

We believe in giving our customers more for less. When we launched our new broadband service last year, we discovered just how much people were being charged by cable and BT. So we offered Sky TV customers Sky Broadband with up to 16Mb download speeds and a wireless router for just £10 a month, vs £35 a month for an up to 10Mb service with NTL/Virgin. Great television and big savings are why more than 8 million families are choosing to be with Sky. To find out more about how much you could save go to www.sky.com/save.

They refer to "upto 16Mb per month. I'm not sure how many people are likely to be able to get this speed - I live about 3 miles from the exchange, and checking on www.broadbandchecker.com it shows that I should get

Your line should be capable of supporting download speeds up to 1Mb (around 20 times faster than dial-up)

So a more fair comparison would be
Virgin Media's television and 2MB Broadband (that's twice as fast as Sky could manage) for £20 per month.

You can't compare Upto speeds which are very very dependant on where you live.

[NTLVictim]

Does broadband checker take into account ADSL2, +, etc?

[Nikesh]

I agree the 'up to' speeds are very very misleading. People look at Sky and go "Great 16Mb! and then they look at Virgin Media "10Mb, that's not as good. I think I will go for Sky then."

[jcw00]

Originally Posted by Nikesh

I agree the 'up to' speeds are very very misleading. People look at Sky and go "Great 16Mb! and then they look at Virgin Media "10Mb, that's not as good. I think I will go for Sky then."

To get the 16Mb you have to be very close to the Exchange <3Km. I live near gatwick, and my line length is 7.5km and I can not get ADSL even at 512Kbps. I therefore only have one option, cable Broadband.

In the last 3 years of cable broadband it has only gone down twice. I hear of people with ADSL, and connections are always going down and even for 3+ days at a time.

At the moment I would never use ADSL.

[Carl J]

Originally Posted by jcw00

To get the 16Mb you have to be very close to the Exchange <3Km.

3km isn't that close, the majority of people are within 3km of their exchange, and you have to be way closer than that to get 16Mbit

---------- Post added at 21:34 ---------- Previous post was at 21:29 ----------

Originally Posted by AndyCambs

Just checked the Sky pages about their version of events with Virgin Media.
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/skyco...ntentid=646110



They refer to "upto 16Mb per month. I'm not sure how many people are likely to be able to get this speed - I live about 3 miles from the exchange, and checking on www.broadbandchecker.com it shows that I should get

So a more fair comparison would be
Virgin Media's television and 2MB Broadband (that's twice as fast as Sky could manage) for £20 per month.

You can't compare Upto speeds which are very very dependant on where you live.

Some people in heavily congested cable areas might claim that cable's speeds also depend on where you live. It seems that VM are trying to promote themselves as being able to guarantee speeds which they cannot.

Anyway the Sky thing does say 'up to', doesn't promise anything and does state..

http://check.skybroadband.com/

* Top speeds may vary significantly depending on distance from local exchange and line quality

http://check.skybroadband.com/onnet.aspx

**Top speeds may vary significantly depending on distance from local exchange and line quality.

If you want to compare 2Mbit products Sky do offer one, free of charge, albeit with a usage limit.

At the end of the day though it's all rhetoric from both sides, if you take the press releases of either that seriously you need to back off a bit, they'll both merrily pick out the best case scenario to look better than the other.

It's called... PR

Take it at its' face value at your extreme peril

[TheDaddy]

Why are Sky calling them Ntl/ Virgin, I am pretty sure that it is an illegal business practice to call a company by it's former name after a re- launch

[Cobbydaler]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Why are Sky calling them Ntl/ Virgin, I am pretty sure that it is an illegal business practice to call a company by it's former name after a re- launch

VM have hit them with a Cease & Desist order....

[rtj70]

In a straight line I am less than 0.5km from the BT exchange. Their service says they think I'd get upto 6.5Mbit/s. Not bad and I know the cables will be longer than the 0.5km.

However, my mother is 120 yards from the exchange and the same BT checking service says upto 6Mbit/s. And I know the exchange is close as the gates were never locked when a child and we used to play in there ;-)

[Carl J]

BT thing is a guesstimate based on records of line lengths, and I'm pretty sure it actually says 'at least' not 'up to' on its' checker responses.

I'm actually 100% positive infact.

It claimed 6Mbit+ for me at 1.4km, I got 8 comfortably.

According to BT Wholesale, your line should be able to support a 6Mbps or greater ADSL connection via ADSL Max.

[AndyCambs]

Originally Posted by Carl J

Anyway the Sky thing does say 'up to', doesn't promise anything and does state..

http://check.skybroadband.com/



http://check.skybroadband.com/onnet.aspx



If you want to compare 2Mbit products Sky do offer one, free of charge, albeit with a usage limit.

At the end of the day though it's all rhetoric from both sides, if you take the press releases of either that seriously you need to back off a bit, they'll both merrily pick out the best case scenario to look better than the other.

It's called... PR

Take it at its' face value at your extreme peril

Yes - but my point is that Sky are not comparing like with like for 99.9% of the people. Unless you live on top of, or adjoining the exchange, then you're not likely to get 16MB or anything like it.

Virgin Media speeds of 2, 4 and 10MB are going to be much closer to what you receive.

So in my case, and I appreciate that there might be the odd 0.1% of the population who it might not apply to - you can really only compare 2MB Virgin prices with anything that $ky offer.

[etccarmageddon]

the upto figures companies quote should be replaced with a 'expected' speed which is the average speed a random (say) 2% sample of customers from (say) the last 3 months have achieved.

[Carl J]

Originally Posted by AndyCambs

Yes - but my point is that Sky are not comparing like with like for 99.9% of the people. Unless you live on top of, or adjoining the exchange, then you're not likely to get 16MB or anything like it.

Virgin Media speeds of 2, 4 and 10MB are going to be much closer to what you receive.

So in my case, and I appreciate that there might be the odd 0.1% of the population who it might not apply to - you can really only compare 2MB Virgin prices with anything that $ky offer.

You were fine till you typed $ky, not really the way to have your comments taken seriously, and actually the majority of urban and suburban lines are capable of 8Mbit+ over ADSL2+, and the vast majority capable of over 4Mbps.

Can I please draw your attention to the following:

http://www.speedtest.net/global.php?...nt=3&country=

Shows a higher average speed for Sky Broadband / Easynet than either of the former components of VM, as do the figures at

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/i/2978.html

Sky 3,340 Kbps
Virgin Media (cable) 2,978 Kbps

Bearing in mind that customers of both will vary from 2Mbit/s upwards, and that Sky customers will go as low potentially as 512kbps.

[Dan_Sette]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Why are Sky calling them Ntl/ Virgin, I am pretty sure that it is an illegal business practice to call a company by it's former name after a re- launch

Nah. Call 'em what you like. If the marketing isn't good enough, then the new name won't mean anything.

I still go to the Post Office to get my stamps. It is the Post Office that also deliver my letters AND parcels.

Oddly it's the GPO that provide my phone (although I occasionally remember that I switched to Birmingham Cable some years ago). Although my broadband is from Telewest (says so on the box)

My electricity is from the MEB and the gas from British Gas.

I'm getting concerned that Richard Branson is getting everywhere as my local cinema is branded Virgin.

Blimey, he'll be taking over my local Safeway next!

Dan

[samuel]

Originally Posted by Dan_Sette

Nah. Call 'em what you like. If the marketing isn't good enough, then the new name won't mean anything.

I still go to the Post Office to get my stamps. It is the Post Office that also deliver my letters AND parcels.

Oddly it's the GPO that provide my phone (although I occasionally remember that I switched to Birmingham Cable some years ago). Although my broadband is from Telewest (says so on the box)

My electricity is from the MEB and the gas from British Gas.

I'm getting concerned Richard Branson is getting everywhere as my local cinema is branded Virgin.

Blimey, he'll be taking over my local Safeway next!

Dan

Great - Virgin is a well respected brand - should be good for all of us.

[Dan_Sette]

Originally Posted by samuel

Great - Virgin is a well respected brand - should be good for all of us.

Yeah, should give them Astra / BSB people a run for their money anyway.