[bardel]

Hi,

Im considering bundling all my services together and moving to Sky. Reason for this is I'm finally considering SkyTV after years of refusing to pay more than the standard TV license for terrestrial viewing!

Currently, I have VirginMedia 60Mb/s fibre (been a customer for 11-12 years now) and BT for a landline (which I barely use) and free view TV only.

So if I go for SkyTV, it seems more economical to move my phone and broadband to them at the same time.

I've been very happy with Virgin's fibre service and with all the bad reports I've read about Sky broadband I wanted to get some feedback on their fibre service only.

So, ignoring customer service feedback and those of you using ADSL services, would anyone care to provide their feedback / experience with Sky Fibre? Uploads of speed test scores would be great to see too. For reference, I've attached my current Virgin Media results.

Thanks

Barry

[bardel]

Nigh on 100 views and no-reply, not even a helpful post to let me know that bandwidth feedback is being posted on the "Sky Fibre available in April" thread! Thanks guys

Anyhow, seems that upload is the real issue here. I don't need the 60Mbps down that I have, 20-30 is enough, but Virgin doubled me to 60 for free! Upload speed is more important to me for my cloud backups and server access. I've just added 500GB of data to my cloud backup and it says it's going to be 45 days before it's finished!

I found a useful tool over at the Energy Comparison of Gas & Electricity | Broadband Deals & Mobile Phones | uSwitch.com website where you can use their broadband speed checker, and once you've done that, you can check results in your area from other users. You can filter this by provider, so I filtered to Sky and then I filtered to users with over 20Mbs download speed in the hope it would leave me with only a few Sky bb customers on higher connections. Sure enough, I found around 10 in my area, some could be at the top end of ADSL, but there were a few in the 30's but nearly all showing upload speeds of 0.8-0.9Mbs which quite frankly is pants. Even one customer with a 103Mbs download???, but only 1.9 upload. I did find one customer with nearly 80Mbs down and 8mbs up though, so maybe the pro service is the only way to get decent upload speeds.

[spyder viewer]

Have you tried here: Finally Sky fibre Launch Date(April)

[bardel]

Originally Posted by spyder viewer

Have you tried here: Finally Sky fibre Launch Date(April)

Originally Posted by bardel

Nigh on 100 views and no-reply, not even a helpful post to let me know that bandwidth feedback is being posted on the "Sky Fibre available in April" thread! Thanks guys

Yes, but thanks again for the link

[david1802]

been on the basic sky fibre package 40/2 at £20 per month since april (line rental is an additional £12.50). their is a 80/20 pro version at £30 per month available by phone.

downstream is a constant 4.5MB/s, upstream is constant ~230KB/s. i have had zero signs of congestion in the evening, fullspeed at all times, my line is good and my cab is 350M away.

BT estimates my line will support 42/8, though the modem states 72/19 is the max!!!

very happy with the downstream, though the upstream is disappointing.

no complaints from me regarding sky fibre...

unsure if its my imagination, but when the landline is accidentally used to make a call they seem to cost much more than what i remembered BT charging. cheapish for BB and Landline but screw you on cost off calls lol

[Stevenage Neil]

Here's an interesting result as of this morning:

Upto yesterday my upload was 1.8.

Even more interesting, my router is still showing 39998/1999........

[david1802]

yep, sky are replacing the 40/2 with 40/10. mine was also upgraded this morning

*have you rebooted your router yet neil?

[Stevenage Neil]

Originally Posted by david1802

*have you rebooted your router yet neil?

No, I am leaving well alone -- don't want to spoil a good thing.

[Stevenage Neil]

OK, I cracked. Now reporting 39998/10000

(My upload speed is now twice the combined speeds of my previous Sky Unlimited ADSL service, (3.6/0.7))

[david1802]

excellent

[bardel]

Fabulous news guys.... I'd thrown the idea of 40/2 out of the window on the upload grounds, so looks like this is a contender again for me saving a few pounds on combined tv/phone/broadband packages.

Any feedback on the actual broadband experience with Sky (apart from the usual customer service woes)?

Thanks

Barry

[david1802]

can't fault the service myself. Bandwidth always their and zero downtime. Routers not the greatest, but works (for me).

Would be wise to check that sky is not suffering congestion on your exchange. They have a postcode checker on their site somewhere.

* getting 1169KB/s uploading a file to sendspace. not bad at all :D

[jagdeepp]

Bardel, mind if i ask why you are leaving Virgin? The fibre optic is far quicker and not at risk of the level of congestion faced by BT's fibre optic which is then sold wholesale to sky, plusnet etc.

The sky tv package is very decent for sure. Why not just go for the Sky tv package and take on bt's fibre optic and retain the phone line or even keep your virgin broadband?

[david1802]

Sky fibre isn't a resold BT product. The only part of the bt network they use is between your house and the exchange, the rest is their own network.

Never used virgin, but their traffic management is off putting. Sky may not be as quick ,on the fastest package, but its unlimited and unthrottled at all times.

[jagdeepp]

Originally Posted by david1802

Never used virgin, but their traffic management is off putting. Sky may not be as quick ,on the fastest package, but its unlimited and unthrottled at all times.

So very true. I've signed up and expect an imminent install. I'll see how it goes. If poor i'll cancel within the 28 days.