sky broadband - fair usage policy on ''unlimited''

[Simba]

hi i was thinking of changing from my current aol platinum which is 29.99 a month to sky broadband. its unclear though what exactly the fair usage policy is on the max package. could anyone enlighten me please?

also if anyone has sky broadband what there overall experience with it so far?

thanks

[Mylo]

Been using it for a few weeks and it's been pretty stable. I have no idea what the fair usage policy is as I don't do downloads.

I'll move this thread to the ISP forum where you may get a better answer.

[GingerTez]

I'm on the max package ("up to" 16MB) and today I was getting 0.9MB. The other night I was getting 7.8MB and my Sky router reports that it can get up to 8MB on the ADSL line to BT (I'm still ticked off that Sky said I can get the up to 16MB service when it's actually physically impossible to get that speed on my exchange but it's still cheaper than ntl).

It was very unstable the first couple of days but seems to have settled down although the speed is obviously still variable.

The fair usage policy doesn't state any limits as to what fair usage is but I think you'd have to be a very extreme user to have their attention focussed on you.

Cheers,
Tez.

[TheCrow]

Originally Posted by Simba

hi i was thinking of changing from my current aol platinum which is 29.99 a month to sky broadband. its unclear though what exactly the fair usage policy is on the max package. could anyone enlighten me please?

also if anyone has sky broadband what there overall experience with it so far?

thanks

There is a copy of Skys FUP here although it is a bit lacking on specifics.

I've had Sky Broadband Max for 3 weeks now, overall I am pleased with it.
Upon ordering I was told I should expect 5.1MB/s on my line. If I sync the router during the day I can actually get just over 8MB/s sync rate with an actual consistent download rate of 7MB/s. Unfortunately during the evenings my noise margin falls and I loose reliable data transfer. However if I resync at this time I regain a solid connection at a lower speed 6MB/s which is still over Skys original estimate and has remained solid for a couple of weeks now with no further issues.
Contacting Sky for support is an absolute joke, usually involves a 20min wait in a queue on the phone. There broadband portal, where you check you emails and manage your account has been totally inaccessible to me since day 1 and when I spoke to technical support they said there has been issues with it from launch and they don't know when it is likely to be fixed. The same goes for their email pop3 and smtp servers.
So all I am getting from them is my raw connection, even so the Max package gives me a free router, free home install and setup and unlimited speed (except by the capabilities of my phone line) and unlimited downloads, all for £10pm which suits me fine.

[Simba]

thanks for the replies. what one suggest then, tho i pay 29.99 i should be getting an 8mb connection (which i did in the first week) but not i seem to only get 200-400kb/s. mainly on the 200-300 scale. the good thing about aol is the service. the tech support is readily available without ridiculous wait times. im trying to decide whether or not that sums up the cost i pay since my BB is quite expensive to other providers.

simba

[GingerTez]

Originally Posted by TheCrow

If I sync the router during the day I can actually get just over 8MB/s sync rate with an actual consistent download rate of 7MB/s. Unfortunately during the evenings my noise margin falls and I loose reliable data transfer. However if I resync at this time I regain a solid connection at a lower speed 6MB/s which is still over Skys original estimate and has remained solid for a couple of weeks now with no further issues.

What do you mean by "sync the router"? Is that just turn it off and back on again or is it something through the router admin interface?

Cheers,
Tez.

[TheCrow]

Originally Posted by GingerTez

What do you mean by "sync the router"? Is that just turn it off and back on again or is it something through the router admin interface?

Cheers,
Tez.

If you reboot the router from the diagnostics page or simply unplug the phone cable and reconnect it the modem will resync to the ASDL signal.
It does this at as fast a speed as it can with a workable noise margin of around 6 to 7dB.
Unfortunately if this noise margin then lowers it can no longer transfer data but doesn't appear to loose lock or resync itself. Therefore the only way I could find to get myself a all day workable connection was to perform this sync at a time when my line is the noisiest.
I don't know whether this is common pratice with ADSL2+ or whether there is an issue with my line noise varying so much.