News - Sky to become second largest UK ISP as it snaps up O2 and BE

[crossy]

The crazy thing is that is almost twice the cost not to have a phone line. I cannot fathom why that is the case, but there you go.

Vermin have operated a policy of "the more you buy from us, the bigger discount we can do". Others do the same. I shifted to VM for phone a while ago and because I became a triple play customer the price hike I'd expected was a lot less than previous package+phone deal.
Now if I could persuade them to (a) stop phoning me up to upsell on the phone package, and (b) bail out the local patch box so I get a decent call quality I'd be a happy soul.

Sky already monopolizes TV and now broadband !

My opinion too - although they're now quoting Lovefilm and Netflix as being "proof" that they don't actually have a stranglehold on the UK tv market.

My experience with Virgin:
- Virgin Mobile: called them to ask them the APN name to use my Blackberry as a modem (tethering). They said is impossible, and when I insisted it works, they mentioned they asked the manager and it is not possible. 5 minutes later I just searched the internet for APN settings and the Blackberry worked as a modem perfectly.

Not to jump to their defence necessarily, but did you check the T&C's to make sure that you're actually allowed to tether? I looked at moving to VM's mobile service last year and all the contracts I looked at were pretty clear - no tethering permitted. Interestingly enough only Three (who I was flipping the bird to) seem to be chilled on the idea that you might want to use your data connection to power a tablet etc.

- Moved house, got downgraded from cable to ADSL. Their Virgin Netgear router is incredibly unreliable, and they refuse to do anything about it, although there are threads on their forums describing the exact same issues and symptoms I have. I get disconnected from the router constantly (so not just from the internet). The internet itself is slow and unreliable too.

Got news for you - the latest VM cable router is also a nasty piece of Netgear s**t. Contacted VM because I couldn't even get a reliable signal through one internal wall (usual plasterboard+timber with electrical wiring through it) and was told that "a firmware update will fix this". It didn't, and I ended up closing down the router part of it, and just using it as a cable modem (where it's actually pretty reliable).

Although if you're on VM's ADSL service then you have my sympathies - my dad was on that and the performance on it was not much better than dial up at times. He since moved his provision to BT and that's working pretty well.

[flufflogic]

Sky tried to charge me £520 for ending a contract early and moving house when I had pre-arranged exactly that with them. They argued it for 5 months, constantly trying to take said amount from my bank despite repeated assurances they'd sorted it. It turned out later that they'd never informed my bank and cancelled their end of the Direct Debit. It took me ringing the bank and then Sky to sort it, despite being told for 5 months that they had done just that and it was impossible.

They are, as others have said, just as bad as anyone else - for customer service. For an ISP, they are AWFUL - speed capping, consistently slower than other providers (my Freedom 2 Surf download speed was always 6.2MB/sec down and 1MB up at the old house; Sky gave me 2.2MB/sec down, 0.5MB/sec up and insisted there was no way at all it could be faster), hidden limits, and on top of you for any "suspicious" large downloads you might do (ie, using a competing streaming service). Not had any such issues whilst with Virgin, and they upped me to 100MB for free (actual speeds of 70MB/sec through speedtest.net too, which isn't too shabby). I've been with a ton of providers over the years (Freedom 2 Surf, Sky, AOL, Freeserve, 3) and Sky were the worst.

[daffy101]

Having had BB here since 2004 and with a variety of providers over the years the 7 months I had with sky were the positively worse I ever had. I was lucky I cancelled the contract earlier but had to pay a solicitor to do it after SKY failed to do what they promised in arbitration after I got Ofcom involved. They used a daily download limit at the time so A few windows updates and WoW patch on 2 PC's automatically throttled my BB for the next 28 days until the end of the month even though I didn't exceed the monthly download limit (I later found out the 40GB a month was actually based on 1.3GB a day). The connection was throttled so badly that I had time out errors even trying to get Google to work. Sky blamed BT which I know was a lie as at the time I worked for BT telecoms and testing my line resulted in speed way higher than SKY were providing. I have nothing to do with SKY at all even getting rid of their satellite channels and buying a free sat box. I advise anyone who can to vote with their wallets and leave when you can.

[Max Tractor]

I am on the old unlimited o2 deal, they tried to get me onto the new packages, but I refused, I can honestly say I have never had any issues in 4 or 5 years with them, no drop outs, no speed capping and easy customer service. What a complete disappointment that sly have now got them, hell knows what sort of implementations they will bring. As for them becoming a monopoly in BB as they are in TV, they dictate their tv service and care not a jot(I was with them(TV) for around a decade) their prices just slowly crept up and up, un-subscription was the only option(that and a technomate 1500), sly free for 6 or 7 years now, as the technomate is more or less obsolete and having completely lost interest in overpriced/overpaid sport/players it is no loss to me, my point...... what will sly do with o2, will it be the same approach? I can only imagine it will be, consolidate it position, then put the squeeze on. Sad day for BB and o2/BB users

[thedearleader]

I just been made a SKY subscriber, being transfered from O2. I decided to wait & see what happens, this may of been a mistake!
My broadband died Thursday night around 11pm & was dead until Saturday about 2pm. No Internet access & a red light on the router!
Once my BB was up and running & was able to access my email, I received a bill from Sky with extra supplements charges as listed below!

21/12/2013 - 02/01/2014 Supplement for not having Sky Talk £2.10
03/01/2014 - 02/02/2014 Supplement for not having Sky Talk £5.00
03/01/2014 - 02/02/2014 Supplement for not having Sky TV £2.50
21/12/2013 - 02/01/2014 Supplement for not having Sky TV £1.05

What do you think?

[kalniel]

Well if that's not the contract/prices you were offered for the switch (and that you accepted by not moving providers) then they're breaching contract.

My move was a bit smoother - broadband died, quick call to O2 helpline, they said it'd moved to Sky, and forwarded me (nice - sky's is not a freephone unlike O2s). Sky helper sorted me out in about 15 minutes. Seems Sky use ADSL rather than ADSL2+ as I was using under O2, but the O2 router can do that fine as well, subject to factory resets and firmware updates.

I've yet to have a bill, but the contract I accepted didn't have any supplemental charges.

[Steve]

I just been made a SKY subscriber, being transfered from O2. I decided to wait & see what happens, this may of been a mistake!
My broadband died Thursday night around 11pm & was dead until Saturday about 2pm. No Internet access & a red light on the router!
Once my BB was up and running & was able to access my email, I received a bill from Sky with extra supplements charges as listed below!

21/12/2013 - 02/01/2014 Supplement for not having Sky Talk £2.10
03/01/2014 - 02/02/2014 Supplement for not having Sky Talk £5.00
03/01/2014 - 02/02/2014 Supplement for not having Sky TV £2.50
21/12/2013 - 02/01/2014 Supplement for not having Sky TV £1.05

What do you think?

I like the bit where they charge you for things you don't have. That's really classy. I hope I'm not abusing my privilege when I say Sky can go duck themselves, or something to that effect.

I've not changed over yet; I'm waiting to have the opportunity to tell them exactly what I think of their filthy, filthy company. That and I don't want to be locked into a contract in a place I probably won't live in for another 12 months.

RIP Be*.