Sky Digiboxes kill BT broadband exchanges - urban myth or true?

[Methanoid]

Strangely enough with my ADSL2+ service I have a less than perfect service due to radio interference. The frequencies that interfere corresponded to 909 (Five Live), 1215 (Virgin), 1089 (Radio One) and 1548 (Capital).

So maybe there is some truth in this story...

[mcfrazz]

Firstly... Sky digiboxes don't accept information via the phone line, only for dialing out.
Secondly... with more than 2 boxes in a household they have to be connected to a phone line so Sky know that all boxes are in the same household, as opposed to the next door neighbours house!
Thirdly... Phone line connection's in the T's and C's as the companies which Use Sky Active and such like pay for your damn boxes... hence why it's in the T's and C's of the marketing contract... and since you're onyl contracted to sky for a year... that's why you only need it connected to a phone line for a year

If you actually thought about this then you'd figure it out...

[G4Z]

I have standard sky digital and I have never plugged it in. Had it for 2 years now and Sky have never contacted me about it.

[thomas9851]

Yes i can confirm this is a problem.

I recently lossed my broadband connection. So i got in contact with BT [cutting out the middleman].

After alot pain - 4 days later a BT engineer knocked on the door with a diagnosis. Apparently my house was not the only problem as he had spent the last few days diagnosing similar issues.

He did the radio 5 test .... and yes, no radio 5.

So we visited the house where he thought the issue was and the neighbour agreed to switch off his sky [you have to unplug it it all from the mains].

Within in an instant radio 5 could be heard .... and suddenly my adsl modem began to receive a connection. But even better still and to my surprise - my new connection now offers twice the speed. I was on 2.5 MB now i am on a minimum of 4.3MB!!!

Having then spoken to the neighbour i was informed that the neighbour had a number of issues in trying to get the box to work. Sky ignored his issues but having eventually switched it on - it was exactly the same time that i lost my broadband.

The neighbour was told by BT that the SKY box is illegal and must be switched off until they send a replacement [SKY are aware of this but only at Chariman level ... so contacting sky customer service is a waste of time].

In my area alone a single sky box knocked out 10 or more houses and there is no range as it cripples your signal at the exchange; it just depends on how your wires cross.

You may also discover that this only becomes an issue when you try to reboot your broadband connection - so check for CRC errors [lots of CRC errors indicate this issue]

On top of this, you should also be aware that this issue is not restricted to sky but also affects a number of other products - i.e. plasmam TV's, large [30" plus] LCD TV's, sodium based lights and medical equipment. In fact anything that is poorly insulated and not to legal specification.

And yes, the radio 5 test is the way to check it - no radio 5 infers that someone in your area is running faulty [illegal]equipment - and as this fault breaks the law, they have to switch it off.

I myself have a sky box and mine is fine so i can only assume it is the newer varieties.

Sky are trying to keep this hush hush as it affects alot of people [big time], so if you have faulty equipment or a local issue - contact SKY HQ and use the law.

BTW. the sky box does send information back and forth - i.e. system updates, advertising info etc... [this is how they know you disconnected it from the telelphone socket]. This is not an urban myth and maybe one that infringes privacy [who knows]?


Hope that helps you.

[Stoo]

I've had a list of several things which apparently can kill BT's ADSL implementation directly from BT before, I'll see if I can remember them all..

Fairy lights
Sky boxes
CB radios
Microwave ovens
Central heating systems
The weather (rain saturates the ground, and many junction boxes get flooded, heat makes the lines stretch causing line problems)
Sunlight (Apparently solar radiation causes noise on the lines which can lower or knock out ADSL)

So pretty much anything then..

[Sinizter]

Might as well add your ipod plugged into the USB port of your computer to the list while you are at it.

Sounds more like BT would like to blame everyone else for bad wiring.

In Milton Keynes, the stupid buggers used Aluminium instead of copper for the phone wires to save a few pounds, and due to this I get a miserable broadband connection at home. Cuts out on a regular basis - I have already tried two separate routers (both of which work reliably in other places) and the connection occasionaly cuts out and doesnt reconenct for quite a while. And somehow it makes the routers occasionally crash (which I dont think is due to anything on my network).

[Stoo]

Yup, we have similar issues around here, something like 40% of the lines are aluminium rather than copper.. *mutters*

[Zak33]

Yup, we have similar issues around here, something like 40% of the lines are aluminium rather than copper.. *mutters*

Land War in Rhodesia caused the copper mines to close and the price rocketed.

When the sun sets the radio waves that are all about us are more likely to be picked up by the BT lines, causing late night drop out too.

BUT that should be soled by leaving your modem on 24/7 so it syncs at lower and lower speeds until it's stable.

House alarms wired into the phone system cause issues.

As does the Piezo ingition of central heating systems clicking on.

Very interesting thread this one...very.

[Sinizter]

Is there any way to get BT to re-lay the line or something ?

Its really annoying me to the point where I am considerig switching to Virgin so I can get cable internet instead.

[chuckskull]

Is there any way to get BT to re-lay the line or something ?

Its really annoying me to the point where I am considerig switching to Virgin so I can get cable internet instead.

I very much doubt it. So long as they provide you with some internet connection their solicitors will probably just stonewall you.

If I have the choice I'd go for the cable, for the same price you can usually get TV added on too.

[Stoo]

the only way you'll get a new line is if you pay for one specifically for broadband.. even then you'll only get a new dropline, maybe from the house to the nearest junction box, not a new end to end line from exchange to house...

[kopite]

Cheap Tv`s also cause lots of issues with Broadband and after a conversion with a Team leader at BT wholesale a couple of weeks ago it seems that Plasma Tellys are causing issues as well.

BT are starting to roll out 21CN which should mean fibre to the green cabinet. Then its just the copper from the green cab to your house that will be the problem. ITs being trialed in cardif atm and if memory serves it should all be complete and in place by 2011.

The big issue we have in this country is that during the 80`s BT started to put fibre down in a lot of places but did not have the cash or did now want to use the cash to do the whole country. They asked the government for help but better Country wide network wasnt important to them at the time.

Although it is hard to believe and With BT you have to take everything with a pinch of salt but 21CN should start to allow the majority of the country to get decent download and upload speeds as well as should make On demand TV a reality for everyone

[nichomach]

Not exactly true, historically; the newly-privatised BT wanted to lay fibre across the country, but asked to be allowed rights to distribute chargeable content - think video on demand 20 years early, for instance. The government replied that they couldn't, since this would be anti-competitive. BT wouldn't be able to recoup their investment without it so they abandoned the idea.

[Sinizter]

2011. Like I am going to wait that long.

Hopefully MK should have WiMax long before then.

Then there is the possibility I might not be living there anyway.

Looks like if the broadband situation remains as patchy as it does now, I will be going with cable.

[Noxvayl]

Thanks for the info on Sky boxes and BT interent, now I know what to look out for when we get Sky.

[nightall]

Further to previous threads about Sky Boxes killing broadband or reducing the connectivity speed.
My six year old Thompson Sky box was the cause of reduced broadband connectivity for a number of my neighbours. The fault was traced to my digibox by a BT Engineer who had tuned his radio to radio 5 live. When my digibox was connected to the mains static interference could be heard. Once the digibox was turned off from the mains supply radio 5 live could be heard clearly, and my neighbours broadband speed increased by at least 50%. What made this more confusing was the fact that my digibox had never been connected to the phone system!.
I had a long conversation with the BT engineer who explained that sky were aware of the problem, but did not want it to become public knowledge. I was told that Sky would provide a free digibox.
I contacted Sky and relayed the facts as I had been told, however Sky did not want to know and insisted that I would have to pay £65 for an engineer to attend my property - a sum I refused to pay. At one point I was told to contact the cancellations department if i was not happy. I then received a letter from BT Special Fault Investigation Department reiterating what the BT engineer initially told me. I contacted the said department who advised me that they would get me a digibox free of charge. They even knew the make and model of my digibox before I had passed the information to them. Within 24 hours I was contacted by a Sky technical support engineer who took the old box away and replaced it with a new one free of charge. He did say that he received his instructions from someone very high up within sky (name given) and it was passed through as a priority job. I googled the name given and was surprised by the response. By chance the BT engineer phoned for an update, he had been copied in to emails that had gone back and forth as a result of my skybox causing havoc on the local exchange. He mentioned the same person that the sky engineer had said together with other BT personel who were also high up within the organisation.
Sky are aware of the problem with thompson digiboxes but choose to keep the problem quiet. !!!!!.Today I received a letter out of the blue from sky together with compensaiton for inconvience caused.
If your broadband is playing up try tuning a radio to radio 5 live on medium wave, if you can not receive it you may be effected by one of the sky killer boxes and should consider contacting BT.