With Gill moving in I've been reviewing the monthly bills (before cheerfully farming half of them off to her :-) ). We are also going to have to upgrade the Sky package, as Gill (not to put to fine a point on it) watches crap. She also apparently has other uses for a phone line other than plugging computers into it??? It'll never catch on.
So it looks like we'll be getting Sky+, and I may well also get the HD package while I'm at it (after all, the HDMI ports are sitting mainly empty, and I can't help but notice that more and more channels are degrading their picture quality).
It looks like the Sky Broadband / Phoneline package is a fairly good deal. The Unlimited* Broadband + Sky Talk comes to £20 a month, compared to my current BT/Tiscali combination at £30 a month (£12.50 line rental, and £17.50 broadband). There is an added bonus that my USR router is now pitifully slow and ancient, and could do with replacing, and the Sky Broadband comes with a new wifi router/switch.
Is anyone here currently on Sky? How "unlimited" is the broadband (for example, is it heavily throttled?, noticable downtime/reconnects?). Also, any details on the router they provide? I don't ask for much with my network hardware...I tend to use a MAC filter as opposed to encryption (if for no other reason than to watch people try and find the MAC ID of their devices...), but decent wifi and some reliability wouldn't hurt...
Also, how good are their customer services? Again, I rarely use it (unless the service is pitiful and shite, at which pint some poor call centre peon gets it full blast until service is resumed), but I would prefer it to be better than NTL's record 90 minute phone queue.
Cheers for any advice!
+ systems are superb. I only
+ systems are superb. I only watch cool telly we've recorded these days. It's Virgin+ but it's the same theory.
We're using Sky+HD and using
We're using Sky+HD and using their broadband package. Haven't had to use there support yet, although I have heard they can be a little slow moving if you're coming over from another internet provider.
Never noticed any throttling or downtime, although can get a little slow at peak times when my 3 other housemates are also online.
The wireless router they provided (2-3 years ago) was a Netgear DG834GT, came with WPA-PSK encryption already set up with the network key on a printed card. No idea what they provide now though.
http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/ is probably a good place to go and see what problems people are having and see what problems you might have
@brainwipe - I have a moral
@brainwipe - I have a moral obligation to slate Virgin here, as to all intents and purposes they are NTL with a new hat on. I would rather sit knee deep in my own fecal matter (or someone elses...I'm not that picky) while watching a housebrick than allow them into any property I live at again. Or move to Birmingham...it's all pretty much the same.
@Sparky Marky...it looks like they still use the same router. It's higher spec than my current one (not hard). I've noted a couple of wifi connections nearby to my house with a "Sky-" prefix, so I'm guessing that's neighbours with Sky broadband. From the forums it seems that it's either great, or shite, though that may well just be Internet Bi-Polar Syndrome (IBPSTM)
I think I may as well give it a go...I'll work out what TV package we need now that someone is actually going to be watching the thing. Worst case is that I have a shit connection fo rthe next 12 months...
I've got the full hog, but
I've got the full hog, but with the 40GB capped internet, I've yet to reach that limit. Their 'unlimited' broadband does come with a fair usage policy. I've actually found that if you go with a cap, you never get throttled for overusing... and their policy for going over the limit is so lenient that you'll be very aware that you're pushing it before anything untoward will happen.
The internet is not super fast. My 8gb connection rarely gives me more than 2gb. But this will vary wherever you find yourself and the only way to get it faster is to go with virgin.
I also switched the line rental to sky, and this works well as I now no longer ever have to call bt. I've only ever had to call their helpline for the sky box, and they were there the next day.
www.aserash.com
Cheers all. We went through
Cheers all. We went through it last night, and reckon we'll probably go with all 3 on Sky.
@Asherah - while I don't do monster downloads anymore, I reckon I could quite easily hit 40gb in a month, if I go through a demo session on the xBox or PC.
The money we save can go towards the HD package... Now I just need to sort out when they can come round and do all the changes...
@pete, yeah Virgin are evil
@pete, yeah Virgin are evil and not my choice. + systems are great, though.
I've battled with Virgin.
I've battled with Virgin. They'd sent a £300 monthly bill to my recently widowed 80 year old Grandmother... They seemed genuinely quite surprised by the query.
One quick phonecall to Sky
One quick phonecall to Sky later, and apparently I cannot have the unlimited broadband package, or the discount for Sky Talk.
Fuck 'em...
Um... why? They just didn't
Um... why? They just didn't like the sound of you?
Apparnently they cannot do
Apparnently they cannot do the LLU process on my exchange. so naturally that stops them also offering the same package as I currently have with Tiscali? Told them to lump it.
...though probably having spoken to me, that would probably have had some bearing. Most of the people around me had never heard me in Call Centre mode before...I turn into more of a righteous arsehole than I normally am...