Sky Reviews

Fantastic!

I had various issues with previous ISPs - eg bit bucketing/shaping. I deceided to try out o2, as I live near an LLU Exchange, and the router turned up within 2 days - great! static IP as requested. One thing I would say is that the documentation wasn' the best, and it did take some deciphering to understand the configuration for the router.
Once configured, I could immediately see the improvement over my previous ISP, fantastic download rates. Initially I was a little disappointed by the up rates, but after 24 hours, that picked up too....currently I'm sitting at:
2,256 / 20,539 - up/down

and all tests I've done bear this out so far...

Definitely well worth trying for those on LLU exchanges

Another faultless month of rock solid 16mb speeds with no download cap or traffic shaping,etc.

Switching to Sky LLU was the best decision I ever made,all for a tenner too hahaha. . . . .

I got Sky broadband because of a special offer to Sky TV subscribers, and it's a sensationally low price and has proved more than adequate to my browsing, email and download needs, though cold winter evenings do slow it up. I'd probably have given an 8 or a 9 for service up until recently.

BUT - and this but has proved terminal: I'm in process of taking my custom elsewhere - not long ago, Sky changed its servers (to Google, I think) and since then the Reply-To address for all outgoing email sent from the email software on my PC defaults to the dominant Sky address. (This is a Sky decision, not a Google one, according to the forums.) I have two websites, but can't any longer send email that shows the address of either, which has caused a certain amount of confusion to my correspondents and makes a mockery of the filters I've set up for incoming mail, since anyone using the Reply-To is sending mail to "xxx@sky.com" - and I have quite a lot of email…

This change seems to have been a result of Sky's decision to remove the smtp relay function, and was not announced in advance. I've had to find out for myself what has been going wrong and why. So if you want to run email accounts other than Sky, but using the Sky servers to send it, be warned.

I've not had to use support much: generally only to find out what's going on when the service suddenly stops entirely (very rare, and not at all recently), but the staff are very pleasant. However, it can take a while to get through to one of them, and Sky's redious on-hold muzak forms the backdrop to the even more tedious advertising of their services.

One other thing: if you're tempted by Sky's £5 upgrade to a higher download speed, make sure you check in advance whether the local exchange/cable setup can handle the speed. Sadly (and stupidly), I didn't - and nor did Sky, who happily took my cash for a service it was not going to be able to supply.

We have been with Sky for a while now, having signed up to an all in one pack of satellite tv/telephone service/broadband. At first the broadband service was very good, stable and quite a good speed (6.5mbs). Over the last few months however the speed has dropped right down, especially in the evenings(now down to 0.16mbs!!!).
Once they have you signed up for a while they will throttle back your service. We are by no means heavy users, so there should be no reason for the excessive throttling back.
We will be changing to a different ISP as soon as we move house!!
Consumers be aware

pings are a little erratic but speeds are good.
not bad for £10 a month.

Since 2003, I've been with various ISPs: Nildram, F2S, Zen, UKFSN and O2 (the Home Access package - since Jan 2010). And I have to say unequivocally that O2 is by far the worst ISPs by a clear light year.

Fist of all, they send you a router that is only WEP capable (NOT WPA2).

They practice strict port blocking/traffic management (25 and 119 for a start), Bittorrent is horrendously slow (and I mean legal ones), their service is extremely unreliable, the speeds are soooooo slow that even listening to internet radio is choppy and painful. As for flash video....well.....!! In the evenings and over the weekend, my speeds are a laughable 512-1024 kb/sec.

I am in the process of moving to AAISP - so far, they have been extremely professsional and punctual. They don't block any ports, and they have generous download allowances. (O2 may offer unlimited downloads, but at their speeds and reliability, you will struggle to hit more than 30GB/month!).

Unless you are an inveterate masochist, avoid this horrible horrible ISP at all costs!!!

Goodbye O2 and good riddance!

I've had o2 Broadband on the Premium package for just over a year now and I can honestly say I am extremely happy with my service! I live just over 1km from my local telephone exchange and I get around 18meg on my line. Initially I had bad drop outs, but I called o2 and they decided to escalate this to their 2nd line department, who after some further test and sending me a new router decided to get BT involved. Turns out it was my BT line that had bad line noise due to an eroded connector not even at my house! My last ISP, didn't want to know when I told them of my drop outs! After BT fixed this the connection is now rock solid and is far better than I've experienced from other providers in the past. o2 customer service is 1st class! I'm an o2 mobile customer and I'm paying only £10 per month for an unlimited broadband at 18meg speeds, I don't think it can be beaten!

I have a sky connection at home at office i have titan. i have been wth sky for 2 weeks and for a tenner and i get 18meg its a bargain. havent had to use support yet but so far impressed.

I moved from Tiscali to Sky as part of a package. TV and phone are OK but broadband...forget it.
The 2MB service is heavily throttled for the whole time other than between about 2am and 7am, in breach of Sky's Fair Use policy.
I have only a 2Mb connection as I live in the country. When the service began, it was fine. Sky then began throttling. When I questioned this, they began by claiming I was a "heavy user", even though I got nowhere near my monthly limit. They have now moved off that line.
I them asked them the basis for the throttling. They have never answered that. I had a few days when I did not use the service at all yet when I returned to it it was still throttled, so it does not seem to be automatic or based on daily use.
Sky "support" is non existant. It takes a week for them to answer any email and this is usually a rote reply. I'm not sure those answering the questions know any more than basic information. They've tried all the old delaying tricks - eg. please send username etc when they have it if they bothered to read what's in the message - and they clearly bounce things around their centres rather than answering a message.
Since I began my complaints - 6 weeks ago - the service has deteriorated daily so that the newsgroup service is now non existant. This seems suspicious to me and looks deliberate, but I am sure it could not be.
My issue with Sky is that they do not comply with their own Contract. I accept Fair Use, I simply want it applied in line with the Contract ie if I am to be throttled then it should be between 5pm and midnight as their policy says.
I also want Sky to apply their policy fairly. Those fortunate enough to have a faster connection than me are able to download more, even if they are throttled. Sky prevents me from downloading what I am paying for.

So, if you are thinking of moving to Sky Broadband.......DON'T

First off, this is a review of Sky Broadband Base, their rock-bottom package, which is free of charge for the first year, when taken as part of a package.

I got this, because it seemed to be a good backup service to my main provider (Be broadband) - there if I needed it.

7 months passed, and I didn't use it, apart from checking it worked OK (it did - it browses fine at 2MB download speed).

Then my main provider let me down and I lost internet connection - I switched over to the backup. I have a few computers in the house and I found that I used the 2GB monthly allowance in about 2 days - just with Windows Updates as far as I could tell.

With my main connection still down, I started looking at the Sky web site - I expected to find a charging system for the extra download used, but instead, they stated they would update me to the NEXT package automatically. I didn’t want that, because there was a one year minimum contract attached, and I didn’t think it was LEGAL to upgrade somebody without their consent.

A day or so later (probably after calls from outraged customers) they had changed their web site to say customers would not be upgraded if they went over their limit.

I also noticed that Sky’s broadband monitoring tools appeared to be patchy, inaccurate and often, simply not working at all. I just hoped that Betherenow would fix their service soon.

I am still using Sky occasionally, while I am in a notice period with Be, but now have to be very careful not to use it at all after this month !

I now noticed other things missing from the Sky site - like web space for instance - you get a photo upload service instead - and your Sky email is really just a googlemail account.

Bottom line - Sky is a TV provider - their broadband is an afterthought in its current form - not for serious use !