Sky Reviews

Summary: On old terms, happy with service, worried throttling for new customers is a sign they don't expect the network to cope with many more customers.

Been with o2 since I escaped the hell of Tiscali in 2007.
o2 have provided a consistently good, fast, hassle free, genuinely unlimited service ever since. Very pleased.

Gripes
Very short lived connection problems very occasionally.
The supplied Thompson router's configuration options have been artificially limited and If I set a port to open it seems to reset itself to closed shortly afterwards but this is not enough of an issue for me to have tried to find a solution.
Usually get 6 to 8Mb peak times on a 16Mb contract but fast enough for everything I do.

Overall
Good, reliable service. £18 a month just for broadband is a little steep but is just about worth it in return for a hassle free service. I may leave as I feel I'm wasting money still paying line rental to BT but I will not sign up to o2's bundled packages as the p2p throttling is extreme and it may be a sign they are worried the network will reach breaking point if they get many more users. I hope that isn't the case and they offer an unlimited bundled package with the quality of connection I've grown used to before I jump ship because I am a touch nervous of getting into bed with anyone new in case they as as bad as Tiscali were.
I have marked services and support as average as I've never used them.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire, have just escaped from Talktalk. I was informed by Sky's sales member (after some test) that they could install my phone and broardband on the same day. After that day the phone was transfered OK but not the broardband. Phoned Sky the next day only to be informed that I would have to wait 2 weeks before the broardband will be enabled. So much for a seemless change over.

My ratings for Sky after this is ZERO ON ALL COUNTS. I know it will show 1 in the 4 columns but I think there should be 0 to 9 not 1 to 10.

To anyone thinking of joining Sky you WILL BE WITHOUT BROARDBAND FOR 2 WEEKS AFTER YOUR PHONE HAS BEEN CHANGED OVER.

To sum up my time with Sky will be only for 12 months. How a company like Sky can be so inept (at best) in providing this service is truely amazing. I never had the courtesy of a phone call to say they had done the phone change over, just NO dial tone for 2/3 hours.

Update

Well Sky have finally connected me to the internet. I now have another 10 days of purgatory waiting for my speed to be increased. Currently struggling with 3.5 meg D/L and 0.43 U/L. Which makes a mockery of trying to load web pages ( continually getting error reports about buffering).Used to get 13.5/14 meg D/L and 0.85 U/L with talktalk.

To give Sky its final epitaph PATHETIC.

Finally

With Talktalk my D/L speed was 13.5/14 meg U/L 0.85. Now with Sky D/L 11.47 U/L 0.79. I think that just proves that as far as speed is concerned Talktalk were better.

New O2 Broadband packages are to be avoided!

The new throttling limits on P2P and Video websites are excessive.

A minority of the staff in the technical support & retentions are clueless and liars.

A poor service after such a good start and two years of solid connectivity, a quick move to Be Broadband has solved most of my complaints!

just read this ...

Jan 12 06:05:05 DHCC intf O2_ADSL2plus renews lease ip-address 46.64.86.57


Jan 12 05:20:11 SNTP Synchronised to server: 87.194.255.141
Jan 12 04:20:11 SNTP Synchronised to server: 87.194.255.142
Jan 12 03:20:10 SNTP Synchronised to server: 87.194.255.141


Jan 12 03:14:50 UPnP action 'DeletePortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.65 (Success)
Jan 12 03:14:50 UPnP action 'DeletePortMapping' from ip=192.168.1.65 (Success)


Jan 12 03:14:35 FIREWALL icmp check (1 of 1): Protocol: ICMP Src ip: 94.6.206.116 Dst ip: 46.64.86.57 Type: Destination Unreachable Code: Host Unreacheable
Jan 12 03:14:33 FIREWALL replay check (1 of 1): Protocol: ICMP Src ip: 64.46.11.203 Dst ip: 46.64.86.57 Type: Redirect Code: Redirect Datagram for the Host


Jan 12 02:20:10 SNTP Synchronised to server: 87.194.255.139

Jan 12 01:59:03 FIREWALL replay check (1 of 2): Protocol: ICMP Src ip: 192.168.1.65 Dst ip: 216.121.190.191 Type: Destination Unreachable Code: Port Unreacheable

Jan 12 01:20:10 SNTP Synchronised to server: 87.194.255.140

Jan 12 00:55:25 FIREWALL replay check (1 of 1): Protocol: ICMP Src ip: 192.168.1.65 Dst ip: 72.181.60.82 Type: Destination Unreachable Code: Port Unreacheable


Jan 12 00:20:10 SNTP Synchronised to server: 87.194.255.141

Jan 12 00:05:05 GRP Default destination is routed via gateway 46.64.80.1

O2 delete port mapping ! on the works package this package is supposed to be fit for downloading film andd streaming ???

I was with XILO for broadband and was paying £30 a month for their service. They did provide a reliable service. I am a residential customer and was paying £30 to BT for phone and £30 to Xilo for Internet, so £60 in total each month for phone and broadband. I was thinking of getting Sky TV for some time and the new HD services really appeal to me. So on the Sky website, when selecting the TV packages (i.e. free hd box with ability to record digital tv, free engineer installation, free anytime plus, free £50 M&S voucher and free router for sky broadband) I soon realised that adding phone, tv and broadband together with sky would be more cost effective. I now get tv, phone and unlimited broadband for less than £50 a month whereas I was paying £60 a month previously for just telephony and Internet services with no satellite television.

I was slightly concerned as to whether Sky would deliver a reliable service, but read on this forum that if Sky has LLU in your local exchange, then you should be okay, so I decided to give it a shot. Fortunately, I'm so pleased that I did. My speed is faster than what it was with XILO. I was getting about 5.5mbps with Xilo for £30 a month. After only 2 days of being with Sky, my speeds were increased to 6.5mbps. The upload speed has also doubled with sky from 0.3 mbps with Xilo to 0.8mbps with Sky.

So I would say that if Sky has LLU at your exchange, then certainly do consider trying them as your ISP, especially if you also want telephone and or television services too. It's kind of like duel fuel. If you have your electricity and gas with the same utility company, that company can offer you bigger discounts and savings. Likewise, here if you get your TV, phone and broadband with SKY, they offer you it all at a greater discount. Right now, from, transferring to sky, I'm getting more services for less money. The broadband costs only work out at £7.50 a month and Sky have given me free broadband for 3 months.

As for taking on Sky Talk (its telephone service) and moving from BT, now I get to make unlimited calls to UK numbers any time of day and night and to over 20 international destinations also free for landlines, absolutely invaluable for me! Most importantly, the changeover was smooth and effortless and the broadband speeds are fast and reliable. Give Sky a go and don't be put off by the cheap broadband price that sky offers. They are able to offer you that low broadband price for combining their tv and telephone service too. You don't have to pay expensive internet fees of £30 or more just for reliable broadband. Sky are providing it too for a fraction of the cost in the areas that have Sky LLU enabled at their local exchanges.

I guess I "believe in better" - SKY!

I've just moved to an area which is not enabled for Sky's network. If you're one of the 1 in 4 Sky broadband customers who are on Connect, you should be thinking of leaving, as I am.

If you are on a Sky LLU exchange, I can't recommend it highly enough. No packet shaping, completely unlimited usage, rock solid connection. Fantastic. At my old address I got a solid 14 meg, with download throughput very close to that at all times of the day, and the connection would go for weeks without dropping. The Sky router does the job but it's not great. 5 minutes of research will provide you with the tools to obtain your password so you can use any router you like. It's against Sky's terms and conditions, but I wouldn't believe any scare stories about being cut off.

Now I'm on Connect, and it's nigh on unusable. I'm stuck on a line profile much lower than my router's sync speed, packet shaping makes it even slower, and I'm being throttled at peak times because of the horrendous fair usage policy - although the allowance is 40GB a month, this is actually measured daily. Go over 1 gig in a day? You will be throttled the next day. I can't believe how bad it is. I grudge paying £10 for it (I'm on an offer) let alone £17.

The support is a mixed bag, I never needed it when I was on the Unlimited package. It seems Sky have very little control over Connect's shortcomings. If you can get through to someone who knows what they're doing you might be OK.

Previous ISP Titan fixed any issues i had and just moved to Sky and service is just the same but a little cheaperr.

Well reccomended.

pretty much ok - fairly steady although nothing majorly special.
just glad that when something goes wrong i dont end up speaking to a scripted foreigner!

I attempted to join o2 in september, I finally got BB 22/12 and phone 5/1

I have been constantly mis-informed about what is available what will happen. promised callbacks fail to materialize. CS staff are rude and ill informed.

having been a mobile customer since 1995 I cannot believe this is the same company. and they have also managed to overcharge me in this oh so short period.

I cannot recommend them

fuller story here

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/showthread.php?p=220112#post220112

I would have given minus score for service if it were an option. 1 is far to generous.

since migrating away from o2 I have been bombarded with email. yet when I had no landline and was trying to get help they didn't recognise my email address and refused to help!!

My near dialup experience with o2 has been replaced with a much faster service and yet it is the same equipment. I am also paying less even before the proposed huge price increases.

check everything very thoroughly before joining to avoid a very expensive/painful experience

Agree about false promises calling back.

If one thing annoys me it is someone saying they will call you back at a pre arranged time and don't.

BE AWARE.

If you change packages be aware that you will need to top up your o2 mobile every three months to get the discounted price or pay the full price.

I changed very recently from their 'Premium' package to their 'All Rounder Broadband Only' package. But was not told until later in the day when going back to o2 to register my wifes phone that I needed to top up the phone every three months to get the discounted price.

Without going into detail I am currently in dispute with o2. As far as I am concerned I have been miss sold a product.