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Sky to launch CityFibre packages in 2025

I doubt this is a surprise to anyone. The only thing that surprises me is that it took so long to happen in the first place as it got to the point where they disconnected their UFO Customers a while back - All for them to announce they're coming back.

I've personally got zero interest in signing up to Sky between their awkward configuration making it harder to use your own router and their customer service leaving a lot to be desired. But I will always welcome more competition joining the CityFibre network to help keep the pricing attractive.

An announcement like this will definitely be making Openreach sweat a little I imagine. CityFibre are growing fast and are already in a lot of places where Openreach FTTP isn't yet. Now they've just brought on another big name like Sky, the number of Openreach connections in such areas will likely start to drop noticeably as they potentially offer higher and symmetrical speeds at a lower price.
 
awkward configuration making it harder to use your own router
I am on sky FTTP, its not awkward with DHCP auth option 61 and as a bonus no PPPoE
The old days it was far far more frap with having to grab the password with packet captures.
 
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its not awkward with DHCP auth option 61
It is when not all routers support this. That’s the point I’m making. You have to specifically ensure you’re buying a model that has this and not all of them do - Including some of the most popular models from the likes of TP-Link.

I don’t mind PPPoE because at least with that it’s a pretty universal standard that most ISPs use and that about 99% of routers have support for.
 
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Even now they don't strictly check for the "correct" credentials - they still expect the router to send something in DHCP Option 61.
 
Even now they don't strictly check for the "correct" credentials - they still expect the router to send something in DHCP Option 61.
That's what's being said, not all routers support that. Even the moderns ones
 
Oh yes, was just pointing out it is "easier" but still not guaranteed as you said
 
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Sky doesn't need any special DHCP options on the vast majority of their network (something like 95%+ of FTTC connections and 100% of FTTP). As soon as whatever device you have plugged in requests an IPv6 prefix this will wake up IPv4 and you'll get an IP address allocated.

Presumably this is to prevent someone plugging a laptop directly into the ONT and being online without basic firewalling in place, as a device fresh out of the box that is able to request a v6 prefix will have a deny-all rule for unsolicited inbound traffic.
 
As soon as whatever device you have plugged in requests an IPv6 prefix this will wake up IPv4 and you'll get an IP address allocated.
I don't really get what you're saying there. To learn what IPv4 address has been assigned, the client will still have to make a DHCPv4 request, won't it? Or are you saying that Sky ignore DHCPv4 requests until they've seen DHCPv6 from the same MAC address?
Presumably this is to prevent someone plugging a laptop directly into the ONT and being online without basic firewalling in place
I don't follow the logic there either. Windows has had a built-in firewall since Windows XP SP2. I know universities in the USA where they have public IP addresses on all the networks, and no firewall between the campus and the Internet (only in front of servers).

The way end-user machines get infected these days is not via attack from incoming packets; it's by clicking on malicious links in web pages and E-mails.
 
I was speculating why Sky do that, not stating a fact. I suspect they want zero chance of someone plugging the LAN port of the router into the ONT and the first device that requests an IP address gets a public one assigned and nothing else works.

As far as I know the exact method used hasn't been revealed, and I'm not on Sky so I can't packet capture and see what's going on, all I know is that an IPv4 DHCP lease isn't offered until an IPv6 prefix has been requested.

See the second post on this page from a Sky employee https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Broadband/Third-party-router-with-FTTP/td-p/3541862/page/2

Edit: Before someone says it, yes you can keep up using option 61 if you want, but this opens up the ability to use routers that don't let you set that string.
 
I find it interesting they felt the need to add the XGS-PON info to the same announcement. Sadly they still not gave any indication of a progress or date for that though.

On the Sky news, this is exactly what CF needed to try and get themselves on track with take up and sustainable revenue levels. Of course its a time will tell thing how it works out, we dont know yet how Sky will allocate orders in areas with both OR and CF coverage.
 
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I find it interesting they felt the need to add the XGS-PON info to the same announcement. Sadly they still not gave any indication of a progress or date for that though.

On the Sky news, this is exactly what CF needed to try and get themselves on track with take up and sustainable revenue levels. Of course its a time will tell thing how it works out, we dont know yet how Sky will allocate orders in areas with both OR and CF coverage.
sky said they are only doing areas where openreach has not done but CF has.
 
It is when not all routers support this. That’s the point I’m making. You have to specifically ensure you’re buying a model that has this and not all of them do - Including some of the most popular models from the likes of TP-Link.

I don’t mind PPPoE because at least with that it’s a pretty universal standard that most ISPs use and that about 99% of routers have support for.
I dont recall any router I am using not supporting DHCP on the WAN interface, its actually less complicated because if every ISP used DHCP, you wouldnt need to touch the configuration, whilst on PPPoE, jumping ISPs you have to update the auth details. IPoE also has lower overheads and is natively 1500 byte MTU.

Its a shame most ISPs are persisting with PPPoE, I recall even the boss of BT wholesale said a while back he wanted BTw partners to move away from PPPoE (clearly his wish failed).
 
sky said they are only doing areas where openreach has not done but CF has.
Interesting, as I just reread the article Ispreview put up which suggested they would favour CF. I think whoever they favour is a pretty big factor, even if they favour OR it is still great news for CF, as there is quite a few CF areas where OR has "no plans" but the real carrot is who Sky favour in areas where they both exist.
 
I dont recall any router I am using not supporting DHCP on the WAN interface
Not DHCP. But specifically DHCP Option 61. It’s a much rarer feature. Like I said many models in TP Link’s lineup don’t have such support which rules out one of the most popular brands that people choose for routers and mesh kits.

If it was a regular DHCP connection then I would have absolutely zero objection to this and as you say it can actually be better than PPPoE.
 
Interesting, as I just reread the article Ispreview put up which suggested they would favour CF. I think whoever they favour is a pretty big factor, even if they favour OR it is still great news for CF, as there is quite a few CF areas where OR has "no plans" but the real carrot is who Sky favour in areas where they both exist.
While there may be a headline cost saving offered by Cityfibre, that has to be balanced by Sky having to build out infrastructure that currently doesn't exist, ie links to the "FEXes" or whatever Cityfibre call their headends. Will they co-locate their equipment as they presently do with Openreach?

In such an overlap area, it may turn out not to be so compelling, especially when Openreach inevitably request yet another round of price cuts on the basis that the market is sufficiently competitive (and let's hope Ofcom is willing to play ball there).
 
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