Sky Broadband - No more FUP

omen666

Just noticed this, that there is no more FUP on their broadband
The Fair Use Policy has been removed from the Sky Broadband Max product, enabling Sky to offer the UK's only 'truly unlimited' broadband service. This applies to new & existing Sky Broadband Max customers and the Sky Broadband Contract has been updated to reflect this.
The information that we have received, in an official capacity, albeit, not from Sky, also confirms that Traffic Management, is being applied on the Sky Connect package,
Please note that where 'NO Fair Use Policy applies' is used, this must be clearly referencing the Sky Broadband Max product, as traffic management measures are in effect on Sky Broadband Connect.

http://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyproducts/broadband/pricesandoptions/max

shadowdragon

yeah unlimited downloads but if you go over a certain amount you can still down load what you want just slower.

Virgin are doing the same.

sorry state of affairs, its pretty much "hey customer we want your subscription money, but dont expect us to reinvest it in better hardware, we will just penalise you for using it too much"

PaulK_3

There has been no mention of throttling at all in anyway shape or form internally, all that has been announced and briefed out is that the Max package is no longer FUP'ed, all other packages will be restricted as normal. At this point in time I do not beleive Sky are interested in capping/ throttling, they just want to maximise their user base and have seen how badly VM have been impacted by their mis-managed throttling system.

trojjer

I hate the term "unlimited" being used dishonestly, and I hate draconian traffic-shaping. What's so hard to understand -- if they sell 2Mb, 10Mb and 20-50Mb (like Virgin) then they should be able to cope with that quantity of bandwidth. But of course, beyond all the contention ratios there's overselling going on; then there's the BT line ISPs with their annoying "up to 8Mb" claims.

Plus, when I "opted out" of that Phorm nonsense I nearly gave up on Virgin Media. But it's still a reliable connection for what I want, I suppose... It just annoys me when they advertise it as an "all you can eat" service -- they even state you can "download an episode of your favourite TV show in under 30mins", or thereabouts. How many legal possibilities are there for doing just that, I wonder, outside of crappy walled gardens like the iPlayer in the UK, or those American sites that won't let non-US IP addresses watch things like their precious Lost (abc.com)? Oh well...

aliEnRIK

My dad has the 16mb Sky broadband package and to my knowledge has NEVER been throttled (Had it for about a year now), and he at times does do some serious downloading.
HOWEVER, hes still dictated by the distance from the exchange etc and only ever gets around 7.5 Mb speed

Conor_3

omen666 wrote: »

The Fair Use Policy has been removed from the Sky Broadband Max product, enabling Sky to offer the UK's only 'truly unlimited' broadband service.

That's naughty. Karoo has had unlimited broadband since they first brought it out.

Nilrem

aliEnRIK wrote: »

My dad has the 16mb Sky broadband package and to my knowledge has NEVER been throttled (Had it for about a year now), and he at times does do some serious downloading.
HOWEVER, hes still dictated by the distance from the exchange etc and only ever gets around 7.5 Mb speed

And that is probably at least part of why Sky are able to do it, that and they don't care about making money on their BB at the moment (unlike VM who actually deliver the speed to the modem, and do need to be able to turn a profit, or at least break even).

All ADSL packages have a natural limit on the speed they can realistically deliver compared to the theoretical speed they sell it as, cable doesn't - so an ADSL package of "up to 16m" can quite often be effectively capped at 50% or less of the speed due to the limits of the hardware/line, which means the ISP gets away with effectively providing half the advertised speed.

Personally I wish all ISP's would do something along the lines of providing clear charges based on bandwidth usage, instead of "up to" or "unlimited*" - it would save a lot of confusion, and disappointment, as I remember when the first "unlimited" packages came in (for dial up) and actually meant unlimited in terms of connection time (which all BB is), rather than the currently assumed bandwidth.



*Unless you use too much/we realise we're going to go bust within 3 months/the accountants at our parent company decide to stop throwing money at us as an advertising gimmick.

omen666

Conor wrote: »

That's naughty. Karoo has had unlimited broadband since they first brought it out.

Karoo's prices are horrendous and are not necessarily inclusive in the FAUP as thei limit your monthly download quota. So cannot see where you are coming from on that on Conor. Also about time someone done something about them for the Hull users. I know they are not doing anything wrong as they are selling slots withing guidlines to external 3rd party telecoms companies and therefore it is not in their interests to provide broadband as they cannot make any money on it.

aliEnRIK

Nilrem wrote: »

And that is probably at least part of why Sky are able to do it, that and they don't care about making money on their BB at the moment (unlike VM who actually deliver the speed to the modem, and do need to be able to turn a profit, or at least break even).

All ADSL packages have a natural limit on the speed they can realistically deliver compared to the theoretical speed they sell it as, cable doesn't - so an ADSL package of "up to 16m" can quite often be effectively capped at 50% or less of the speed due to the limits of the hardware/line, which means the ISP gets away with effectively providing half the advertised speed.

Personally I wish all ISP's would do something along the lines of providing clear charges based on bandwidth usage, instead of "up to" or "unlimited*" - it would save a lot of confusion, and disappointment, as I remember when the first "unlimited" packages came in (for dial up) and actually meant unlimited in terms of connection time (which all BB is), rather than the currently assumed bandwidth.



*Unless you use too much/we realise we're going to go bust within 3 months/the accountants at our parent company decide to stop throwing money at us as an advertising gimmick.

I completely agree with that. And theres no real reason why it cant be done either.