Adding free BB to existing Sky package - please advise if you can?

tincat

My brother bought my parents a sky subscription about 2 years ago, which costs £47 per month as I found out when I accessed their account online. This seems very high to me. My dad watches a lot of sport, especially the cricket, and the sport channels are included.

My dad wants to know about getting broadband and was about to sign up with BT for about £17 per month, and luckily phoned me. I said that as far as I know sky offered free broadband.

I was wondering whether the broadband will still be free to add as they have already had this package for 2 years. I know there is an installation cost, and they also have to sign up to free talk or something, which as far as I can see would also be free. Is there a fee / condition that I'm not seeing / considering?

They would also like to get a sky+ box thrown in. Is this all possible for under £47 per month?

I've tried phoning sky but their lines are so busy, and I've been on hold on their 0844 number, as the only landline number I could find for them is now out of service:mad:.

I've got all their ref numbers, account details and everything, so I could do it online, but am worried that I'll make an error which will cost my brother more money. My brother wouldn't care, but my parents feel guilty enough about the sub.

I went online two days ago, and they tell you to add free talk and broadband, but I want to be sure of what we are getting into before doing so.

Thanks

Conor_3

It is free to add BUT ONLY IF YOU ARE ON A LOCAL LOOP UNBUNDLED EXCHANGE which not all are - only about 60% of the population, so be careful. Probably get Sky+ for free if Sky are offering free installations otherwise there's the installation fee to pay.

devizes18193

you dont have to have both the phone package and broband together . I joined with sky recently but have bt for the telephone . You get a voice text msg for when the router is being shipped out ( Its a doddle to setup for wireless ) and a msg for line actavation . Also a years maccaffe

PaulK_3

Yep check you can get the pure sky LLU service and then you can add the base pack to your account, please note that this will increase in price to £5 per month soon. All Sky support and customer services numbers were changed over to 08442 numbers earlier in the year, think they are approx 5-7 p per min.

tincat

Thanks very much for your replies.

I've just been on the phone to sky for ages going through all the permutations, and unfortunately my parents don't have the LLU that you mentioned, so can't get free BB.

However, they have been offered a 'connect package' which usually costs 17pm, but as they've been with sky for a long time, they can get it for £10.

They never watch the movie channels, and so if they give that up and the music channels, then this will cover the £10, and their bill will stay the same.

Now to get a sky+ box, they would have to pay minimum £159 for installation and the box. However, there is an offer that if you introduce someone to sky, you both get a +box for free. Is there by any chance a site you can recommend where you can ask or offer a kind of partnership to people who are thinking about joining sky anyway to both be able to take advantage of this offer?

PaulK_3

Be careful about the connect package, it's a rebadged BT package and it's capped and traffic shaped in the evenings at peak time so you may not get what you bargained for.

tincat

PaulK wrote: »

Be careful about the connect package, it's a rebadged BT package and it's capped and traffic shaped in the evenings at peak time so you may not get what you bargained for.

Thanks for that - would it be better to go through BT directly and try to get them to knock their price down? My dad only ever checks his email and may do a bit of surfing (news and sports) about twice per month, so he's not really a big user. The advantage for him would be that he would not have to disconnect his phone to plug into the laptop, and he would have wireless access at any time.

jamesb1239

Nobody seems to have felt the need to mention the activation fees & impending price increase.

The "FREE" broadband or broadband base costs £75 to "Set Up" or £50 if you also take sky talk & as of March i think the monthly price increases to £5pm unless you take sky talk.

With Connect the £10 offer is only for 12 months and then rises to £17, connect also carries activation fees of £50 or £25 if you take sky talk.

:beer:

iceburn

Other idea you can try (not related to sky mind) is take out the new vodafone pay and go mobile broadband. Can pick one up for £29 including 1GB allowance. Beauty of this over say T-Mobile/Orange/Three/etc.. is that it does not expire until the 1GB has been used up. Once used up you just buy other one at a cost of £15 for 1GB. Now advantage of this is if they are a light user might not need to topup the £15 for 4 to 8 months. So make it a very cheap way to get braodband. Can leave it plug into his laptop in this case and can even take the internet connection on the move ie on holidays / to your place / cafe etc...

jazzycatbristol

I'm interested in this topic as have been thinking about getting cheaper broadband for a while now. We've already got Sky TV and pay £39.50 a month which seems very high (includes Sports). Firstly, how can I check if we've got LLU??? Secondly, would we do better sticking with Sky and getting a Sky deal or go for the new O2 deal (not currently an O2 customer)?. Any advice gratefully received. Thanks.

John_3:16

I think you can get th full sports package for as low as £36 ?