Sky Broadband - Upgrade or switch?

gazfocus

I have recently taken out a package with Sky, which is Sky+HD TV, 2MB Broadband and Free evening and weekend calls for £28 per month. However, going from 50MB Virgin Internet in my old house, 2MB is too slow with 2 people using the Internet and we have nearly used our full 2GB limit already.

I am therefore looking to upgrade my Internet but I am just wondering am I now tied to Sky for broadband (even though it's technically 'Free') or can I choose another provider?

If so, can anyone suggest a good ISP?

mrtom21

Have you considered Sky Max it is up to 20mb and unlimited downloads at £10 per month. I am a little curious as to why you even took out such a limited broadband option considering what you had before and how many people you have using the internet. If they allow you to move your broadband elsewhere I would maybe consider taking O2 if you have a mobile with them with some form of cashback offer.

macman

If your line has been LLU'd to Sky then you are stuck with Sky, you can't have any other broadband until you first take your line rental back to BT on a 12m line rental contract-once you have done that you can have whichever ISP you like.
The Sky 'free' broadband offer is such a limited service that it is of no use to anyone-it's just a hook to catch you.
Your only other option is to upgrade to the chargeable Sky packages for £5 or £10 a a month

gazfocus

I still pay BT for line rental so the line rental isn't an issue. Just wondered if my 12 month Sky contract includes being stuck with Sky Broadband for 12 months?

macman

Yes, it wil be 12m broadband. So upgrading to the 5GB or higher tariff is your best option

gazfocus

macman wrote: »

Yes, it wil be 12m broadband. So upgrading to the 5GB or higher tariff is your best option

That sucks but thanks for clarifying

shazzalou70

hi,
i work for sky and thought i would let you know that if you are going over your monthly usage you will get an email from sky and then they will auto upgrade your package to the next tariff.
If you upgrade this yourself you will be putting yourself back into a 12 month contract. If sky upgrade you then your contract will just carry on from when you first took it out.
in june there unlimited broadband will be reduced to £7.50 per month if you have a phone package with them or £12.50 if you dont have a phone package.

only_mee

You could always see what is available to you using this checker SamKnows Broadband - Availability - Broadband Availability Checker

property.advert

I've got everything with Sky and their unlimited BB is very stable. I have it on 24/7 and get about 7mb down and 700k up. My line attenuation is the problem and the distance from the exchange so I would not expect much over 8mb from anyone.

For telephone they don't give you free 0845 (0870 is free) but you can call Sky for free

My contract is up next month and I am looking at whether a change is worth it but I am not sure. The much lauded O2 service is still a distant possibility and I had Talk Talk when I moved in and they just lied and tried to cheat me.

If I had cable then I may consider Virgin but there really is no viable alternative to Sky for TV and perhaps the fact that I could withdraw all services from Sky might give me some leverage when renewal time comes around. The trouble is that I don't actually have anything comparable or better to move to if my bluff fails !

gazfocus

Thanks for all the advice and comments with this. I went ahead and upgraded my package to the 10MB one (my contract only started in March anyway so no big deal about renewing), and the upgrade was supposed to be in effect from 18th April, however, my broadband speed is shockingly low.

At present, I get 0.32Mbs download and 0.40Mbs upload.

According to the samknows link above, my house is 3768m away from the telephone exchange.

gazfocus

I have just found a tool on the sky website (linky) and it suggests that my maximum download speed is 2Mbs even though the exchange is Sky LLU enabled. So I guess my next question is should I downgrade back to 2MB just for the sake of it being 'free' and see when Virgin Media will be in the area? Unfortunately, I can't really afford Virgin's £20 per month for 10MB broadband but can't cope with the internet so slow (considering my job is a web developer).