How to change from Virgin bundle to Sky Unlimited BB +Phone and Freeview TV?

usignuolo

Currently have Virgin Media Broadband Phone (cable) package. But will have to change as not only is it increasingly expensive, but they have started throttling us when my OH stream baseball games.

Thinking of getting Sky Unlimited Broadband + phone and Freeview TV.

We have been with Virgin and predecessors forever so presumably no contract notice to worry about. Anyone know how long it takes for Sky to get their act together -when should I place order?

Anyone got this combination and want to comment?

Also Freeview needs an aerial and I think we need a new one (we are on cable at present) any idea how much these cost?

visidigi

Just how many threads do you need?

Checks to make:
Try samknows.com and see what Sky can actually get - the speeds they quote rarely materialise, unlike the headline speeds you get on virgin before you use excessive bandwidth on a lost tier product.

Costs:
Installation of a BT line, line rental on said line.
Sky is cheaper when you take the full bundle, freeview may not be your most cost effective route.

The key thing here is what you can actually get, where you live, in terms of speed on your line. Sky is ADSL, Virgin is cable, they are two VERY different products.

Cable is not as badly affected by saturation as BT infrastructure products such as Sky - your speed on samknows will be the highest possible, the number of people in your exchange/area as well as the distance to the exchange can greatly affect that quoted speed.

If speed is important to you then you should check samknows first.

macman

An external aerial will cost from £80 upwards depending on area and access.

usignuolo

Cable is our first choice but we only have a 10mbs(L) line which is the highest available Virgin speed available locally and already subject to a lot of contention at peak periods as we live in a very built up urban area with high user base of cable users.

At Virgin there are also technical problems with the new upgrade due to the local switching centre being an early one and most speed we can expect is 30mbs it seems and then not before late summer at the earliest. So we cannot increase line speed to Virgin unthrottled XXL even by paying more as it is not and will not be available locally even after the upgrade this summer.

We currently pay Virgin £67 month for XL TV, L BB, phone, V+ box. We do not do any significant downloading but we do a fair amount of streaming of live sport - my OH likes baseball ball and has a US sub where games can go on for several hours. He drops in and out but also plays bridge online and this seems to be what has caught us out. Not sure why last year he watched his bb and I streamed storm chasing and it was fine. I wonder if we are suffering reduced capacity locally while they work on the upgrade.

Anyway Virgiin throttled us yesterday when we unwittingly exceeded our limit by streaming. OH is mad as that is mainly what he uses it for.

Sky Unlimited promises no throttling at present anyway. SKY Cost would be around £37.50 month for BB + phone after intro offer expires. Need to verify Unlimited is available locally although web site says it is but less contention round here I expect as most people use the cable. This seems to be cheaper than full tv included cost.

Then if we went Freeview TV we would almost halve our monthly bills and we would get Unlimited streaming. (Already have a Freeview box not used, as part of Panasonic dvd recorder.)

So I was looking for advice onthe logistics of unwinding our Virgin deal and moving to Sky Unlimited and Freeview.

Reluctant to change, I do understand benefits of cable but need to get past low local speeds and now throttling. Will check out Sky UL on Sam knows.

usignuolo

I have just checked out samknows. All it tells me are the service providers available in my area - which I already know and which includes Sky and that my local BT exchange is 1.0km away and enabled for ADSL2.

There is no mention of the different speeds offered by Sky Virgin and BT locally and no comparison with speeds achieved. I also think it cannot have been updated recently either as there is no mention of BT Infinity service (not yet available round here BTW).

Am I looking in the wrong place?