Sky Broadband ADSL?? Exchange?!?!

Infidel

Hi everyone.

Am getting very close to moving over to Sky. But i just have a couple of questions about their broadband service. Is it only available via ADSL and will i need a BT line for this??
One more thing, i heard the speed and service depends on the distance you are from the exchange, is there anyway i can check where my nearest exchange is?

Thanks.

albertross_2

yes, yes, http://www.dslzoneuk.net/distance.php?

zonker84

How close is regarded as close then? I just used that link (thanks for that), and I was 550 metres.

albertross_2

550 metres is pretty close, you should get 8MB sync rate at that distance.

Infidel

zonker84 wrote: »

How close is regarded as close then? I just used that link (thanks for that), and I was 550 metres.

I was also wondering about that. I am 2.25km from the exchange, so from that can i assume that signing up to the 16Mb BB would be a complete waste of time and money??? What is the real speed i can expect?

normanmark

Infidel wrote: »

I was also wondering about that. I am 2.25km from the exchange, so from that can i assume that signing up to the 16Mb BB would be a complete waste of time and money??? What is the real speed i can expect?

I'd say you're looking about 4-6mb most likely

Infidel

normanmark wrote: »

I'd say you're looking about 4-6mb most likely

Ok. So if i was on their free 2mb service that would essentially be like going back to dial up?

mrJ_5

i'm lost now... 2Mb is still quite fast (40x dialup), but 4-6Mb (2-3x 2MB) would be much faster


the only thing the extra speed will give you is faster downloads of mp3, video, etc - not web pages, as you'd pretty much be getting the fastest speed with 512Kb broadband - though the etxra speed doesn't nessisarily mean you will download much faster, just that you could. Other factors such as congestion at your exchange, the web site your visting, congestion at the internet nodes in London and around the world, etc - will vary the download speeds.

I would say if its free - go for 2Mb, you can always upgrade to 16Mb at a later date - the technology may have even improved by then, so you could even get 8Mb

Wayne3765

Don't forget that the results you get from line length checkers are just rough estimates, I get this for my line

You are around 1.07 kilometres from your exchange (as the crow flies).

while the line is probably 3.5 to 4 kilometres long , I can get a very stable 4.5 Mb from the line.

If only crows laid phone cables

normanmark

Infidel wrote: »

Ok. So if i was on their free 2mb service that would essentially be like going back to dial up?

:rotfl:

no! where did you get that line of thought from?

Infidel

normanmark wrote: »

:rotfl:

no! where did you get that line of thought from?

Well you know, if you're living miles from the exchange and on a 'narrow bb' service in the first place, then it will obviously decrease so that it will become very noticable. Of course not as bad as 56k, but.....hmmm, i'm not sure how slow it has to get before it becomes almost impossible to open several web pages at once (*sighs), in fact i hardly even remember those days. Engaged phone, internet connection noise waking people up, 2 hour cut offs, LOL!