Sky - Contract changes letter received this morning

Ayeready

Received a letter from Sky this morning stating that they are changing contracts for Sky TV, Broadband and Mobile.

I have a Sky mobile and the changes seem a bit odd. Can anyone shed any light?

Letter states as follows:

This is notification of the following changes to your sky mobile contracts, including loan agreement (if you have one):

(1) We are separating your Sky mobile airtime contract and the terms for the sale of your Sky mobile equipment into separate contracts (by making your Sky mobile airtime contract a new contract).

(2) We are removing all links between your Sky mobile contracts (including equipment payment plan if you have one).

This means that there is no ongoing requirement to maintain a Sky mobile airtime contract for the duration of any Sky mobile device equipment payment plan (if you have one) and Sky will not have any right to require early repayment of the loan if the airtime contract is terminated. 

As a result of these changes, if we make a change to the terms for the sale of your Sky mobile equipment and you reasonable consider you would be materially disadvantaged by this, you may end the Sky mobile airtime contract by giving us notice with 31 days of us telling you about the change, even if you are within your minimum term and you will not have to pay any early termination charges. 

(3) We are removing all references to equipment supplied by us being locked to our network. 


On the face of it it looks like some good news but I'm puzzled as to why they are doing it. It seems as though someone has worked out how to release themselves from paying for their phone on a payment plan and they are having to reword their contracts before anyone else notices. 

Anyone else receive the same or have any ideas of what is going on? 

molerat

The mobile providers have been prodded by the regulator into separating the purchase of a device and the airtime contract.  In the olden days you would purchase a single contract for device and airtime and many did nothing about it once the minimum term ended at which point the device was actually paid for and they were massively overpaying for airtime.  They have now separated the two components and you could buy a device and pay over 2 years with a 12 month airtime contract and change provider once that airtime contract ends.

Ayeready

molerat said:

The mobile providers have been prodded by the regulator into separating the purchase of a device and the airtime contract.  In the olden days you would purchase a single contract for device and airtime and many did nothing about it once the minimum term ended at which point the device was actually paid for and they were massively overpaying for airtime.  They have now separated the two components and you could buy a device and pay over 2 years with a 12 month airtime contract and change provider once that airtime contract ends.

That's interesting molerat. 

Looking over the mobile contract wording, i'm not sure of the legal competency of how sky are going about this. 
There seems to be nothing stopping you from walking away completely from the original contract.
Would need a far greater legal mind than mines to confirm though. 

molerat

They are separating the handset and airtime contracts.

If the change to handset contract negatively affects you you can end the airtime contract without penalty, you will still have to pay for the handset.