Full fibre just became available for my street, looking at my options. (Sky, Plusnet, others?)

Raxiel

This has come just in time for 'Black Friday' offers (which are often just 'November' offers it seems)

I'm currently with Sky on their FTTC package, out of minimum term. We were on the lower tier back when they had two (36mbps and 72mbps), when they did away with tiers and put everyone on the same (72mbps) we were told for technical reasons they couldn't move us and we remained on 36mbps.

Now all the new fibre kit has gone up on the poles all around us and we've started getting mailshots from other companies offering their full fibre products.

I asked Sky what they could offer me and the best they could do was to remove the restriction (lifting our estimated speed to a whopping 42mbps) and a small discount in return for another 18 month commitment. I was told that Openreach haven't opened any slots up to Sky yet, so they can't offer me any full fibre deals. Just that 'when it happens' I would be allowed to switch within the minimum term.

I've generally been happy with the service, and theres a certain amount of friction having to go to every place I've used @sky.com email addresses and update them, but is it even worth waiting for Sky? Has anyone heard of any great deals on full fibre I might be able to get out of their retention team if & when it actually becomes available from them?

Current frontrunner for a replacement is Plusnet. Had good mobile service from them for a few years now (resisting the switch to EE until they kick me off). They offer 145mbps for less than £30 a month, without phone service (that I don't need). Don't see many horror stories, what's the feeling about them?

iniltous

Sky have lied to you , there is no Openreach allocated slots, it’s not really slots anyway  , access is equally available to any ISP that want to use OR  , it’s more likely that Sky haven’t got their interconnection cable links installed between the Openreach FTTP ‘headend’ equipment and Sky’s backhaul provider, that’s why other ISP’s  who do have backhaul capacity can offer FTTP with speeds upto 900Mb/s , and Sky currently can’t .
As far as which ISP to use , the underlying network is Openreach , so that’s identical regardless of provider, once your ‘data’ it’s handed over to the ISP , differences may become apparent ( less capacity in the backhaul, potentially more congestion ) , obviously the really cheap providers may skimp on these kind of things….is it worth waiting for Sky or use someone else is really only a question you can answer , Plusnet have a pretty good reputation, but the reality is , it’s only really if  you need your ISP’s ‘customer service’ for some reason , that’s where there is likely to be major differences, like UK based representatives, open long hours/ weekends, part of the compensation scheme etc.

GrumpyDil

On a different note for OP I'd recommend moving your email to someone like Hotmail, Gmail (other providers are available) where changing ISP would have no impact. 

daveyjp

As the install is new it may be worthwhile waiting a few months to allow more ISPs to enter the market in your area.

iniltous

If they wait , then the ‘Black Friday’ offers probably won’t be available 

Raxiel

iniltous said:

Sky have lied to you , there is no Openreach allocated slots, it’s not really slots anyway  , access is equally available to any ISP that want to use OR  , it’s more likely that Sky haven’t got their interconnection cable links installed between the Openreach FTTP ‘headend’ equipment and Sky’s backhaul provider, that’s why other ISP’s  who do have backhaul capacity can offer FTTP with speeds upto 900Mb/s , and Sky currently can’t .
As far as which ISP to use , the underlying network is Openreach , so that’s identical regardless of provider, once your ‘data’ it’s handed over to the ISP , differences may become apparent ( less capacity in the backhaul, potentially more congestion ) , obviously the really cheap providers may skimp on these kind of things….is it worth waiting for Sky or use someone else is really only a question you can answer , Plusnet have a pretty good reputation, but the reality is , it’s only really if  you need your ISP’s ‘customer service’ for some reason , that’s where there is likely to be major differences, like UK based representatives, open long hours/ weekends, part of the compensation scheme etc.

Thanks, either lied or it was the usual hopeless script reader on the live chat, that's one way Sky's CS has gone downhill over the years.

GrumpyDil said:

On a different note for OP I'd recommend moving your email to someone like Hotmail, Gmail (other providers are available) where changing ISP would have no impact. 

You're right, and I am working my way through them, its just a boring thing I keep putting off.

daveyjp said:

As the install is new it may be worthwhile waiting a few months to allow more ISPs to enter the market in your area.

I'm already paying over the odds (£45/m) being out of minimum contract, so I really need to get signed on with someone. Not sure how many more companies are likely to turn up, not a particularly cosmopolitan area, frankly I'm surprised it got wired up already.

400ixl

Plusnet are a reliable ISP.

For example I noticed that I was starting to get disconnections at random times (dropped then immediately reconnected). Did their automated test via SMS and it came back with a fault and that they would send an engineer. 5 minutes later I had a message the engineer would be with me the next day and gave a 2 hour window. Engineer arrived on time, diagnosed a fault with the master socket and replaced it there and then. No issues since.

If you don't need the phone line then they would be a decent choice.

As others have said, get yourself off of any ISP provided email and onto an independent service like Gmail.

FreeBear

400ixl said: As others have said, get yourself off of any ISP provided email and onto an independent service like Gmail.

Or get yourself a domain name and set up a dedicated mail server. No more ads from the likes of Google, and you have full control over your email addresses.

Currently do this myself, and have different email addresses to use depending on who/what site/person I'm dealing with. Easy to spot which sites pass my email address on to spammers.

Raxiel

Well, I Went with Plusnet, 500mb full fibre for £32 a month for 24 months* Didn't find any red flags and the price was good. Bit of an improvement from the £45 we were paying Sky.

Thanks for the feedback.

*which is a lie due to the CPI+3.9% rise built in, but I took that into account.