Very Confused NOW Broadband Customer

fallen121

Today received an email from NOW via Sky (who have owned them for years) saying the Broadband is going up £3 a month from July.

What concerned me was the bit later in the email saying that my NOW Hub no longer receives software and security updates or would cease to by the end of 2025. I was offered the option of moving to a newer Hub by switching to NOW Powered by Sky and given a website link to "explore my options" (the link didn't work). Shame as I would have considered a move to Sky had it been a bit cheaper and faster as the service I'm on (Super Fibre 74mbps) doesn't seem to be sold anymore. Online articles seemed to indicate this could leave me vulnerable from a security perspective which is a potential concern as I WFH for a Bank. But apparently new laws make ISPs liable to deliver better security to customers. The email also stated quite clearly that should the hub develop a fault, NOW could not replace it and my service would be terminated at no cost to me (not very reassuring if you're working from home that day is it?).        

Called NOW hoping to get some leverage on the price increase by moaning about the hub. They basically told me that the email was complete lies. That there was no such thing as a hub security update (so why does your email say so?) and what I had received was promotional crap from SKY trying to get me to move to them and if the hub broke of course they would replace it.

Who is telling porkies here? The guy on the phone (from India) was almost angry and I guess asking to speak to his Manager was probably gonna get me more of the same. So I thanked him and hung up.

Where do I go from here? I have the email and the company it supposedly came from says its all lies and I'm worrying about nothing. Oh, and £3 a month extra, please.

I'm mid contract, and likely not to save much if I do move. Most of the alternatives seem to be surprise, surprise SKY (new customers ONLY - the website says there's already an account at my address) and Plusnet, who won't let me take out another Broadband contract as I already have one in my name for my daughter who lives elsewhere.

QrizB

Broadband modem-routers are little computers (often running Linux under the hood) and they're connected to the internet. They have vulnerabilities just like your phone or laptop (or M&S's shopping service) and, just like your phone or laptop (and M&S) need occasional updates and patches to fix these, as they are found.

Unlike a Windows laptop or "quality" phone, routers are cheap and disposable kit made by the lowest bidder. The ISPs don't generally want to pay for a decade of updates so they'll contract for saying three years (or less) on the assumption that most customers will switch suppliers in that time and get a new router (with a new set of short updates).

Unpatched routers are a popular target for hackers trying to build botnets, since they're widespread, simple devices with open internet connections. This leads to stories like this:

https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/09/massive-china-state-iot-botnet-went-undetected-for-four-years-until-now/

The risk to you personally is fairly low, but not zero.

born_again

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/now-powered-by-sky

Boohoo

If you Work From Home for a Bank wouldn't you need a business broadband service as residential broadband is not for business use as quite a lot of mse forum posters have mentioned this in the past.

Are you sure that the email is not a scam?

Now broadband used to have a customer forum and if its still going you look on there to see if others have have the same email about their router and price rise as your 

fallen121

Boohoo said:

Are you sure that the email is not a scam?

The guy on the phone asked if I was calling in response to the price increase email, so presumably not. Also if a scam email then they knew the first name I have on my passport, which is not the same as my email name and therefore most impressive.

Boohoo said:

If you Work From Home for a Bank wouldn't you need a business broadband service as residential broadband is not for business use as quite a lot of mse forum posters have mentioned this in the past.

My understanding based on the experience of several thousands of my colleagues (who also use residential broadband BTW) is that you only get company provided business broadband if you WFH full time which very few of us do. For the days we are allowed to work from home we have a VPN which piggybacks onto residential lines in most cases. I'm due to retire soon so unlikely to be querying this with  the powers that be anytime soon. But they EXPECT us to continue to work on laptops when travelling by train (with a privacy screen) and that's hardly using a business broadband service is it?

My query was more that if you have a company that require you to work in a separate room where your calls can't be overheard and who require you to keep the software on your personal phone up to date or your company apps won't work and who require you to have a router password that ISN'T "admin" or similar (which they presumably wouldn't mandate if business broadband was the norm), they might want to make sure that the router software was reasonably robust from a security perspective. Presumably we should all change ISPs regularly!

QrizB

Boohoo said:

Are you sure that the email is not a scam?

This isn't the first thread on the topic. It seems there really is an email from NOW telling people that their routers are leaving support.

Here's a previous one:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6608057/replacement-for-nowtv-hub

fallen121 said:

My query was more that if you have a company that require you to work in a separate room where your calls can't be overheard and who require you to keep the software on your personal phone up to date or your company apps won't work and who require you to have a router password that ISN'T "admin" or similar (which they presumably wouldn't mandate if business broadband was the norm), they might want to make sure that the router software was reasonably robust from a security perspective.

In a case like this I would expect your employer to supply you with a suitable SOHO business router, as a minimum. Something from Draytek's 28xx series, perhaps.

Expecting a consumer router to be secure seems a weak point in their risk assessment.

fallen121 said:

Presumably we should all change ISPs regularly!

I do, but that's usually for price reasons. I don't think I've renewed with an ISP in a decade or so.

iniltous

The only way faster service will be available is if your area now has FTTP , but it doesn’t really matter what any ISP calls their Openreach based FTTC service , to a massive extent you will get pretty much the same speed regardless of the ISP if they are selling to you what Openreach sell to them , the small differences in what they advertise as average speed (like 63,65,73Mb ) are completely irrelevant on an individual basis , you will get what you get now from a new provider if they sell you the upto 80Mb service , which is what you are currently on.

Now  has always been a part of Sky , but Sky seem keen to have more direct control over Now , rather than the partial independent set up they had previously, but ‘under the hood’ Sky and Now are the same product, they use the same equipment both OR and Skys own backhaul etc.

As far as your router being unsupported , that’s not unusual if it’s more than a few years old , then it’s not worth the ISP trouble to keep it updated , it’s far easier to simply replace it with a current model router  , obviously whenever you last renewed your contract you could have requested a new router as part of the deal, that way it wouldn’t be more than 2 years old , if you are outside a minimum term and it goes faulty then that’s your problem , if it goes faulty within a minimum term , Now have to give you another current router to maintain your service, or allow you to leave without penalty.

Most providers have annual price increases and £3 is the average amount , so what you are being asked to pay extra  is not excessive , plus if you changed provider it’s almost certain that they will also put the price up inside 12 months and 12 months after that if you took a 24 month deal .

One  side of a business like Now (or Sky ) being unaware what another part of the business is doing isn’t unusual, so the person you spoke to is probably uninformed about the router not being kept upto date, and their ‘opinion’ on what your letter said can be safely ignored, your choice is , renew with someone else , renew with Now  ,or stay as you are but with your router more vulnerable to ‘hacks’ .
 

You could always buy yourself a ‘new’ or ‘newer’ router from auction sites etc , either one originally supplied by Now /Sky to an ex customer or even a third party router, 

Irenejanine

fallen121 said:

Today received an email from NOW via Sky (who have owned them for years) saying the Broadband is going up £3 a month from July.

What concerned me was the bit later in the email saying that my NOW Hub no longer receives software and security updates or would cease to by the end of 2025. I was offered the option of moving to a newer Hub by switching to NOW Powered by Sky and given a website link to "explore my options" (the link didn't work). Shame as I would have considered a move to Sky had it been a bit cheaper and faster as the service I'm on (Super Fibre 74mbps) doesn't seem to be sold anymore. Online articles seemed to indicate this could leave me vulnerable from a security perspective which is a potential concern as I WFH for a Bank. But apparently new laws make ISPs liable to deliver better security to customers. The email also stated quite clearly that should the hub develop a fault, NOW could not replace it and my service would be terminated at no cost to me (not very reassuring if you're working from home that day is it?).        

Called NOW hoping to get some leverage on the price increase by moaning about the hub. They basically told me that the email was complete lies. That there was no such thing as a hub security update (so why does your email say so?) and what I had received was promotional crap from SKY trying to get me to move to them and if the hub broke of course they would replace it.

Who is telling porkies here? The guy on the phone (from India) was almost angry and I guess asking to speak to his Manager was probably gonna get me more of the same. So I thanked him and hung up.

Where do I go from here? I have the email and the company it supposedly came from says its all lies and I'm worrying about nothing. Oh, and £3 a month extra, please.

I'm mid contract, and likely not to save much if I do move. Most of the alternatives seem to be surprise, surprise SKY (new customers ONLY - the website says there's already an account at my address) and Plusnet, who won't let me take out another Broadband contract as I already have one in my name for my daughter who lives elsewhere.

Yes, had the same email today and I am confused too!

DepositSaver

I also had the same confusing phone conversation with Now earlier this evening. Was told there is no such thing as software or security updates for routers, that if my router broke then of course they'd send a replacement, and that the email wasn't from Now, it was was Sky trying to poach me as a customer. He kept saying he couldn't switch me to Now powered my Sky, then eventually after speaking to a colleague said could switch me to Sky proper (because Now by Sky apparently doesn't do FTTC which is what I need. And what I already have direct with Now)

It was doubly confusing as I'd called the same number last week and was told that it was correct that if the router broke they wouldn't replace it, and that i could switch to Now powered by Sky to get a newer router. When I mentioned last week's call and said that I was very confused to be told completely different information, he pretty much told me to stop telling him about last week's call. It was a really weird conversation and I'm not sure what to do from. I'm really not happy with how I was spoken to, nor with being told two totally different things, so will likely leave Now, but might just end up with Sky proper. 

DepositSaver

To add, my Now guy also seemed almost angry, it was such an odd conversation. 

Farway

DepositSaver said:

To add, my Now guy also seemed almost angry, it was such an odd conversation. 

I wonder if there are redundancies with Sky proper moving in?

No idea if there are, but it could explain the attitude

Just searched, found this

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/breaking-sky-axe-2000-customer-34943999