Sky, CityFibre and the Moving Problem!

alxofn1

hello everyone 

I am just hopping on here for any insights or advice on my situation. 

We recently moved home and had Sky as our broadband/TV provider in our previous address. I booked a house move with Sky to get set up at the new house and doing my research saw my new house was apparently eligible to receive full fibre broadband according to Skys website and City Fibre (the organisation which owns the infrastructure). 

The day the engineer comes to do the switchover in the new house, I’m told we can’t get connected because the connection point (a telephone pole) to the fibre optic network is “too far” (three doors down) and too complex to connect to. We’re in a busy Portsmouth suburb surrounded by terraced houses which no doubt have broadband so I was confused!

Engineer packed up and left! No broadband and myself and my partner are dependent on it to work from home. Sky said they can’t do anything as City Fibre have to “send a survey team” which could take up to two weeks. I wonder if anyone knows what rights are regarding cancelling a contract with Sky at this point and just moving to another provider ie Virgin (who I’m told by our seller worked just fine)? 

We are Worried about late cancellation fees and the like. I’m posting this on borrowed WiFi right now and told Sky won’t reply to me for up to ten days so hoping to fill some gaps! Many thanks!

daveyjp

What does your Sky service contract say about installation? Cityfibre do provide network via Openreach telegraph poles, however from Cityfibre website and choosing Sky as provider gives the info below, - although I suspect this is a generic answer as when I had a Cityfibre connection it was a Cityfibre contractor who provided the fibre optic connection from the pole to the property, not the ISP, they just provided the router which the Cityfibre contractor made live.

When you sign up to Sky Broadband there are two different ways you can get started:

- If you already have an active line an engineer won't be needed and you can connect your Sky Hub yourself on the install date.
- If you don't already have an active line an Openreach engineer will need to install your broadband service. This includes replacing a master socket if the existing one is faulty, or installing a new one if needed. It's worth noting, however, that they will not move an existing socket.

littleboo

Not much help when you have no service, but you are entitled to compensation, a missed go live date is £6.46 per calendar day until its resolved.

Were you in a minimum contract at your previous address? Because if you were, Sky may apply early termination charges to that contract if the home move is cancelled

Keep_pedalling

I was in the same position when we moved 2 years ago. I was with BT and where we moved moved to has OpenReach fibre throughout the town, bur our modern bungalow was built at the back of older properties with no line of sight between the pole and our bungalow.

BT gave me 4G service while they surveyed for a solution but that turned out to be to install ducting in our driveway which would have cost us a lot of money so we had to no choice but to go with Virgin which had been cabled to the house when it was built.

BT allowed me to cancel my contract on the grounds that they could not serve my house, and I think that is the best you will get from them

iniltous

You may find Sky compensation for a failed or delayed installation only applies when they are using the Openreach network not the City Fibre network, ( you will need to check that with Sky generally it’s only Openreach as ultimately OR compensates the ISP for failure , AFAIK , City Fibre don’t ) .

As the service hasn’t been installed yet then there should not be an issue cancelling with Sky , however , if you were inside a minimum term with Sky at your old address and the only reason you didn’t have an early termination charge to pay when you moved out was because you were talking Sky to the new address , and you then decide not to wait for it to be installed , then the ETC becomes payable again , so you may need to factor that into account if deciding to go with Virgin at the new address instead of waiting for Sky via CF to be installed.

As far as the CF failure from a telegraph pole , the span length from the pole can be around 75m it doesn’t cross a road , 65m if it does , so if it longer than that then clearly that’s an issue , if it’s less than that , not an issue but you also need a clear line of sight to the pole , and a minimum height about roads and footpaths, and should it get near the wall or roof of another property a minimum separation from that other property is also needed .

brewerdave

Surely it's a no brainer. If you need to work from home then just get Virgin asap !

Shouldn't worry about cancelling Sky even if you face ETC for old contract as it could take many weeks for City Fibre/Sky to offer service if at all..

GrumpyDil

Or if the OP can get a decent mobile signal then maybe look at getting a monthly pay data SIM and use that for now. I used a monthly pay SIM for three months during COVID with a speed of around 60mbs which was certainly fast enough for work.

MSE_ForumTeam5

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