Anyone got Sky Fibre?

[MrsGrumpyPants]

We've got sky unlimited broadband and it's incredibly slow to download any on demand films (literally hours). Am thinking of upgrading to Sky Fibre but would love to hear from anyone who has already done it. Thanks in advance!

[cocacola1]

I don't have it anymore due to moving to a non fibre area (crys) but I had it for a year and a half with no problems at all, BT have to come out and change your teliphone faceplate and will provide a fibre router to go with the one sky will send you, would recommend

[cocacola1]

*telephone, plus on unlimited broadband I was getting speeds of around 9Mbps, down to 6Mbps in peak, with fibre it always stayed around my advertised speed of 40Mbps

[nannynick]

No I don't have Sky Fibre but I do have Fibre via PlusNet, which I suspect is the same thing - though perhaps a difference at the Exchange equipment level.

Speeds on Fibre (FTTC - Fibre to the Cabinet) vary a lot it seems. I can almost see the big green box from my home, so I am quite near it and I can get high speeds.

Right now I got 43Mbps download. I have know it to be as high as 77Mbps. (my package is restricted to being under 80Mbps I think).

Have a look on BroadbandSpeedChecker: Speed in Area to see if they show any recent speed tests by users in your area. In particular see if anyone is using Sky Fibre.

[MrsGrumpyPants]

Thanks both. I had a line test by Sky a couple of months ago as it was playing up, and the average I get is a pitiful 1.5 Mbps! It's fine for normal surfing, but downloading even a 10 minute programme for the kids takes hours.

Wasn't sure if fibre speeds would be worth the extra £ per month, but the speeds you are both talking about are amazing compared to our current.

[cocacola1]

I'd recommend doing some comparisons on uSwitch for fibre, writing them down and then phoning sky, ask to be put through to cancellations and go to cancel your broadband, explaining that your moving to and they should offer you fibre at a discounted rate, or free line rental ect, when I did it I got it at £10 a month with free line rental for a year, + it kept my internet phone and tv with the same company

[KneesoftheBee]

Agree with cocacola1 I rang Sky to cancel my package due to very poor broadband performance. They checked our usage (which is very high) and I got a free upgrade to fibre. I did have to stay on the phone for an hour though - so make sure you have plenty of time when you make the call!!

[MrsGrumpyPants]

Brilliant, thank you. I'd much rather stay with Sky than swap as we have everything with them. Can't go to Virgin as we are massive Game Of Thrones fans

[nannynick]

Find your nearest green box (the big one with a fan on side). See how far it is from your home. Distance fron the box will affect speed.

Openreach checker I think will give you a speed estimate.

[MrsGrumpyPants]

Have looked on uswitch, there's a great deal for Virgin at £4 a month for 6 months.

Can you have Virgin broadband and phone, but Sky telly?

[nannynick]

Virgin have their own fibre network. Are you in their area?

[nannynick]

You need to be careful about data limits. Fibre packages often have various data caps. I use at least 100MB a month, often more and I am a single person not at home that much, so a family who are using lots of devices I expect would use quite a bit more data.

Looking at the Virgin media £4 deal... you MUST read the small print:
SERVICES AVAILABLE IN VIRGIN MEDIA CABLED STREETS ONLY.
Installation charges apply. Must pay by Direct Debit and use eBilling or the cost is higher.
The £4 is for first 6 months, then it goes up. You must have Virgin Phone (so presume that means line rental) which is £15.99 a month.

It is not unusual for there to be terms and conditions.

PlusNet has various terms and conditions. Looking at their 38Mb package, the terms include:
£15.95 a month line rental. 18 month contract. Reduced price for first 9 months.

If considering having Fibre Broadband using your BT (now Openreach) phone line, then read FAQs on the Broadband providers site. Some will offer Line Saver. PlusNet: Line Rental Saver costs £155.88 for 12 months line rental (monthly equivalent £12.99). So you can get a saving, though quite small, by paying line rental a year in advance.


Sky TV - That comes via a Dish, so yes you can have other providers provide Phone, Internet, or both. You should look at what difference that makes to your Sky price, as if you currently have everything with Sky, then you may have a package deal and won't qualify for that if you downgrade.

Sites like Quidco offer CashBack for taking out subscriptions of this type, it can be quite high at times. Over £100 back for taking out Plusnet Fibre today. If you prefer charity donating, then sites like EasyFundraising also have offers for Fibre Broadband subscriptions, so your nominated charity gets a donation (though it can be a lot less than Quidco for some reason).


As you want to keep Sky I would initially ask Sky what deal they will do for you to upgrade your package. Look at the price over the full length of the contract. Then compare to other providers, again calculating the total cost over the length of the contract. I would also suggest going for Unlimited Data packages, as once you have faster internet, you will stream more movies/TV.

[nannynick]

I use at least 100MB a month
That should have been
I use at least 100GB a month

These days a lot of packages are Unlimited, though do read the small print.

[nannynick]

It may help you to know what Market your local phone exchange is in.
SamKnows Exchange Search will tell you.

If your exchange is in Market 3 you will get a good price for broadband as there is lots of competition.

If your exchange is in Market 1 your only provider is likely to be Openreach and so there is little competition and so price is higher.

You can read more at PlusNet: Low Cost Areas Other broadband providers should also be telling you about the cost if they vary their prices according to the exchange. Some providers don't change the price but others do - this is useful to know about if you are on a Market 1 exchange, as some providers can work out cheaper than others once you work out the full cost, rather than the advertised price.

[MrsGrumpyPants]

Thanks nannynick very helpful. We can definitely get virgin (previous owners did). According to that site we are in Market 3.

There's a £100 cashback deal with sky on quidco but apparently Sky are crap at honouring and repaying it.

Think will take your advice and ring Sky first off. Thanks v much for all the advice!

[cocacola1]

Let us know how you get on grumpy

[MrsGrumpyPants]

Will do cocacola. I ended up going with Sky fibre, got a reasonable deal, and the expected speeds we should get are literally 30 times faster than what we are currently getting. Fingers crossed!

[cocacola1]

Fab! When's your installation date? I miss having it so much!

[MrsGrumpyPants]

Next week. It's sad how excited I am

[MrsGrumpyPants]

Bah. Fibre switched on today and although it's much better than it was, it's 18Mbps, which is nowhere near the 32+ I was promised. Can it take a while to settle, or am I going to have to battle Sky customer services again?

[Cindy34]

Can take a while to settle. Give it a week, monitor connection speed (log into the router ideally to see what it is getting as download/upload speed) and then if no improvement contact support to see if they can do anything.

As with all things, it depends on the cables from you to the connection point, the longer the cable, the more joints it has, the greater the line loss and thus the slower the speed.

Also it can vary by time of day, sometimes doing a speedtest will get a high result, other times it won't. Think it depends on number of users currently active on your local exchange.