Sky Voice and Broadband Network

[dms05]

I've just received a letter from Sky saying they will be switching me to their new enhanced Sky Voice and Broadband Network later this year. They make it very plain this will be an almost non-reversible move (ie very difficult and time consuming) as far as switching to other suppliers of phone and broadband services. They do offer an option to Opt Out Sky.com - My Sky>NVN Opt Out>NVN Login IDnV .

I completed their form with the following comments:

"As you are reducing my service on Mid Broadband to 25% of the original (with no possible speed increase) I'm not likely to stay with Sky for any telecom service in the long term. I certainly don't want to be the same position as a Virgin customer when switching supplier. So I will stick with the BT OpenReach network. If you now try to victimise me by price increases I will drop ALL Sky services not just telecoms. So decide what Sky wants to sell - Sky TV or Sky Telecoms? Changing one will certainly effect other core parts of your business".

Sky.com - My Sky>NVN Opt Out>NVN Login IDnV

Anyone agree with me?

[RST]

They have dropped the usage to 10GB that's not 'to 25% of the original' - if that is not enough upgrade to unlimited. It has nothing to do with the price change in September due to inflation which occurs every year.

[Smithy99]

Originally Posted by RST

They have dropped the usage to 10GB that's not 'to 25% of the original' - if that is not enough upgrade to unlimited. It has nothing to do with the price change in September due to inflation which occurs every year.

I thought 25% of 40gb was 10gb? is my math wrong?

Why should he upgrade to Max, when he signed up to Mid the 40gb allowance was enough, they are moving the goalposts, a reduction in allowance should also be followed with a reduction in price.

[RST]

Oops your right Smithy - sorry. Sky are always changing their goals like changing channels in packs etc. The majority of customers on Mid were not reaching the usage limit and it was brought down to compensate.

[dms05]

I think Sky should decide what their core business is (surely that's Sky TV) and remember that Sky Broadband is a supporting ancillary service that may allow them to increase their Sky TV user base - but Broadband isn't the service on which Sky ultimately succeeds or fails but could become a millstone if they handle it wrongly.

[CyberDrac]

Every service/product needs to have a benefit or unique selling point, where I believe the problem is with this new product is that the one selling point it is offering is voice mail online, which is interesting and unique is hardly something which people would say "Oh, now THAT is a reason for being tied to Sky".

People are making decisions which will likely affect the 'core product', they are making decisions on phone, broadband, and TV based on their experience on a single part of that. The announcement that the broadband service has been altered is the catalyst, but people have a choice of moving to alternatives within Sky or outside before the 1st of August, however this is becoming a secondary issue for myself and many other to the moving of the line rental onto Sky and their equipment and the issues that it may present to those loyal enough to stay with them.

If there are other benefits likely to be coming they need to start promoting them NOW rather than later, before the deadline that Sky are imposing, and before customers such as myself have to make a critical decision.

[Mr Spouse]

Originally Posted by CyberDrac

Every service/product needs to have a benefit or unique selling point, where I believe the problem is with this new product is that the one selling point it is offering is voice mail online, which is interesting and unique is hardly something which people would say "Oh, now THAT is a reason for being tied to Sky".

It's not even unique. BT have had 1571 online access for ages. It wasn't a reason for tying me to BT when I moved to Sky!

[CyberDrac]

Well, I guess that's one less thing for me to worry about in making my decision, the short list of reasons to stay is getting even shorter.

Thanks for the information.

[dms05]

My problem is I had a terrible time whilst with BT and moving to Sky was a relief. However I only recently switched my line rental to Sky so I guess I'm stuck with them for another 10 months. But I've taken the step of opting out of the new Sky phone network so I should be able to switch my line rental at some point but I'm free to switch ISP at any time.

The real problem is the new Mid tier customer will only know he's 'abusing' the service after he's done so and has no way to monitor his own usage. As others have said it's like buying electricity or gas without a local meter installation.

I read elsewhere that Sky don't keep records of consumption but only have an abuser list print out. So at least we all start with a clean sheet of paper.

I totally agree that Sky could cause their core business lots of problems by mishandling a fringe business. If I do switch ISP I will take the opportunity to prune other Sky services at the same time. Sky seems to have forgotten about customer inertia where users will put up with minor things but once roused to take action will consolidate all their grievances built up over time.

[speedyrite]

Originally Posted by dms05

I read elsewhere that Sky don't keep records of consumption but only have an abuser list print out. So at least we all start with a clean sheet of paper.

I'm sure that Sky DO measure consumption (whether or not they keep historical records, and if so how far back - I don't know) but for some reason they choose not to make this information available via your MySky login...