Will sky be the next liberty surf ?

[bulldog]

I posted yesterday that i was thinking of joining Sky (i still am btw) but it got me thinking.
Does anyone remember the old liberty surf package ? basicaly you bought a disk for a fixed price and that gave you a years free net connection.
I was lucky really i think i paid £25 and got about six months out of it before the server suddenly went down.
No explanation to its customers or anything i later got told it was because they had under priced themselfs and could not carry on the service.
I think tiscali bought them out in the end anyway like i say it got me thinking about Sky's deals.
I know sky is a big company but it must cost a fortune to run an isp they have deals
1 just a setup fee then free
2 a setup fee and a fiver
3 no setup fee and a tenner and an engineer if you want it
Plus they all come with router ect how does it work ? surely the cost of running an isp is more ?
Like i say it just got me thinking but interesting.

[NewsreadeR]

Hi bulldog

If you are asking if Sky will go bust then no i don't believe they will.

As an ISP thay have a budget of £470 million over 4 years to spend. To put that into context Plusnet a large ISP based in sheffield are valued as a company £40 million approx.

Sky i feel have just allowed too many people to sign up and depend on too many outside suppliers. These include BT

The best thing that Sky could do now would be to suspend signups for a couple of weeks to clear the backlog. But then people would moan at them for not being able to signup. So they are in a catch 22 situation.

[Wheelie]

Sky is used to losing money they lost a small fortune in there early years but they knew they would but it never stopped them and now they are making a small fortune, unlike BSB who never had the funding they need to compete.

So as far as Sky Broadband goes they will approach it with the same attitude I guess and with the kind of resources that Sky have I very much doubt they will fail.

[bulldog]

Hi bulldog

If you are asking if Sky will go bust then no i don't believe they will.

As an ISP thay have a budget of £470 million over 4 years to spend. To put that into context Plusnet a large ISP based in sheffield are valued as a company £40 million approx.

Sky i feel have just allowed too many people to sign up and depend on too many outside suppliers. These include BT

The best thing that Sky could do now would be to suspend signups for a couple of weeks to clear the backlog. But then people would moan at them for not being able to signup. So they are in a catch 22 situation.

WOW thats a big budget and i think you right about relying on outside surppliers and clearing its back log first.
I am going to change over tomorrow to the connect option they recon the other packages will be with me in 2 months and they will change me over.
I dont know what you guys think but that might be the best way to do it ?
I think it should help with some of the delays (fingers crossed) because my exchange (BT) wont be backlogged with jobs and when it comes it should be straight forward?

[Wheelie]

If you are happy to make the move to connect first them once your exchange is ready for LLU customers then go for it, just remember you will have a £40 activation fee to pay.

Good luck with what ever you decide.

[bulldog]

Yep £40 pound is a bummer so i will ring them and bring that up ive been with sky for years and one thing i do know they like to haggle.
The old dog knows how to chew a bone ( eeeewwww thats not right did i type that lol )
Just out of interest how do you pay for the service ? do they just take it out with your sky dd ?

[SatDish]

dd or cc payments when you are connected

[bulldog]

Thanks SatDish i will let you all know how i get on tomorrow

[Wheelie]

The 40 I am not sure about but the monthly fee will be added to your Sky bill hen the reason the SkyBB is only open to Sky customers as you cannot have one without the other.

[bulldog]

Cheers i dont mind the monthly fee its better than the £29 i pay to bt