Sky Connect Broadband - Are you being slowed down?

[Faust]

Technically it is, BT put the throttle on the line, Sky can't do this as they have no technical control over the BT network

No it isn't. Your connection is handled by Sky and goes through them, this is how they have the ability to throttle you. BT couldn't give a fig if Sky go over their allocation of bandwidth as all that happens then is Sky's bill increases.

I've had all of this explained to me in great detail by the Openreach guys. Don't ask me to relate it back to you as my eyes quickly glazed over but in essence once Sky rent the lines the connections are then routed via Sky.

[Birks]

Again, this part of the network is not where my expertise lies, so excuse any small inaccuracies, but...

Yes, of course you pass through the Sky network at -some- point, and that gives them the -ability- to manage your speed, but that doesn't mean you're not passing through a myriad of BT equipment first which also gives them that ability. My original post (which perhaps should have been worded better) concerns the way in which BT throttles you on their network, which AFAIK often results in them cutting you right down to an unusable level across the board. Sky, on the other hand, tends to target certain things when they limit, like torrent traffic or whatever else they deem to be problematic.

As for the question of whether BT have any interest in throttling you, of course they do, they need to manage congestion on their exchanges and their equipment... and my understanding is that the particular exchanges that we're talking about are exactly the exchanges where they'd be having that problem, and that's definitely something that switching ISP would not help you with.

Also, I don't really feel any great tie or loyalty to Sky as a company; I was merely trying to share some (hopefully helpful) info after coming across this thread.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

The only throttling BT apply is if Sky are running over their purchased capacity (centrals) on the BT network - Sky are the ISP so Sky shape their customer's traffic, not BT

BT throttle Sky as a company

[Birks]

Sky shape traffic but I believe they target specific protocols so that you can generally still browse and use other basic utilities like email.

BT will also manage traffic on their equipment to manage exchange congestion and other problems like that on their own network, do you disagree that this is something they do?

[Scubbie]

Isn't it amusing, watching these discussions over which company throttles who?

Ultimately we mere mortals will never know that full details as each company will be tied into a business contract.

What we do know is the following:

1. Sky have to rent bandwidth from BT Wholesale in order for it to be able to offer a BB product in areas where it does not have it's own LLU. We know this product as Sky Connect
2. BT and Sky are there to make money
3. In order for Sky to get more bandwidth for their BB customers on connect, they will need to pay BT Wholesale more money

Anything else is down to the internal politics of each company and any terms and conditions of the contract between each company.

Just because another ISP may have one way to handle customers who go over their monthly limit, it does not mean that Sky has to follow. The BT Openreach guys will know as much about the technical details of any contract as we do (i.e. nothing).

Someone is responsible for the severally slow speeds on Sky Connect. The people who hold the key to fixing this work in the board rooms of Sky & BT. It will be those who are in the Sky board room who need to make the first move.

I would surmise therefore that pressure needs to be placed on Sky to resolve this issue. Just how people do this is their choice. You can do any of the following:

a. Nothing
b. Write to various people within the BSkyB company
c. Leave

Now if (b) were to be the most popular choice, then it would be a good idea for someone to organise a campaign. This way the right people could be targeted and a resolution could be made sooner.

[Faust]

As for the question of whether BT have any interest in throttling you, of course they do, they need to manage congestion on their exchanges and their equipment... and my understanding is that the particular exchanges that we're talking about are exactly the exchanges where they'd be having that problem, and that's definitely something that switching ISP would not help you with.

Our exchange is flagged as green by SamKnows, we have less than a thousand connections and the exchange has the capacity for 2500 without any further work. I can guarantee if Sky coughed up for further bandwidth I would be back to my day time speeds which BTW are just shy of 7 meg on a profile of 8120.

My neighbour is with Plusnet and he's getting 6.5 to 7mbps day and night. The only reason I stay with Sky is because I only pay a fiver a month for Connect and have been for the last four years. That offer is due to expire in 2019 so a bit to go yet.

[steve16751]

Faust
Hi as a matter of interest what is your exchange Just give the code from SamKnows - Telephone Exchange Search if you like

[Undecided Adrian]

Well the figures from Sky today show that just under 2/3 of Sky broadband customers are on connect, almost 2 million of them.

Compare that to the 1.2 million on LLU and we can see why there is such a bad slowdown, that is a huge amount of people and I can only assume that Sky will happily just shove more people onto connect if they can.

At £17 per month Sky is taking almost £400 million per year off the connect side of the business no wonder they report that the broadband part of the company is in profit.

It was always assumed that the LLU side was subsidisng the connect customers but I think that connect is actually making a tidy sum on it's own, even if they have to pay BT a large amount of money for renting it's centrals, they are jammed in like sardines.

[steve16751]

Hi Adrian
Sky are unbundling many exchanges the latest http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-b...-samknows.html Majority of connect Customers do not pay the full amount A lot pay £5.00

[Faust]

Well the figures from Sky today show that just under 2/3 of Sky broadband customers are on connect, almost 2 million of them.

Compare that to the 1.2 million on LLU and we can see why there is such a bad slowdown, that is a huge amount of people and I can only assume that Sky will happily just shove more people onto connect if they can.

At £17 per month Sky is taking almost £400 million per year off the connect side of the business no wonder they report that the broadband part of the company is in profit.

It was always assumed that the LLU side was subsidisng the connect customers but I think that connect is actually making a tidy sum on it's own, even if they have to pay BT a large amount of money for renting it's centrals, they are jammed in like sardines.

I wrote quite a detailed post about this very subject some time ago and it received howls of derision at the time when I said that there were far more customers on Connect than there were on Sky's cherry picked LLU exchanges. I now feel vindicated though I can't say it provides me with any satisfaction as it simply highlights just how bad the situation really is.