Sky Connect Broadband - Are you being slowed down?

[paulo de muchi]

Hi Chaps,

Interesting stuff going on over at O2. Their equivalent connect package (access) also taking a beating. Unlike Sky who don't post on these forums, or do once in a blue moon, O2 have responded to complaints.

Annoyingly I can't escape connect due to O2 having no capacity at my exchange either, I'm hoping that this development will speed up the process so I can get out of here. Currently getting 200k downstream, all I wanna do is check my gmail in less than 5 minutes!

Ta ta

Paulo

[steve16751]

paulo de muchi
Hi Paulo I think I said a few posts ago that other ISP`s were being throttled Traffic Managed because they are using the same product as Sky connect anyway hope your speeds are better tomorrow keep the faith
read on Sky

[yunorisson]

Hi Chaps,

Interesting stuff going on over at O2. Their equivalent connect package (access) also taking a beating. Unlike Sky who don't post on these forums, or do once in a blue moon, O2 have responded to complaints.

Annoyingly I can't escape connect due to O2 having no capacity at my exchange either, I'm hoping that this development will speed up the process so I can get out of here. Currently getting 200k downstream, all I wanna do is check my gmail in less than 5 minutes!

Ta ta

Paulo

Thanks for your post. As you say 02 appear to be facing up to the problem. However, I feel that their 'excuse' of the problem being in highly populated areas does not ring true if we relate it to Sky Connect.

I am on a very small rural exchange with few customers and whilst on Connect was savagely throttled after 5pm even though I am a low user.

Why don't you have a look at NewNet or IDNet two superb ISP's that guarantee no throttling or port blocking you would be amazed at the difference in service.

Thanks again for the info. Ta ta!

[Smithy99]

Why don't you have a look at NewNet or IDNet two superb ISP's that guarantee no throttling or port blocking you would be amazed at the difference in service.

It really is a minefield out there with ISP's that are on the re-badged BT package, they are all trying to get the right balance to keep costs low and attract business and also keep the package moving.

The reality is that ALL ISP's will have some sort of slowdown, the two you mention state this in thier sign-up pages, be it throttling, contention or capacity, it doesn't really matter to the end user, the effects are just about the same.

IdNet - state "Actual download speeds can vary from below 2 Mbps during peak times, up to a maximum of 7.15 Mbps" so an 8mb package may be reduces to below 2Mb at peak times", so less than a quater of the speed. 30Gb package is £25 per month and £1 per Gb if you exceed this so assuming you download the 40Gb that Sky allow that's £35.

NewNet - They don't seem to show an on peak speed reduction but do state that their speeds range from 512 - 8Mb (I assume this varies due to capacity and they don't want to be too clear), their peak hours are from 7am until 2am so only 5hrs off peak per 24hrs. Their costs are £19.50 per month for 20Gb and then 2 x 10Gb blocks @ £12.72 each so to get the 40Gb that Sky have = £45.00 per month.

This is not to say that their packages are bad or they are a poor ISP, I couldn't say that as I have never used either and the reality is that with so many different interpritations on the theme some will suit one better than another.

This really just highlights the low cost of Sky Connect and with this in mind it isn't surprising that they have capacity issues which are affecting the way some people like to use their connection.

The only real answer is for anyone who cannot use their connection as they want, move, try another ISP that is suited better towards your requirements, be is speed, gaming etc. Sky will not change the way Connect is working, it is the right package for many 1000's of people on it who just want to surf, e-mail and are not to critical of speeds or pings.

Do bear in mind though that there is NO ISP out there that will offer the same as Sky, with no capacity, throttling or traffic management issues (maybe not all of them but at least one). They would simply go out of business.

Just look at the minimum 1Gb charge at the cheapest of the two examples £1, assuming that they only make a 20% profit on this figure (I don't think they even get that) that means 80p per Gb, x 40Gb that Sky allow = £32 that does not allow for anything else so it is very easy to see what the problem is, as always it's money.

For every person that downloads their 40Gb, Sky make a loss, this is balanced by those who use ony a couple of Gb per month but you can see why Sky won't just keep throwing capacity at this, it would just get eaten up and at no benefit to Sky. They don't want the customers who top out the package, they want the ones like my dad who bearly uses it.

[Saturday]

Reading the various forums it seems to me that there are major differences between BT IPStream product performance problems between Sky and O2:

• O2's problems seem to be broadly exchange related, whereas Sky's seem universal across all exchanges.
  
• O2's BT IPStream customers have differing experiences of throttling: some see very heavy throttling, some none, most say noticeable but not too bad. Sky would appear to be throttling all Connect customers very heavily.

My own opinion is the above should be mitigated by the key differences between how O2 and Sky run their BT IPStream products. Sky use their own network to link aggregation points. O2 doesn't. Logically you'd think that would make Sky better placed to deal will capacity issues but that would seem not to be the case. So Sky is either hamstrung by it's BT IPStream topography or has massively oversold capacity at an exchange level.

Both Sky and O2 will be caught in the 21CN IPStream investment issue but only O2 would appear to be confronting this (or at least publicly) and has committed to resolve the problems by mid April.

The problem of course in trying to draw any conclusions is that pretty much all the info is anecdotal and coming from a small number of customers who feel (rightly) aggrieved. On this forum for example, only a handful of the thousands of members on Connect have posted about their problems. Are the silent majority also suffering too? We must assume so but that's impossible to say for sure. Sky's perspective on the problem may be very different to ours.

[fugly]

Some good points there Saturday, I would say that Sky management believe that there is not a problem with the throttling as they are still selling Connect and the CST has not been told exactly what is happening and are in some cases blaming BT.
Generally nothing much has changed since last November except everyone on connect appears to be throttled now. I'm sure if it was a major issue for Sky then they would have attempted to fix it by now.
With regards to people changing ISP I dowt this affects them that much as there are plenty who are signing up.

I don't see this being sorted out very soon, it been nearly five months now.

[IWasNotTheEnemy]

CST HAVE been told what's going on, some just chose to continue to blame BT...

[yunorisson]

It really is a minefield out there with ISP's that are on the re-badged BT package, they are all trying to get the right balance to keep costs low and attract business and also keep the package moving.

The reality is that ALL ISP's will have some sort of slowdown, the two you mention state this in thier sign-up pages, be it throttling, contention or capacity, it doesn't really matter to the end user, the effects are just about the same.

IdNet - state "Actual download speeds can vary from below 2 Mbps during peak times, up to a maximum of 7.15 Mbps" so an 8mb package may be reduces to below 2Mb at peak times", so less than a quater of the speed. 30Gb package is £25 per month and £1 per Gb if you exceed this so assuming you download the 40Gb that Sky allow that's £35.

NewNet - They don't seem to show an on peak speed reduction but do state that their speeds range from 512 - 8Mb (I assume this varies due to capacity and they don't want to be too clear), their peak hours are from 7am until 2am so only 5hrs off peak per 24hrs. Their costs are £19.50 per month for 20Gb and then 2 x 10Gb blocks @ £12.72 each so to get the 40Gb that Sky have = £45.00 per month.

This is not to say that their packages are bad or they are a poor ISP, I couldn't say that as I have never used either and the reality is that with so many different interpritations on the theme some will suit one better than another.

This really just highlights the low cost of Sky Connect and with this in mind it isn't surprising that they have capacity issues which are affecting the way some people like to use their connection.

The only real answer is for anyone who cannot use their connection as they want, move, try another ISP that is suited better towards your requirements, be is speed, gaming etc. Sky will not change the way Connect is working, it is the right package for many 1000's of people on it who just want to surf, e-mail and are not to critical of speeds or pings.

Do bear in mind though that there is NO ISP out there that will offer the same as Sky, with no capacity, throttling or traffic management issues (maybe not all of them but at least one). They would simply go out of business.

Just look at the minimum 1Gb charge at the cheapest of the two examples £1, assuming that they only make a 20% profit on this figure (I don't think they even get that) that means 80p per Gb, x 40Gb that Sky allow = £32 that does not allow for anything else so it is very easy to see what the problem is, as always it's money.

For every person that downloads their 40Gb, Sky make a loss, this is balanced by those who use ony a couple of Gb per month but you can see why Sky won't just keep throwing capacity at this, it would just get eaten up and at no benefit to Sky. They don't want the customers who top out the package, they want the ones like my dad who bearly uses it.

Your points are taken. I have been with both providers and they are superb. With both I get/got between 6.5 and 7Mb all day and all evening/night! With Connect, as you are aware, under 1Mb 'ish after 5pm every day.

They must be doing something right or different to Sky Connect or I would have experienced the minus 1Mb speeds whilst with them. I do agree that they are a little more expensive, you pays your money and makes your choice!

[sparkey]

Just done a speed test now on the BT speed checker with my @skydsl number getting 1mb download and just done one on skyuser speed test getting 498kbps and there is nothing wrong with line as sky has sent BT engineer out.

[Smithy99]

I do agree that they are a little more expensive, you pays your money and makes your choice!

To be fair, for the same 40Gb download they are more than a "little more expensive" they are double or more.

It's easy to double the capacity if you double the price, Sky do not want to do this obviously as it may impact the number of new customers taking the package.