Sky Connect Broadband - Are you being slowed down?

[steve16751]

Saturday
Hi am I right with what I have written

[steve16751]

New update bt speedtester
DSL D 4192k DSL U 448k
IP Profile for line 3500k
IP Actual Throughput 3193k
1704 13/01/09
It is a lot slower tried other speedtester average 1450k
bt speedtester
DSL D 4192k DSL U 448k
IP Profile for line 3500k
Actual Throughput 1207k
2040 13/01/09
Same old throttle bt still have my line as 1500k maximum
Now for the next step the proof is all there

[Saturday]

Saturday
Hi am I right with what I have written

My guess is that Sky will have bought a set amount of capacity from BT and translated this into a number of connections based on predicted usage assumptions. Actually, BT charging is a bit more complicated than that and there are three options: Capacity Charging, Standard Charging or Usage Based Charging, but that's by the by for this discussion.

If Sky/BT are having to throttle the bandwidth then that means that Sky have oversold Connect above the number of connections forecast/allowed for, and/or, usage is higher than predicted. I'd have thought getting the funding to handle the former would be easier than for the latter.

So, who knows. Maybe the extra capacity need has been identified and is in hand, maybe it isn't.

One other thing. I've looked up the lead times for providing extra BT Central capacity (assuming Sky have taken the Capacity Charging option):

The standard lead time for provision of the variants of BT Central are:

2Mbit/s - 35 working days
10Mbit/s; 34Mbit/s; 155Mbit/s and 155Mbit/s (L2TP) - 65 working days
622Mbit/s (L2TP) - 77 working days

So a bit better than the 12 to 16 weeks I thought. Not cheap though. A 622Mbit/s BT Central cost 1.5m a year and £175k connection charge two years ago - I don't know what the current pricing is but I think it's a bit less now. Add in the end user charges, the connection charge of £40 per customer and the cessation charge of £30 odd when a customer leaves, (BT even charge £2 per customer for the throttling service), it's amazing that Sky can provide Connect for only £17 a month. At £5 a month they're losing a fortune.

But I need to stress that all of us are outside looking in and all we can do is guess what the issues are. Only a small group of people in Sky actually know for sure. And they're not saying.

[rickinyorkshire]

Well last night my connection was terrible. Download speeds were at around 2mb, but my main issue is with online gaming. CSS was unplayable last night for the first time, my ping was around 120 but i was getting extremely high choke, making the game a slide show which i quickly disconnected from. If this carries on much longer i'm going to have to jump ship.

[smart1gordon]

Noticeable difference since last week:

* Broadband package: Sky Connect
* Normal Speed: 2.4Mb (quite a distance from exchange)
* Current throttled speed: 1.6Mb
* Average usage per day: Not much during peak times. Mainly weekdays.
* What does this throttling affect? Some downloads. Some sites are slower to load.

[steve16751]

Saturday
HI thanks for the info the £17 I think now if you have multi Sky packages and your exchange is due in the near future for Sky LLU They charge £5. But who says how long it will take. I think someone at Sky might have thought if Sky get Tiscali
and Tiscali`s LLU service Then Sky could have looked to see how many exchanges were left. that might be the hold up. I think at Sky the Left hand did not know what the right hand was doing and now they are catching up there is problems. The slow times some have slow times 24/7 others between 1630 and 1830. I`ve noticed between 1630 and 2230 last night 2330. I know it is a matter of time but the sooner the better.
Steve

[jonmacuk]

Since I posted a few days ago I have been testing every night between 5 and 12 and my speed doesnt go any higher than 0.5 MB . This is just no good at all when gaming. I tried to play COD 4 the other night and every game I got disconnected. I think I am going to have to look elsewhere for another ISP as this just wont do at all.

Been quite happy with sky too ...was a bit shaky when I started up with lots of disconnections but after the firmware update (old white router) I had no problems , but now with this throttling its getting beyond a joke I mostly use broadband for gaming and with speeds like these its a waste of 40 quid for xbox live for a year not to mention the 17 quid I am paying for connect.

If anyone can recommend another ISP then please let me know

[donleo]

* Broadband package: Sky Connect
* Normal Speed: 8mb
* Current throttled speed: 6pm -> 0.3mb
* Average usage per day: 400mb
* What does this throttling affect? everything

[fugly]

If anyone can recommend another ISP then please let me know

Go to Samknows Broadband - Comprehensive Broadband Information and see what ISP's have LLU at your exchange, I would recommend you choose one of them.


With respect to some of the throttled speeds us gamers are getting some should be still able to play but I noticed the connection is so unstable that connection pings to the servers are jumping all over the place, my last night(yes new ISP today) and the ping was jumping from 70 to 140 every few seconds, normal daytime ping is around 50. This is playing Call of Duty World at War by the way.
Mind I did laugh when my friends said I would do 400mph across a map and then suddenly stop mid air like road runner as I lagged out.

[NewsreadeR]

Go to Samknows Broadband - Comprehensive Broadband Information and see what ISP's have LLU at your exchange, I would recommend you choose one of them.

Or even here

SkyUser - Sky Broadband Availability and Exchange Checker