Sky will be looking to run trials of fibre-optic broadband

[Isitme]

There does not seem to be any way of finding out which exchanges are being upgraded. It used to be on Samknows but for some reason it is not shown now. SamKnows - Sky / Easynet LLU

[deadman1984]

yea theres no way to tell like. cant wait like sky also said there was two ways of it either upgrading all sky customers to cable i think or use wifi but both would require investment. now upgrading all lines would mean digging up the road etc.

[uno]

Does anybody know who Sky use for exchange backhaul I would imagine its BT openreach but wasnt sure if use Virgin as well. Also do they still use the Easynet core fibre as well since they sold them off

[buddbuttocks]

I think this is also interesting - thinkbroadband :: Sky has over 3.4 million broadband customers it shows that Sky have only 280,000 Connect customers, not the millions previously bandied about. Obviously someone has made a mistake and included the users who are not fully unbundled, but have Sky LLU broadband, in with the Connect customers. I did not think it was possible Sky actually had millions of Connect customers.

280,000 seems a bit on the low side considering probably most of my working day is spent dealing with connect customers.

[Shonk]

They use theyr own backhaul
and they still own the easynet backhaul

Does anybody know who Sky use for exchange backhaul I would imagine its BT openreach but wasnt sure if use Virgin as well. Also do they still use the Easynet core fibre as well since they sold them off

[NewsreadeR]

They use theyr own backhaul
and they still own the easynet backhaul

Pretty much what I meant in my post. Sky have been doing all the building up of kit in the background, so they don't have to rely on BT etc

Sooner or later they will have the network ready for fibre, and I would bet £20 it will be cheaper than VM or BT - Just to put the point across. If you invest, they will come.

A bit like the Morrisons advert for Xmas.

'If you build it, people will come'

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ojnDo7anK4]Morrisons Xmas advert 2011. - YouTube[/ame]

I just hope Sky haven't forgotten the quiche.

[Kona Owner]

sky is also thinking of moving all sky customers away from bt altogether. meaning that if theres a line issue sky can sort it out without having to get bt to sort it

They would still use BT Openreach just like what happens now.

[Isitme]

280,000 seems a bit on the low side considering probably most of my working day is spent dealing with connect customers.

I think that just demonstrates what a crap service Connect is.

[deadman1984]

They would still use BT Openreach just like what happens now.

yes true they are like that at the min going through bt but sky are wanting to change that.

[AndyJG]

A few ramblings.

I'm not clear on how Sky are going to implement fibre.

If I've understood correctly other FTTC providers resell BT product.
All the traffic goes from the DSLAM back to the exchange via BT fibre and then back to wherever to be distributed to the various ISPs.

The perceived wisdom is that Sky is trying to get away from using BT resources.
Do they lay their own fibre from the exchange to the DSLAM or can their traffic be extracted at the exchange?

I was talking to a couple of engineers installing a DSLAM in Ruislip recently.
To make more space for the frame for the tie-lines the old cast iron case was replaced with a larger steel one but all the internals remained the same unaltered.

There were approximately 800 lines in the cab and 200 lines in the DSLAM.
Only lines on FTTC would be jumpered-out to the DSLAM via the tie-lines all other lines remained the same.

If Sky want to use their own equipment does it mean they have to provide their own DSLAM and tie-lines because I can't see that happening?

FTTP

The Sky/Talktalk trial of 2800 homes on the South Harrow exchange is very limited.
According to Samknows there are over 25,000 residential properties on LWSHAR.

Now I'm only a Lite user but I've heard nothing from Sky inviting me to upgrade to FTTP.

There must be just the same space problems in some exchanges for fibre as there are for LLU.

The guys installing the local fibre (not the ones digging the holes but those in the pits connecting up the various bundles) couldn't tell me if the individual house fibres were mutlipexed together onto one fibre back to the exchange or if they all went back individually.

Thoughts?

Andy