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Author Topic: Switching from Sky  (Read 3223 times)

Jasonkruys

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Switching from Sky
« on: February 02, 2020, 11:33:39 AM »

Morning all,

I am on a FTTC connection with Sky, and have been with Sky for 10 years or so - time for a change!

My line is about 1600m (apparently) from the cabinet, and I Sync at 39900 down and around 5700 up. ECI Cabinet, so provider with speed profile would be a bonus.

My current setup at home is a Zyxel 1312 in bridge mode, with my own OpenWRT (Luci) router.

With Sky, I am on a legacy 'Pro' (80mb) connection - originally obtained as that was the only way to get a static IPv4 address, and also it was 'different' support. The upshot of this is that I am having my pants pulled down on the price - £32 for the broadband, and £19 odd for the landline/calls - around £62 all in for phone/broadband! I am also getting increasingly frustrated with the support since the 'pro' team disappeared. Just recently, having switched to OpenWRT from DD-WRT I have also identified an issue where I periodically lose my IPv6 address - it appears that for customers on the 'static' address, the IPv4 DHCP renewal request needs to have a 'discover' or the IPv6 request gets ignored - not the end of the world, but still.

Main driver for change is to save money, but if it results in something breaking, my family will probably hang me or something  ::)

Looking at Zen - considered AA, but I think the data caps will be an issue.

If I switched to Zen from Sky:

1. Is it just a case of signing up on their website, and they will deal with the switch, terminate sky etc. (checked the site and they can offer FTTC at my address)?
2. Will I be able to continue to use my OpenWRT / 1312 combination - are the settings for the router easily obtainable?
3. What is the difference between unlimited fibre 1 and 2? As far as I can tell, they both offer static Ipv4 adresses, and given my distance from the cabinet the same estimated speeds. Even at £35/month for unlimited 2, it is still asaving on my current setup if there is a benefit of some sort.
4. I assume Zen offers IPv6?

Any others I should consider, in your experience? Zen looks like a good fit.

Many thanks,

Jason.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2020, 11:53:17 AM by Jasonkruys »
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j0hn

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2020, 01:39:48 PM »

Quote
My line is about 1600m (apparently) from the cabinet, and I Sync at 39900 down and around 5700 up. ECI Cabinet, so provider with speed profile would be a bonus.

It certainly isn't 1600m long if you sync that high.
It's probably nearer 800m and almost certainly under under 1km.

Does the Sky Hub stats report an attenuation figure?
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Jasonkruys

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2020, 06:17:03 PM »

It certainly isn't 1600m long if you sync that high.
It's probably nearer 800m and almost certainly under under 1km.

Does the Sky Hub stats report an attenuation figure?

Hi J0hn - agreed, hence 'apparently' in brackets. Thats what the ISP checker claimed. I don't use the Sky hub, as per my post, but the downstream attenuation is 24.4dB so I concur with your view.

That being said, speed/sync is not my issue at all here - not sure why I even mentioned that. Exam questions are as above, but chiefly is it going to be a complicated affair to switch, and can I use my custom router/modem setup with Zen rather than their provided device (you'll recognise I'm scarred by the grief of setting it up with Sky in the early days!)

Thanks.
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2020, 07:36:01 PM »

Hi J0hn - agreed, hence 'apparently' in brackets. Thats what the ISP checker claimed. I don't use the Sky hub, as per my post, but the downstream attenuation is 24.4dB so I concur with your view.

That being said, speed/sync is not my issue at all here - not sure why I even mentioned that. Exam questions are as above, but chiefly is it going to be a complicated affair to switch, and can I use my custom router/modem setup with Zen rather than their provided device (you'll recognise I'm scarred by the grief of setting it up with Sky in the early days!)

Thanks.

Much easier with Zen, they provide all the settings you need to configure your own modem/router.
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dee.jay

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2020, 05:51:58 PM »

You need to ring up and simply say you want to leave because it is expensive.

I have the same Sky Pro package and it's £21 a month for me. Don't be looking at AA if you want to keep the cost down, £55 a month for 2TB with phone line.
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Jasonkruys

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2020, 08:05:04 PM »

You need to ring up and simply say you want to leave because it is expensive.

I have the same Sky Pro package and it's £21 a month for me. Don't be looking at AA if you want to keep the cost down, £55 a month for 2TB with phone line.
Hi dee.jay - thanks for the note . Yeah, I know you're right. I've thought about it, and the trouble is that'll then lock me in for another 12/18 months. Since the Bulgarian support team got disbanded, support is woeful in my experience. It's great for what it is designed to be, high volume plug and play, but I think I have made the decision it is time to decouple my broadband from my TV. I'm confident Sky will be the last to offer FTTP or any other progressive service in my area when it becomes available (as they were fttc).

I'd love AAisp, but the cost (cap considered) is too much. I'm hoping Zen is a good middle ground, which it looks to be. Whilst I've read what seems like hundreds of threads on here, I'm always cautious and thought I'd reach out to the experience on here and see if there were any 'gotchas' in my particular circumstances!

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

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Jasonkruys

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2020, 08:05:23 PM »

Much easier with Zen, they provide all the settings you need to configure your own modem/router.
Thanks Alex.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

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Chrysalis

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2020, 08:12:50 PM »

I went from sky to AAISP.

In the end it was simple.

I was paying sky £60 a month for phone line (where I didnt use the voice, its only purpose was to carry DSL), and 80/20 broadband with static ip, it had ipv6 but at the point I left it was broken.

AAISP for me is £50 something for essentially the same deal line + broadband, except much better support, working ipv6 with static prefix, working netflix (at time I left netflix got too congested), no long term commitment, control of the line rate limit, able to do line tests on demand by myself, access to line logs, the 2tb limit for me is effectively unlimited, I think my record based on my pfsense historical data is about 400 gig used in a month and that month I redownloaded a 50gig game from psn 3 times.

Of course I am aware I could have haggled, could have gone to a mainstream provider and took a introduction deal, but for me I always find those deals wrong, they artificial prices, I prefer an isp where I am not paying some money to subsidise someone else's special offer.

If there was no netflix and ipv6 isues  may well have stuck with sky with a haggled offer, but those issues did exist so I moved, the only other viable alternative was probably zen, and what stopped me is that on my exchange zen can only offer BTw based services, and on top of that there was issues with migrating me from sky LLU, which AAISP were able to overcome but not Zen.  Uno wouldnt even offer me a service at all because of sky LLU, and pulse 8 ipv4 only.

quota is 3591 gig for me this month, shows how much I am carrying over unused.

My peak month for aaisp

Dec 2019   303G
« Last Edit: February 03, 2020, 08:24:56 PM by Chrysalis »
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dee.jay

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2020, 08:19:51 PM »

Hi dee.jay - thanks for the note . Yeah, I know you're right. I've thought about it, and the trouble is that'll then lock me in for another 12/18 months. Since the Bulgarian support team got disbanded, support is woeful in my experience. It's great for what it is designed to be, high volume plug and play, but I think I have made the decision it is time to decouple my broadband from my TV. I'm confident Sky will be the last to offer FTTP or any other progressive service in my area when it becomes available (as they were fttc).

I'd love AAisp, but the cost (cap considered) is too much. I'm hoping Zen is a good middle ground, which it looks to be. Whilst I've read what seems like hundreds of threads on here, I'm always cautious and thought I'd reach out to the experience on here and see if there were any 'gotchas' in my particular circumstances!

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

Yeah, I do understand where you are coming from. The best kind of broadband though, is one where you never need support. I think it's been a good 5-6 years since I ever had to ring Sky for anything fibre related. In that case, the FTTC cabinet was struck by lightning... taking out a line card or two :)

The FTTP point is also a very good one. AAISP won't be able to offer 330 anytime soon, and Sky may be to slow to offer anything at all. I will be looking to consolidate my 2 x FTTC circuits into a single FTTP one, preferably 500Mb, cost should work out the same. Trouble is, I'd have no idea who to go with. Though, at this current juncture it's all moot, can't get FTTP yet.

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Jasonkruys

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2020, 08:25:47 PM »

I went from sky to AAISP.

In the end it was simple.

I was paying sky £60 a month for phone line (where I didnt use the voice, its only purpose was to carry DSL), and 80/20 broadband with static ip, it had ipv6 but at the point I left it was broken.

AAISP for me is £50 something for essentially the same deal line + broadband, except much better support, working ipv6 with static prefix, working netflix (at time I left netflix got too congested), no long term commitment, control of the line rate limit, able to do line tests on demand by myself, access to line logs, the 2tb limit for me is effectively unlimited, I think my record based on my pfsense historical data is about 400 gig used in a month and that month I redownloaded a 50gig game from psn 3 times.

Of course I am aware I could have haggled, could have gone to a mainstream provider and took a introduction deal, but for me I always find those deals wrong, they artificial prices, I prefer an isp where I am not paying some money to subsidise someone else's special offer.

If there was no netflix and ipv6 isues  may well have stuck with sky with a haggled offer, but those issues did exist so I moved, the only other viable alternative was probably zen, and what stopped me is that on my exchange zen can only offer BTw based services, and on top of that there was issues with migrating me from sky LLU, which AAISP were able to overcome but not Zen.  Uno wouldnt even offer me a service at all because of sky LLU, and pulse 8 ipv4 only.

quota is 3591 gig for me this month, shows how much I am carrying over unused.
Chrysalis, thanks for your thoughts, they reflect many of mine! Interesting point RE: LLU - is it a general issue that I may be affected by do you think? When did it reveal itself - during the order process, or where you left without Internet for a period of time?

Thanks.

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

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Chrysalis

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2020, 08:28:26 PM »

The LLU issue I first noticed when trying to check availability for migration on websites, many isp's websites would simply say no services available.

I cant say if you would get any issues with LLU migration, Martin and another friend both successfully migrated from sky to Zen a while back, so its certainly possible.  I didnt ring UNO to see if they would place manually, they were only checked as at best maybe a 4th choice.  AAISP's checker even I think had issues because of the LLU, but it still allowed me to order regardless of what that checker spitted out.

The issue with AAISP was if I wanted to carry over my phone number, so the option they gave to keep the phone number was to temporarily have two services, one would be cancelled and the number would get ported, so I would end up with one service keeping the number, but me and AAISP both agreed considering I have a very good pair (currently syncing almost 20mbit over openreach fault threshold) and good port, it was too risky to not have a same day migration, I risked losing the good sync speed, so I took the fastest migration option.  I did also ring zen since they were the second primary choice, and they said they couldnt keep the number at all and there would be not same day migration.  I dont know if Martin and others had that issue as I never asked him.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2020, 08:37:18 PM by Chrysalis »
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Weaver

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2020, 09:04:45 PM »

I was using both Zen and AA at the same time for about a year. In the end AA’s features blew Zen away, excellent though Zen was. AA’s line bonding, continuous line monitoring and the ability to run line tests yourself (if you want to) were just mind blowing, plus a whole load of other features that I could go on and on about.

I am using the old ‘units’ tariff which is truly unlimited usage, you pay for what you use; people seem to think there has to be a cap - but this depends on which deal you’re using. Talk to them about it. As well as the kitizens who are AA users here, you can talk to other real customers and AA staff on IRC too. See https://www.aa.net.uk/etc/live-chat

I have four ultra-long, slow ADSL2 lines IP-bonded together by AA which gives me an ultra reliable non-stop service, despite the unreliability of the individual links.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2020, 09:23:41 PM by Weaver »
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Jasonkruys

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #12 on: February 05, 2020, 10:16:49 PM »

Thanks all for the comments. I think I am going to give Zen a try at half the price I am currently paying. Seems to be the happy medium. Now to convince the family everything will be OK....

Sent from my SM-G975F using Tapatalk

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Jasonkruys

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #13 on: February 07, 2020, 09:28:45 PM »

Order placed. Fingers crossed

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Jasonkruys

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Re: Switching from Sky
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2020, 11:20:58 AM »

Just a quick update on this - switched over this morning from my Sky LLU to a Zen connection with no issues. Just waiting for IPv6 activation now, which I am told will be a day after my activation date (eg tomorrow). Online portal details haven't updated yet, so I don't know what technology/link i'm using at the exchange, but so far no issues - the internet basically works which was my biggest fear!

Sync speeds, as expected, are near-identical to before.
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