[Central cake]

Right Virgin media in my area have gone right crap with a minimum 3 week lead on fixing a major issue.

Basically I am paying for 100mb and getting about 0.5mb for about 14 hours. I normally get 100mb at 1am.

Anyway. I can get about 76/18mb on BT Infinity. And 40/10 or so on Sky.

I used to have Sky at a older house closer to the exchange and I liked it. Well more then I like Virgin atm.

So any opinions?

Cheers.

[iniltous]

Sky resell BT FTTC service under their own name, so it's the same fibre to the cabinet kit regardless of who you chose.
Openreach do the install for BT Infinity and Sky, so choosing between them would probably be down to what you want or need, or are happy to pay for.

[mogzyboy]

If you call Sky, I believe you can get their 'up to 76Mb' service - don't think you can sort it online.

The only difference (I think) is that Sky won't throttle you at all, if that's something that might concern you.

[Resonance]

Originally Posted by iniltous

Sky resell BT FTTC service under their own name, so it's the same fibre to the cabinet kit regardless of who you chose.
Openreach do the install for BT Infinity and Sky, so choosing between them would probably be down to what you want or need, or are happy to pay for.

Well yes, but you'd be connected to Sky's LLU kit at the exchange and then Sky's network. So there are differences in congestion, traffic shaping policies etc.

[Resonance]

Originally Posted by mogzyboy

If you call Sky, I believe you can get their 'up to 76Mb' service - don't think you can sort it online.

The only difference (I think) is that Sky won't throttle you at all, if that's something that might concern you.

Yes it's Sky fibre pro that the op needs to ask for.

Sky don't throttle on any of their fibre products, or for that matter their standard unlimited package.

[JohnandCookie]

Not sure how relevant this is but I think BT infinity is fantastic. My dad was with AOL and getting an intermittent service with 1MEG download speed! I booked an appointment for BT to fit fibre optic, which was very easy, the hardest part being getting the MAC code from AOL and the engineer arrived yesterday, relocated a master socket for free and had Infinity up and running within an hour. When I left last night my dad was getting 51 MEG download! 50x faster for less money, not too shabby BT, I think credit where it's due.

[paulker]

Sky's FTTC uses the same infrastructure from your house to the exchange door as BT but after that you would be connected to Sky's equipment in exchange and then Sky's network. This is the key. While people are finding BT Infinity to be good I would still have a lot more faith in Sky. Sky's 40/10 service is £20 while BT is £18 but Sky has no download limit (BT 40GB) per month) on this service nor is it managed. Sky's 80/20 service is £30 as opposed to £26 on BT. Both are unlimited but again Sky is not managed and I would be happier on Sky's network as well. It is much less congested.Lastly BT has an 18 moth contract and Sky only 12 months

Skys line rental is £2 cheaper as well.

You need to call the Sky FIBRE dept to get the 80/20 service

[beerhunter2]

The only traffic management on BT infinity is P2P at peak times. Other than that, the service is identical to Sky.

[paulker]

Originally Posted by beerhunter2

The only traffic management on BT infinity is P2P at peak times. Other than that, the service is identical to Sky.

Not identical. Bt use bt wholesale back haul. Sky use their superior back haul

[*MikeB*]

Originally Posted by paulker

Not identical. Bt use bt wholesale back haul. Sky use their superior back haul

You seem very convinced it is superior. I don't see how since the vast, vast majority of people see no deterioration in speeds at peak time on BT Infinity.

And don't forget who Sky rent the fibre backhaul off anyway. People don't really think that Sky have run their own ducts throughout the country and put their own fibre in them do they?

[Central cake]

Originally Posted by *MikeB*

You seem very convinced it is superior. I don't see how since the vast, vast majority of people see no deterioration in speeds at peak time on BT Infinity.

And don't forget who Sky rent the fibre backhaul off anyway. People don't really think that Sky have run their own ducts throughout the country and put their own fibre in them do they?

Did they not buy Easynet and inherited there backhaul?

[paulker]

Originally Posted by *MikeB*

You seem very convinced it is superior. I don't see how since the vast, vast majority of people see no deterioration in speeds at peak time on BT Infinity.

And don't forget who Sky rent the fibre backhaul off anyway. People don't really think that Sky have run their own ducts throughout the country and put their own fibre in them do they?

Sky have their own core fibre network. They use it for their own customers and Easynet's. BT wholesale network is used by dozens of ISPs. Sky also continually invest and increase capacity in their infrastructure.

[d'@ve]

Originally Posted by paulker

Sky's FTTC uses the same infrastructure from your house to the exchange door as BT but after that you would be connected to Sky's equipment in exchange and then Sky's network. This is the key. While people are finding BT Infinity to be good I would still have a lot more faith in Sky. Sky's 40/10 service is £20 while BT is £18 but Sky has no download limit (BT 40GB) per month) on this service nor is it managed. Sky's 80/20 service is £30 as opposed to £26 on BT. Both are unlimited but again Sky is not managed and I would be happier on Sky's network as well. It is much less congested.Lastly BT has an 18 moth contract and Sky only 12 months

Skys line rental is £2 cheaper as well.

You need to call the Sky FIBRE dept to get the 80/20 service

There is zero congestion at any time of day or night on my BT Infinity service, your backhaul remarks don't hold water.
There is zero traffic management on any service that I use (I do not ever use P2P but I do use NNTP, heavily and at 75Mbps - try that on torrents!).
BT 80/20 Infinity subscription is less than Sky Fibre Pro.
BT line rental bought in 12 month blocks is cheaper than Sky line rental.

Why would anyone except an avid torrent freak (and nntp is faster anyway) buy Sky Fibre Pro? Oh... the shorter contract maybe? Well it took Sky nearly 2 years to bother to provide a full speed fibre service in my area after BT made it available so they missed the boat here - and cost more when they did get off their backsides.

The long and short of it is that it makes good sense to have a BT line for Infinity 80/20 and BT phone services, and retain Sky Television as I have done. Unlike with adsl+ broadband, there is no overall benefit in keeping all your eggs in the Sky basket in this case and indeed, you can save money by going for BT Infinity fibre unlimited + Sky TV.

[*MikeB*]

Originally Posted by paulker

Sky have their own core fibre network. They use it for their own customers and Easynet's. BT wholesale network is used by dozens of ISPs. Sky also continually invest and increase capacity in their infrastructure.

You're wrong there actually.

I'm not saying Sky use the BT Wholesale network shared by the others but they certainly rent from BT their fibre capacity for their core network that goes into the BT exchanges. The so called Sky fibre network that feeds the BT exchanges is BT's fibre, inside BT's ducts going into the exchange I promise you.

In the same way as the mobile networks rent fibre from BT to feed their 3G towers.

When you say they continually increase capacity, nope, wrong. They continually rent more fibre capacity from BT. Where are you getting your information from? You seem to be assuming a lot of things without actually knowing.

Have you ever seen a manhole cover labelled 'Easynet' or 'Sky'?
No.