I'm currently with SKY for my Phone and Broadband, my speed is around 2.45 mb MAX, I'm fed up with it as i can't watch anything on demand due to the stutter/lag. I've been looking at a BT package with Phone, Broadband and t.v. I'm very tempted but I just need some clarification. I put in my postcode and it came up with the following:

- You can get superfast fibre optic BT Infinity!

Get superfast fibre optic BT Infinity speeds of:

69.6Mb download speed
20Mb upload speed

Or BT Broadband speeds of:

1Mb-4Mb download speed range
2.5Mb estimated download speed

Does this mean even with fibre optic i'll only get 1-4mb or is that just for BT Broadband (non fibre) ? When they come to install it, i'm guessing i'll get a brand new phone line which is fibre optic and will get me a much faster BB speed ?

Sorry for these probably simple questions, I just want to make sure that moving to fibre will benefit me and enable me to get faster speeds. (i'd be over the moon with a speed to 10mb)

BT Infinity and BT Broadband are two different products using different technologies so you cannot compare or connect the two.

You won't get a new phone line. The fibre part only gets as far as the nearest street cabinet to your home. If you get Infinity (or Sky fibre for that mater) the Openreach engineer they send out will rewire your phone line so that it connects to this new cabinet to pick up the broadband service. But the service comes into your home via the same pair of wires your current phone and broadband use.

No with Fibre Optic you will get speeds up to 70Mb download & 20Mb upload. That is Infinity2 speeds, but you might just be happy with Infinty which is about half those speeds quoted for Infinity2, but cheaper. Have Sky not got the fibre service as well?

So the fibre part goes as far as my "street cabinet" and from there to my home it's my current line ? Does that not mean I could still receive a crappy speed as from the cabinet to my home is not fibre ?


I think SKY do have fibre but tbh I'm wanting to go to another company.

No. Part of the reason for poor speed on "normal" ADSL broadband is the distance between the exchange and the home. The phone network is not designed for the very high frequency signals that ADSL uses. So the greater the distance the weaker these signals become.

That has a great effect on performance. However the street cabinet is very much closer than the exchange so the effects of the cable and distance are also greatly reduced.

Distance is not the only difference but it is one factor in why fibre allows much higher speeds than ADSL.

Thank you. This clears things up for me now, again, sorry for the simpleton questions.

Why? The poor broadband speeds you're experiencing now will be down the line between your house and the exchange, something which Sky or any other ISP cannot change unless you move to fibre.

I don't really like them as a company.

Just been talking to Openreach engineer-he said fibre optic cable will be installed in Runcorn hopefully before Christmas.

If so what is the process used by BT to advise customers of the change - are there any options. Is a new contract required ?

you will be notified by Email or Post and a new contract is required 18 months

Before you consider a move to BT or any other provider, you must also consider the support offered by that provider. I've had nothing but problems with BT just trying to get the service installed. My experience is that they have very poor customer service & escalation procedures and the whole process was very difficult for me.

I know Sky's Customer Service is not perfect, but in my experience it's much better than BT's.

Consider the bigger picture before you decide. ie Product, Service & Costs.