Experiences with Sky

[#1]

Contrary to many of the posts on this site, this one is to praise PlusNet!
I have been a PlusNet and Force9 customer for - what - must be 15 years, and I continue to be happy with the service I receive.  Not so for the products, though.  My service allows me 60Gb download a month - just about enough for 2 hours HDTV streaming a day and PlusNet will not sell me an unlimited package at any price.
So, I thought I'd subscribe to Sky Unlimited and ordered a new phone line and the Sky service.  Everything seemed to happen when Sky said it should and my service was activated 12 days ago.  It then went through 10 days of DLM optimisation but the download speed failed to get above 4094kbps, while the upload was firmly stuck at 797kbps.  In comparison, I'm getting sync speeds of 6043kbps and 987kbps from PlusNet.
Since the telephone line that's connected to the PlusNet router wanders around the premises, is connected to a variety of extensions and unterminated cabling, I was expecting a modest increase in speeds from Sky on the new line wired directly from the DP.  But no.  Two days of talking to Sky technical support have elicited the following facts - or at least assertions by those on the end of the phone:
* In spite of havning a noise margin of 12.6db on the upstream, Sky will not remove the cap.  This cap is due to interleaving being on and they say it's not possible to turn it off and use Fastpath on the ISAMs they have in the exchange - as opposed to the MSLAMs or DLSAMs used by BT Wholesale.  Bearing in mind that they advertise upload speeds up to 1.3Mbps, this means that no one, however close to the exchange can get over 767kbps.  On the Forum, a few users have remained on Easynet DSLAMs and don't have this problem of no Fastpath.
* The downstream link from Sky loses 1.5db more than PlusNet but this or something else loses 2Mbps to the level where I can't use Sky to stream HDTV - which slightly defeats the point of having it!  They do have a noise target of 7db as opposed to the 6db used by PlusNet and this contributes to some slowing.
* Sky support is erratic and makes me thankful for the excellent system that PlusNet use where tickets are passed directly to the experts in the problem topic.  With Sky, it's very difficult to get past the agent on the end of the phone and email messages have just gone unanswered or answered with a fatuous boilerplate reply such as "try using the test socket" when I have clearly explained that that was what I was using.
So, the message is: to anyone thinking of leaving PlusNet to go to Sky - think carefully.  Whatever your problems with PlusNet, dealing with Sky has turned what little hair I have left quite grey.
Now, all we need is for PlusNet to offer products to suit.  After all, I'm paying Sky £22.75 a month on top of my PlusNet subscription.  That money could have gone to PlusNet if only .....

[#2]

Pardon my ignorance bot unless you are on cable the rest of the BB suppliers are governed by the line speed supplied and maintained by British Telecom and they tell you what the maximum speed is available on that line to your house, therefore as all suppliers rent from BT it would depend on the contracts between them and BT at what they can sell it to the public, as I work in a service industry I can assure you that the cheapish is not always the best, you have to look at the backup, the most upfront part of this is the customer services as these are the people you have to deal with, check your new supplier via Google and see what the forums are saying.
I would add that PlusNet are a subsidiary of BT and will probably never compete on a like for like basis with BT but they are venturing into agreements with other organisations like John Lewis offering similar products as BT and I’m sure there is more to follow. I am quite happy with PlusNet and have no intention of leaving however if a package became available on the market that was provided by a company by PlusNet I would seriously look at it because I know that it is being looked after by the excellent service supplied by PlusNet

[#3]

Bryan
A lot of ISP's including PlusNet do use BT Wholesale to terminate the line and transmit the data to them - and for those, you are right - whatever BT Wholesale provides - that's what you get.  (There are a few variations: BTW used to operate DLM for PlusNet but I believe PlusNet itself now manages the profiles).
The other ISPs, including Sky, are LLU (Local Loop Unbundled) where the only thing not under their direct control is the pair of wires provided by Openreach from the customer to the exchange.  At the exchange, the wires are connected to Sky's own equipment - and it is responsible for the equipment and performance of that connection - within the bounds of the characteristics of the copper wire.  In my case, I have two pairs of copper wire; one terminated on BTW's equipment with the data sent to PlusNet and one terminated on Sky's equipment forwarding data to their infrastructure.  This is complicated a bit by the tie-up between Sky and Easynet but the principle is the same.
Yes, cheapest is not always best; in my case, money isn't an issue but PlusNet just do not provide an unlimited service at any price so I had to go elswhere (as an addition to PlusNet)

[#4]

Losip
I understand what you say, my background is that I have Virgin installed in my house because many years ago I bought a Freeserve broadband kit but found out that I couldn’t get BT to provide broadband on my line which in itself was a surprise as I live on the outskirts of Manchester, so I was forced to go to NTL which after various takeovers became Virgin. I am on unlimited at a cost now of £22.50 a month and I have 5 pc’s on the network, I signed up to PlusNet on their 10 gig package  at a line speed of 3 meg because I bought a new Desktop and could not connect wirelessly to the Virgin Router because of the distance between the Desktop and the Modem/router, I signed up because it was so cheap, at the same time I switched my BT phone package to PlusNet because the cost was so much cheaper than BT, and it was still BT, and I was still paying less for the phone which meant that the BB was technically free.
I have since resolved my wireless problem with the router by installing powerlines so technically I have no reason to have PlusNet but because of the cost I have kept it as a backup supplier.
My Virgin speed is 10 meg and soon to upgraded to 40 meg at the end of July for no extra cost.