Is Sky pulling wool over gullible eyes?

[#1]

Apparently they have announced abandonment of FUP. Personally I do not like putting all my eggs, phone, BB., TV in one basket, so will not be tempted, But can it ever work long term. if not it would seem a dishonest sprat to catch a lot of folk.
Originally Posted by Sky Broadband Team  View Post
We have been reading your comments and listening to customer feedback about what you’re looking for from your broadband provider and we’ve some exciting developments to share with you.
Truly unlimited broadband
One of the things you’ve told us is that you want “unlimited” broadband to be exactly that - truly unlimited. You’ve questioned why broadband products offering unlimited usage, such as Sky Broadband Max, adopt a Fair Usage Policy (FUP). We’ve taken your comments on board and this month we’ve removed the FUP from our Sky Broadband Max terms and conditions.
What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re a Sky Broadband Max customer it means you’re free to download as much as you want, whenever you want. We think this makes us the first major broadband provider to offer a truly unlimited package.
No speed caps on our network
Offering truly unlimited broadband is not the only promise we’re making to our customers. We know that another thing you really care about is getting consistent, reliable download speeds. One of the biggest gripes with some broadband providers is the capping of speeds during peak times, otherwise known as traffic shaping.
At Sky Broadband, we have a high-capacity network that is designed to carry huge amounts of traffic without congestion. So our promise to customers taking our Base, Mid or Max products is that we won’t slow down connection speeds at peak times. So whether you want to download a movie at 7am or a music track at 7pm, you’ll still be able to enjoy the same consistent speed. As Sky Connect customers are not on the Sky network we are unable to extend this promise to them.
Great value
Finally, we want to thank all of the customers who voted Sky the best overall provider in the BroadbandChoices.co.uk 2008 survey - there is no better accolade than our customers voting us into top spot in every category, including ‘good value for money’. We’re grateful for this support and it makes us want to work even harder to give you the quality, value and transparency you’re looking for.
So to sum it up, if you’re a Sky Broadband Max customer you can download as much as you want, whenever you want, at great speeds around the clock and all at a great value price.
So what are you waiting for… get downloading.
The Sky Broadband Team

[#2]

Bit of a case of wait and see.
I wouldn't expect it to last for ever though, unless they're prepared to take a bit hit on broadband revenue. Well, more so than they're already doing.

[#3]

James, your last sentence is interesting.

[#4]

Jameseh, there broadband suks, I have ADSL from them but it doesn't work, so I am stuck with SKY and NTL Cable Modem because SKY doesn't work.    

[#5]

Sucks for you maybe, however I know of a few satisfied customers...

[#6]

I was with Sky for a couple of years before moving house and was perfectly satisfied with it.  Paid £5 per month and no complaits whatsoever.  However, they don't supply that product where we live now, hence coming to Plusnet.  Also perfectly happy here, but financially it's obviously not as good, but was my preferred choice. 
I think the sheer volume of customers that the Sky deal attraced has led to a lot of dissatisfied customers.  Satisfied customers tend not to be so vocal. 
Regarding their unlimited offer - I would suspect that it is improves retention to their core tv package, then it will be worth their while in broadband costs.  Customers looking to move to someone like Virgin for tv may have to factor in an additional £20 or so a month for broadband.  Doubtlessly Sky are looking at it from a wider comercial perspective, and equally doubtlessly will shift their position as time goes by.  eg put a limit back on broadband, take a couple of quid off the tv packages, etc - they have the luxury of being able to test a few different scenarios, and I would be very surprised if they didn't test this behind the scenes with small groups of customers to see what effect it has on the bottom line.

[#7]

IIRC - Sky simply bought one of the long established independant ISP's and incorporated it into their systems.

[#8]

Easynet, I believe.

[#9]

Just speculation, but we don't know if the acquisition has left them with lots of additional back end capacity that they can't immediately drop due to contract terms with wholesale - if its the case and they are stuck with the cost anyway, it'd make sense for them to ease the restrictions to grab some headlines and additional customers.
How the model stacks up as time goes on will be big test - but in the short term it looks favorable for Sky customers.

[#10]

Quote from: James_G

Just speculation, but we don't know if the acquisition has left them with lots of additional back end capacity How the model stacks up as time goes on will be big test

Does this mean that Sky customers calling customer support can expect to be greeted with questions like "Does my bum look big in this?"

[#11]

I doubt it, I think its usually Mauzak that greets you when you call them.
EDIT:
Yup - muzak after the AVR.

[#12]

I suppose there's no need for a FUP when you can just throttle the connection right down and block certain applications from working willy nilly.

[#13]

@ Liam Can you enlarge on that? On the Sky user forum there do seem to be some cases of abysmally low speeds.

[#14]

A guy at work has Sky at home and we often compare notes for last evening's BB performance (yeah, alright, work can be boring at times!).  Other than thunderstorms affecting his connection I am more often than not rather envious of his seemingly unthrottled and now it seems totally unlimited throughput.  Uuugh!

[#15]

Quote from: lucerne

@ Liam Can you enlarge on that? On the Sky user forum there do seem to be some cases of abysmally low speeds.

I think what Liam was getting at is this:
If we simply throttled everyones connection down to 128kbps and blocked all P2P applications whenever our network got busy, we would probably be able to offer a truly unlimited product with no download usage limits or fair usage policy...
I guess it comes down to the age old argument of "unlimited" versus "quality broadband"