Sky Broadband 'only for UK' - Why?

hedge

hedge

Regular Member
My Satellite Setup
Soon heading for the nearest skip.
My Location
SW Algarve. Portugal
Hi Guys

Sorry, I am probably in the wrong slot with this Q; but can you see any technical reason why the Sky internet service would not work abroad? - (in my case Portugal).
They say 'UK only', so I can only think that certain european isp's wouldn't like it.

Those of us with a lousy foreign isp would like it a lot :).........but will it ever happen?
 
Can't see it happening and in any case, there are many people over here who are not overimpressed with the service.:)
 
Ive actually de-installed a customers broadband service.. she says it keeps disconnecting.. sky kept sending us out to check it.. but its nothing to do with the sky side of it. Its the quality of the copper bt lines. it just can't support the speeds sky demands.. to far from the exchange and u get problems.. bit like throwing a ball. don't throw hard enough and the ball doesnt reach..

can see the sky internet service being like bullshitbroadbands service :)
 
It is the 8 meg services generally which are having problems, they are very susceptible to length of cable as you say Yeshi.
 
'Sky Broadband' is just an unbundled ISP working in the UK, (it's nothing to do with satellite), to offer it abroad they would have to set up in foreign telephone exchanges, don't see that happening. There are plenty of people in the UK who can't get Sky broadband as they are in smaller exchanges where Sky don't see it as profitible to install there.

LLU providers have a bad name in the UK right now, on average they take twice as long to set up as BTWholesale, a huge amount of lines (something like 20%) don't work on the first attempt because of bad equipment or connections at the exchange (compared to just a few percent on non-LLU). That said, LLU is the only way to get more than 8megabit ADSL in the UK at the moment.
 
I have Sky Max broadband, and overall it's shit. In the middle of the night it's fine, and both the upload and download speeds are good, but at peak time in the evening it's literally no faster than dial-up.

I have to reboot my router half a dozen times nearly every evening.

I've taken to shifting my waking day just so I can get through the next year's contract. It's easier than trying to report the problem to Sky Customer Services and getting any kind of sensible response or resolution )(-red

It's only available in the UK because as PM says, it's hard-wired at the LLU exchange.

Think yourself lucky.
 
Thxs guys, I get the message --------- no high tech miracles at all then :) :)

Still at least I can revert to my anti-Murdoch stance knowing that all I am missing is next years test cricket (the bustard!!!!)

I was just hoping for an alternative to the almost zero upload, joke speed & dropout....... & perhaps the customer wont notice,- (but I do!) - approach from Portugal Telecomm -(Infamous for never providing other than a PAYG dial up (about 8kbps) 'service').

So it's back to my drive into town & aim my hotspot booster appropriately (if I can ever get PToff my back...like most coporate giants, driving the customer crazy is the default setting).

Power to the people .......one day, one day
 
BGonaSTICK said:
it's hard-wired at the LLU exchange.
Click to expand...

OK, I appreciate this thread is pretty much over but I have a Q based on the above.

I absolutely don't claim any substantive knowledge on this, but I am eager to learn.

My understanding was that the client is connected to the exchanges DSLAM. Each and any other provider simply slots their 'card' into whatever DSLAM is housed there* - all of which is managed by the DSLAM control software (which controls the tarrif speed for one). The DSLAM, in turn, is hooked up to an Internet Backbone.

So, what I am thinking is ....... once its on 'tinternet ....... what is actually stopping a foreign client using the service: save for an IP block (by territory) or, the clients own speed tarrif ????

*ignoring the roll-out of ADSL2+ (8meg plus).

Corrections welcome.

.
 
Not sure about anywhere else, but in the UK each LLU operator installs their own equipment and own backhaul stuff, so a user connected to say Sky’s LLU (which is really easynet) is connected to Sky owned and controlled equipment at the exchange, which is directly connected to Sky’s backhaul to server/internet backbone. So if you tried to log into a foreign isp, on LLU it would reject you straight away.

At every ADSL enabled exchange a completely separate BT Wholesale DSLAM setup runs, this provides for all isps using BTWholesale. However the backhaul from the BTW equipment to the ISP is channelled for each ISP, with varying throughputs, it is a common myth that all isps using BTW suffer from the same congestion, there can be congestion beyond the exchange that affects one and not others.

These two systems are completely separate. If you are connected to an LLU provider then you can only log onto them, there is no physical connection from them to BTW equipment. If you switch from one LLU provider to another then a cable needs moved at the exchange.

If you are on BTW and switch from one provider to another provider using BTW then it is likely that nothing physical will change at the exchange. However your line is locked (virtually) to one provider, and you need a MAC (migration authorisation code) to allow another ISP to take it over. So even if a foreign isp somehow had access to BTW at a local exchange, if you tried to log into it you would still be rejected. But the foreign isp would need a virtual backhaul from your local exchange to even get this far, and it if had that, then it wouldn’t be a foreign isp. :)
 
So, basically, a typical BT exchange probably looks like a mess now thanks to LLU.

I was lead to believe that everything was orderely like you describe with the BTW senario. Vis-a-vis a man in a white coat sat at a terminal entering MAC codes all day and maybe slipping into the DSLAM a new card for Easycrash Tinternet.

Heho.

.
 
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