Switching my Broadband
& Phone
September 2026
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I switched from BT to Sky some
time ago because they were better value but over several years
Sky have offered cheaper packages to new customers and if I attempt
to get these I'm rejected.
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This is what Openreach
supplied when they connected us to the fibre network. It replaced
the old copper termination box whose reliability was getting
pretty bad due to the path of the telephone wire through a tree.
In fact it took the pair of Openreach guys a few hours to work
out the route for our new fibre (right). I'm not entirely sure
which one of these two wires is which.
It's working well and providing
us with a nominal 500Mbits per second... however read on as it's
Sky's turn to rip us off and we're switching again.
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So.. let me begin the
latest saga..Every time I checked our subscription to our current
internet provider I wondered if we were getting good value so
I looked on the Sky homepage. Now, something isn't right here
which I'll explain later. I followed the instructions to check
our broadband, landline phone and TV package and arrived at a
price that was very much less than we're currently paying. I
decided to accept this lower figure but was presented with a
page stating an "Error" had ocurred and despite my
attempts I failed to get beyond this. I did try a few times more
but despite seeing my selections in a "basket" I couldn't
actually proceed so what do I do next? I tried the Sky Bot but
this was absolutely useless and an insult to human intelligence.
All I asked for was a phone number but it declined to provide
me with one and just parroting garbage. In fact I had to Google
for a Sky phone number and rang this.
After an interminable wait after
not really finding the correct service I needed.. ie none of
the descriptions of the various services seemed quite right for
options 1 to 5 so I selected one at random and after a long time
spoke to a rather agressive-sounding foreigner. He went through
my selection which I read from the basket but got to a question
about our mobile phone signal to be used for emergencies if our
mains power failed.
I said that we had a UPS so
if mains power was lost we had a landline option. He said.. "no
mobile signal no way we can proceed".... stupid.
I asked for another operator
and I was transferred to Bangladesh or the Philipines. This time
we continued but instead of the attractive on-line price I got
one that was even higher than my present monthly payment.. something
like £186.... crackers.
So yet another operator was
requested and this time a nice chap in Newport, South Wales came
on. It seems that the Sky
website no longer deals with their "VIP" so-called
customers because they no longer "recognise" customers
with "Sky Q" equipment.
Also, it wasn't possible to move to their newer systems so their
old customers are left to deal with price hikes and NO special
deals.
Next the "Retention"
guy. He worked through some calculations and offered me around
£153 (a saving of £33 as it turned out they'd just
bumped me up from £176 to £186 per month). As £153
was his final offer I left it there and looked at BT or EE. I
even asked Sky Retention if I could cancel and take up their
special "new customer" offer but NO I'd have to wait
for 12 months after cancelling to take up their offer... crazy.
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I tried Virgin
first but no luck as they couldn't deal with my postcode because
they don't use Openreach facilities .
So I tried BT or EE. Interestingly,
even after my last discussion with them a couple of years ago
they're unsure of whether they're EE or BT still.
At this point something weighed
heavily in their favour. That £7.50 BT Premium Mail charge
would no longer apply if I opted for their broadband, and after
juggling with their website and not getting very far I gave up
and rang them. After the usual fiasco with selecting the nearest
number to push (none of the options sounded like my need), and
a long wait, I was speaking to a nice lady in Dublin.
She took me over various hurdles
and then quoted a sensible-sounding switch-over price. I asked
her to put it in an email and I'd consider it. However, when
I later checked her figures, these were wrong, being a mixture
of current prices and 2027 prices. I queried this but failed
to get a reply so sat down to consider the next step. While I
was considering my options it appeared that BT/EE had decided
to try and rope in Sky subcribers because suddenly their prices
had been reduced.
I went back to the EE website
to check for a price (or it might have been the BT website...
I forget). 900Mbit full fibre was now the same price as lower
speeds so I chose a standard package of broadband at 900 Meg
plus a landline free calls option and it totalled £50.
Their one-off £30 fee had reduced to £10. But...
the main attraction was saving £7.50 because I was informed
that my premium mail addresses would be merged into my new package.
That means their effective price is now £42.50 per month
for nearly double the speed 500Meg now 900Meg). The download
speed increase itself is probably unimportant but the upload
speed will doubling will be jolly good for maintaining my website.
I'll look into the TV package
later so I've left that unchanged with Sky. Interestingly Sky
must have started to get concerned because I got several emails
suggesting I ring them and get a better deal. A bit late re the
full fibre bit but maybe I can now do a deal later on the expensive
TV package? I can't decide whether their email is an offer or
a threat though?
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Your current package
Sky Signature (£14)
Sky Sports HD (£28)
Sky Sports Complete including Sky Sports+ (£2)
Sky Cinema (£12)
Ultimate TV Pack (£5.50)
Ultra HD (£3)
Sky HD (£6)
Boost to Netflix Premium (£13.49)
TNT Sports (£34)
Your package also gives you access to discovery+,
Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+ (£0)
As of 29 August 2026, your package costs £117.99
a month
[Sure enough, adding the individual prices totals
£117.99]
Your current package includes discounts totalling
£28.00 a month. Your first discount will expire on 28 September
2026 [threat?].
To keep up to date with your bill go to sky.com/bill.
Then later another email said...
With this option, you have the added flexibility to
start a new contract with us or choose a new package at any time.
We hope you'll carry on enjoying your services with
us. But if you decide to cancel, please let us know at least
31 days in advance using any of the contact options set out on
sky.com
It's important to us that you have the best possible
experience at Sky. If you have accessibility requirements, we
can send updates about your services or billing using different
formats, such as braille, large print, and audio CD [what's that??].
We offer other ways for you to contact us too, including British
Sign Language using an interpreter or Text Phone. We're also
here to help should you find yourself in a vulnerable position
and need extra support with managing your services. Here’s
where to find more on how we can support your needs.
Thank you for choosing Sky.
Your Sky Team
Now I need to see how much BT/EE would charge and
if this would be via our satellite dish... I believe it's £94
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I began the switchover to EE/BT broadband and
phone 
I read the email above but I
had to Google the term "OMT". I also was a bit unsure
of why they didn't acknowledge that we already had full fibre.
Now I'll explain why the switchover is going ahead..
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During the changeover
from Sky to BT/EE broadband there were quite a lot of emails
received from the two parties. BT/EE made a few mistakes which
are really unforgiveable in this day and age. I imagine that
the mistakes are due to human error although I wouldn't be at
all surprised to find bad software or duff AI.
The first was a copy of a "contract"
document which is really badly composed and has either blank
spaces where there should be information or embedded links that
don't work.
Secondly, I'm informed we have
something connected to our phone line other than a telephone.
What??
I understand we'll get a Smart
Hub 7 Plus but the BT chap said it would be a Smart Hub 6 so
I'd famiarised myself with the latter. "Posted by Royal
Mail" turns out to be Evri.... oh dear they'r skinflints
and I was advised that the new router had been posted on Saturday
29th August but on Monday it hadn't been received by Evri so
where is it??
Anyway.. cross fingers it will
arrive in time (fat chance of that!).
Oddly, another email arrived
from EE which had a section on help but neither phone link nor
the Internet links that were provided worked. It really annoys
me when huge organisations don't bother to check their technical
stuff. Another bad link that I found was the service they use
for posting the hubs. The service is called "HERM48"
which I assume is a 48 hour delivery service. The Hermes website
has a topic called "Couriers".. this link also failed
to work. You just can't get the staff these days!!
Evri finally got my parcel
on Tuesday but on Wednesday 2nd September it's stuck at their
"delivery depot". Why is it that the UK almost completely
shuts down at weekends and holidays when there are millions without
jobs??
Evri said they'd let me know
when my parcel is "out for delivery" but they must
have forgotten this when I checked and at 9:06am it was just
"on its way", however just as I was typing this at
11:30am they said the parcel would be with me between 4:30 and
6:30pm. A bit later than I'd hoped.
This was now Thursday
3rd September.
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Today??
Better be quick because it needs
to be plugged in and activated on Friday 4th Sept
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Oops... excellent...
I received another communication from Evri that my delivery would
be a few hours earlier.. so I thought, "Jolly good"
more time to organise the new hub before I go to France tomorrow!! |
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Then 36 minutes later... Noooooooo |
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Why couldn't Evri deliver
my parcel? Because the pillock had either gone to the wrong address
or perhaps just decided to pack up for the day and photograph
a random front door?
So I called EE/BT and explained
that no doubt the parcel might go to the wrong address the next
day so Paul in Dundee suggested I contact Evri which I did with
some difficulty because none of the preset click things related
to Evri making a mistake (all being related to a recipient error..
a common failing because organisations never admit to making
a mistake!)
The "Digital Assistant"
seemed very upset at the end of the discussion when I submitted
1 of 5 for performance... zero wasn't an option although that's
their real score. I like "Enquiry".. below
No ..."Complaint"
sounds better to me.
Below is a picture of where
the delivery went.. goodness knows where this is but probably
several hours away in delivery terms.
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Anyway.. I headed off on holiday
before the new router arrived which was upsetting because fitting
it was now up to my better half.
I got a message the next day
that Evri had managed to find our real address and then later
the same day (Saturday) a second router arrived from BT via 24-hour
Royal Mail.
Fitting a new router is tricky.
The cabling is easy, just plug in a few Cat5 plugs, power supply(USB
C), phone and the cable from the fibre optic termination box
and switch on. Resetting the internal addresses SSID and wireless
password to fit in with our long-established home network is
not easy.
The line had been activated
the previous day with the message "you didn't plug in the
new router"... obviously because the "just in time"
delivery was late.
Some of the router edits were
made by my wife but quite a few needed tweaking before everything
was back to normal.
Next.. Sky wanted their old
router sent back (threatening to bill me £52) and even
sent a strange flat cardboard package thing in which to put it.
They must have been on a cost saving exercise when they designed
the package because the router didn't fit. It was probably OK
for their Q-box but not quite big enough for the router. Anyway
I jammed it in and had to wrap a load of sticky tape around it
to keep it closed. The local Post Office accepted it and gave
me a receipt. Shortly afterwards I got an email from Sky verifying
my package had been despatched and the next day another telling
me it had arrived.
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This is the EE router
which seems to work OK.
However we have a really horrible
problem concerning the link to our TV which is carried out through
a Sy Q box.
Once set up via a small ethernet
switch adacent to the TV the Internet is available... or it is
once you've set up the router details. These details are different
to the EE router's original settings because, in order to maintain
our home network, I set the EE router to correspond with the
Sky router. For example the router's address is now 192.168.0.1
and it now has the old Sky SSID and password. Ostensibly the
Sky Q box should recognise the EE router in the same way it could
see the Sky router... but no. The TV more often than not comes
on with a message that it cannot see the Internet. Checking settings
reveals one or two possible reasons.. firstly the Sky SSID isn't
mine.. it maybe our neighbours? Secondly the network address
of the Sky router has changed from 192.168.0.153 or similar into
0.0.0.0.
Sky's answer was to condemn
their Sky Q box and send me a brand new one (making sure I handed
over the old box to the courier).
Alas the new Sky Q box turned
out to be exactly the same.
So.. what's going on?
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I believe the problem is connected
with the firmware inside the Q box. When the box is turned on
it attempts to refresh the startup screens and in order to do
this it looks for the Internet. It has three options: first WiFi
at 2.4GHz then WiFi at 5GHz and the ethernet port, but in what
order does it look for a connection and what protocol is it happy
with?
The fact that my WiFi (both
2.4GHz and 5GHz) is pretty strong and my neighbour's fairly weak
why should the Q box it post a different Sky SSID? Does the box
see a router SSID and assume it's correct before switching bands?
For example my neighbour's router is operating on 2.4 GHz and
at that instant mine is on 5GHz so the Q box chooses my neighbour's
router, cannot log on because it needs a password so just gives
up?
And why should it fail to recognise
my ethernet connection? Then again why, in settings, does it
differentiate between a Sky router and alien ones? The answer
might be that the Sky router uses a specific protocol when talking
to the Sky Q box.
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