Tag: Sky

Sky reduces prices on fibre broadband in York

Article

York UK aerial view courtesy of DACP [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sky offering cut-price next-generation broadband in York

Sky Broadband Cuts Ultra Fibre Optic FTTH Pilot Service Price in York UK | ISPReview.co.uk

My Comments

Sky are increasing their fibre-to-the-premises foothold in York, North Yorkshire but also are reducing the price of these services for households along with marketing the services as “Ultra Fibre Optic” services. This is based on infrastructure being rolled out by them, TalkTalk and CityFibre across that city/

They were asked about whether they have a plan to build out their own FTTP infrastructure across the UK but had denied having that kind of ambition. But they are running separate FTTP pilot deployments across Basingstoke and Derbyshire with the same kind of technology, products and tariff charts.

Sky’s cut-price plans offer in common unlimited data use along with a router being supplied although customers have to fork out GBP£6.95 for delivery.

The plans are listed below:

  • 50Mbps for GBP£5 per month for 12 months, GBP£10 per month therafter
  • 100Mbps for GBP£10 per month for 6 months, GBP£20 per month thereafter
  • 940Mbps for GBP£20 per month for 6 months, GBP£30 per month thereafter

The customers are still charged the GBP£17.40 line rental, which has raised questions for an FTTH/P service run by Sky, TalkTalk and CityFibre. Here the question that may be raised is that if BT Openreach had anything to do with this, they may have had Sky put this in their tariff charts.

If Sky is a TV-content supplier, they could be in a position to run a single-pipe multiple-play service with their pay-TV content delivered via the fibre-optic infrastructure which could allow for the satellite dishes to go from the balconies. As well, it can become a foothold for Sky to roll out 4K UHDTV services to their customers as television is heading down that path.

The issue of the line-rental charge is still a thorny issue for a lot of UK providers because there isn’t a way to allow ISPs to provide a “naked” or “dry-loop” service where you don’t have to pay BT line-rental charges. On the other hand, Sky could start offering telephony over the fibre services for those of us who value the landline telephone service.

But what is happening is that some providers are reducing the price of fibre-to-the-premises next-generation broadband so as to allow users to justify taking advantage of the high speeds that it offers.

Sky Broadband rolls out an IPv6 firmware update

Article IPv6 logo courtesy of World IPv6 Launch program

UK ISP Sky Broadband Push Router Firmware Update with IPv6 Support | ISPReview.co.uk

My Comments

Another of the main broadband providers in the UK is getting ready to “go” IPv6.

This time, it is Sky Broadband and their first step towards widespread deployment is to roll out a firmware update to their SkyHub SR101 and SR102 modem routers which are the latest modem routers they are offering for their consumer-facing Internet service. Most likely, this may be a “blind update” where customers don’t need to do anything to facilitate the update being put in place.

Like all other ISPs, Sky is running out of its stockpile of IPv4 IP addresses which will make life increasingly difficult when it comes to provisioning Internet service to newer customers. This is a similar analogy either with phone numbers as people and businesses sign up for standard telephony services or add functionality to their existing telephony services, or with motor vehicle registration numbers (license-plate numbers) in a jurisdiction as people register new vehicles or move and garage their vehicles into that jurisdiction. It may involve passing IPv4 public IP addresses around multiple customers or having to bite the bullet and go IPv6.

The main questions that could be raised with this deployment is whether it will primarily be a dual-stack deployment and also whether routing between IPv6 and IPv4 addresses will take place within the router or host equipment at Sky’s backend.

For Internet service providers and Internet content hosts that serve consumers and small businesses, the reality of having to go IPv6 will be coming upon them all and they will have to factor this in soon. This will also have to apply to any “carrier-supplied” customer-premises equipment which will have to support IPv6 either out-of-the-box or after a firmware update.

4K UHDTV to benefit from the UK pay-TV battleground

Article

Expect Sky and BT to launch new 4K boxes sooner rather than later | Engadget

Sky accelerates new set-top box launch | The Telegraph (UK)

My Comments

4K UHDTV - part of the UK pay-TV battleground

4K UHDTV – part of the UK pay-TV battleground

The UK pay-TV battleground between Virgin, BT and Sky, is to benefit the 4K UHDTV technology with BT and Sky offering an IP-linked set-top box that will yield 4K content as part of their service.

This is because BT is stepping in to the battleground when it comes to broadcast rights for UK and European football (soccer) matches and 4K UHDTV will become a bargaining chip whenever the rights are being renegotiated. It is also about keeping the subscriber base alive through and beyond the footie season especially as 4K UHDTV-capable sets start to come in to price ranges that most can think about.

Both the companies will deliver the 4K UHDTV services via Internet with the use of 4K-capable set-top boxes that are connected to the home network and Internet service. These companies are also on about offering the services as a multi-play “eggs in one basket” package with pay-TV and fixed broadband Internet along with, perhaps, fixed-line telephony and a mobile telecommunications service. The 4K technology will be seen more as a subscription driver for these multi-play services.

They are also factoring in multi-room and multi-screen viewing so you can view the TV content on devices like your regular computer or your tablet.

Sky’s imminent 4K-capable set-top will be seen as a way to stave off them shedding subscribers due to loss of Champions League footie broadcasts. This is while BT is intending to have 4K on BT Sport within months with the provision of a new set-top in UK Spring that will be augmented with a heavy marketing push. Let’s not forget that Virgin Media, UK’s cable-TV service, is not taking this lying down. They are trialling a 4K UHDTV service with an intent to put 4K down the cable.

Brits will have to eventually consider implementing a wired backbone along with their Wi-Fi network as this momentum becomes strong with the competing pay-TV providers. This will most likely mean looking towards HomePlug AV500 or HomePlug AV2 which uses the existing ring main that delivers the household electricity as the “wired no-new-wires” data backbone.