Consumer Vs Business Broadband

Bash · 8 Apr 2020 at 11:25

Hi,

I'm a consumer Sky customer and have been for many years. Performance and capacity have been up and down during that time similar to any ISP. However, during peak times it has always been incredibly slow. Not just during the quarantine period (which is worse than ever) but this has occurred for a couple of years.

Around 10 years ago contention was always a discussion point with ISP's. Is contention still a thing with ISP's? I was thinking would a change to a business ISP offer better performance and less local contention than a consumer? Would Business ISP be a better bet?

chroniclard · 8 Apr 2020 at 11:39

Business broadband has more guarantees and support. Of course you pay for it.

Can you not try virgin or a different isp?

bremen1874 · 8 Apr 2020 at 12:28

If my broadband was slow at busy times I'd be on the phone complaining. A slowdown due to lack of capacity is something that your ISP and/or BT could fix.

Caged · 8 Apr 2020 at 12:45

It depends on your provider - there's no FTTC product that you can buy from Openreach that is a business-grade service - the best you can get is a higher care level on the telephone line.

I've not heard of Sky having problems - are you an ADSL customer on a non-LLU exchange?

MissChief · 8 Apr 2020 at 13:10

bremen1874 said:
If my broadband was slow at busy times I'd be on the phone complaining. A slowdown due to lack of capacity is something that your ISP and/or BT could fix.

Sky are and have been very proactive regarding network capacity. I used to get a list sent to me a couple of years ago while I was on a project of exchanges which were nearing capacity and when work was due to rectify this. There were at most half a dozen on the list and the cablelinks were nearly always upgraded within a few weeks. I’d certainly be on the phone to Sky to complain about this.

Regarding business broadband if it’s FTTC then it’ll still be contended at the cabinet. The only way to remove this contention is a proper leased line but you’re looking at as much as £3k a year for 100/100.

Bash · 8 Apr 2020 at 13:37

Thank you for your help. I'm on FFTC. I haven't tried speaking to Sky for a year or more as whenever I rang to complain I would have to go through a stupid lengthy process of testing the installation of my router and WiFi with them before they would even talk to me about any issues. I'll give it a go again as it sounds like my only real option. Thank you for your help.

WJA96 · 8 Apr 2020 at 14:14

Just change to a proper broadband provider if you want proper service. Yes, you'll pay a bit more but you'll actually get what you pay for. Zen are excellent in my experience. The only real difference between consumer and business broadband is that business customers pay a fee for better response times if anything goes wrong.

Caged · 8 Apr 2020 at 16:52

Bash said:
Thank you for your help. I'm on FFTC. I haven't tried speaking to Sky for a year or more as whenever I rang to complain I would have to go through a stupid lengthy process of testing the installation of my router and WiFi with them before they would even talk to me about any issues. I'll give it a go again as it sounds like my only real option. Thank you for your help.

It really doesn't take that long to just go through the troubleshooting they want to do - plug the router into the test socket, connect your computer using a cable, and phone them so they can rule out your equipment.