Will ISP's ever let you use 3rd party routers for fibre

Soldato
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I have spent loads of money improving the reliability and speed of my internet with my own hardware, as sky will let you use your own modem router for normal broardband but not for fibre.

It will be a real kick in the teeth when I do upgrade to fibre, as I will have to use there hardware.

So guys do you think there will be any change on this in the future? Also if ISP's are not letting you use your own stuff, why are we seeing all these fancy new modem routers on the market?
 
Soldato
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Loads of providers let you use your own router. In fact Sky must be in the minority if they insist on only using their kit.
 
Man of Honour
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Every ISP except Sky lets you use your own kit

Some of them it is still a bit of a pain though - despite some of them now "allowing" you - and some people even touting the process as "easy" sometimes you have to request the details via a second level of support with somewhat lacking reliability if and when they get back to you with the details :(

Hence I've stuck with BT as there is no potential for fuss of that nature.
 
Soldato
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I have bought a billion router that should work with sky when I upgrade to fibre, if it ever becomes available in my area.

But I have read sky might stop your contract if you use your own modem with fibre?. Something todo with 3rd party routers messing up stuff at there end?
 
Caporegime
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I think they just say that to avoid the hassle that comes from people swapping the router and then phoning up for support
 
Soldato
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I have been browsing the internet and the majority of isp's say you have to use there hardware, including bt?
If you want any kind of support then yes, you have to use your own equipment.
I've personally used my own equipment with Talk Talk and Vodafone without an issue for example - but if it didn't work, they wouldn't support my setup. If I wanted to complain about slow speeds, I'd need to reinstall their equipment first.
 

V F

V F

Soldato
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I have bought a billion router that should work with sky when I upgrade to fibre, if it ever becomes available in my area.

But I have read sky might stop your contract if you use your own modem with fibre?. Something todo with 3rd party routers messing up stuff at there end?

I have read this but what is the truth? As the SR102 is crap. There is barely anything in it to control.
 
Soldato
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I had Sky Fibre 4 years ago, for about 2 years. Used my own modem and router, no issues whatsoever.

Sky don't care, or any other ISP for that matter! Just don't expect them to provide support without their own router plugged in for troubleshooting, should you have any issues.
 
Associate
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Had openreach fibre with Sky, BT and Plusnet and used my own equipment with all of them. Never had any issues and always kept the isp router in case I ever needed to ring up. Currently with Virgin and have the Hub 3 in modem mode with Pfsense on a sff pc.
 
Man of Honour
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I have been browsing the internet and the majority of isp's say you have to use there hardware, including bt?

As Caged said for many this is just a support requirement - on most you can just unplug their provided device, plug in your own, sometimes some simple configuration but many these days can automatically setup for the connection type and so on.

Some ISPs though you need a valid username and password and/or use other authentication even MAC ids, etc. and while it is possible to extract that information sometimes it can be non-trivial and/or they might provide it on request but often don't make it easy :(
 
Soldato
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I have bought a billion router that should work with sky when I upgrade to fibre, if it ever becomes available in my area.

But I have read sky might stop your contract if you use your own modem with fibre?. Something todo with 3rd party routers messing up stuff at there end?

You'll struggle to find a single example of that ever happening in the real world. Sky use mac encapsulation which is not 'standard', so not all hardware supports it, part of the problem is it's often referred to as MER which it technically isn't. It's against Sky's ToS to use 3rd party hardware unless you subscribe to the Pro package, so in theory they could cancel your service, in reality it simply doesn't happen and hasn't ever happened. All other FTTC ISP's currently permit you to use your own hardware if you want, although support may be limited (obvious), Vodafone are the only notable ISP who still restrict choice, at one point they refused to allow 3rd party hardware, then restricted it to the OR certified list, in the real world you just said you had a certified product and they gave you the details.

The only service(s) that i'm aware of that require you to use ISP supplied hardware and you can't do anything about it are Virgin (cable), the modem/routers MAC needs to be paired on ICOMS to be provisioned, if it's not, it simply won't work and they won't add 3rd party hardware (it was painful enough to get them added manually when I worked for them and had a valid reason).
 
Soldato
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I usually keep the ISP supplied router for troubleshooting, if the issue still crops up with that then I can happily contact my ISP and they'll have no reason to reject it.

Sky seems a tad too aggressive in ensuring you stick with their kit, Virgin at least allows you to use theirs in modem mode.
 
Soldato
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Thanks guys, So I shouldnt let it wrorry me about not being able to use my own stuff, when I get fibre, just plug in my stuff back in when they have gone, thats if they need to install the fibre in my house... I have read they will install the fibre either in the exchange box or in your house.

Can anyone just confirm that my router will run sky fibre for me,, I have got the username and password from the sky hub..My router is a "Billion BiPAC 8800NL R2" Thanks
 
Soldato
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I've been with SKY fibre for the last 3 years using my own Netgear D7800 running DD-WRT. No issues at all.

Just switched to EE and they publicly provide instructions and settings for your own router but of course they won't support it.

As long as you research your preferred ISPs before hand you should have no problem finding a suitable fibre provider that will let you use your own router
 
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