Sky Broadband

Infobox Company
company_name = Sky Broadband
company_
company_type = Broadband Internet Provider
foundation = 2006
location = London, UK
key_people = James Murdoch
area_served = United Kingdom
industry = Internet
products = Internet service
parent = British Sky Broadcasting
slogan = uploads / downloads / save loads
homepage = http://broadband.sky.com/

Sky Broadband is an internet service provider for Sky Digital customers.As of March 2008 Sky claims to have reached 1.428 million customers, and unbundled 1,179 exchanges, covering 70% of the United Kingdom. [ cite web | url = http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3136-sky-adds-259-000-broadband-customers-in-quarter.html | title = Sky adds 259,000 broadband customers in quarter | date = 2007-07-11 | publisher = think broadband | author = Andrew Ferguson] In October 2007, Sky reached the 1 million mark in terms of customer numbers, and claim to be adding one new customer every 40 seconds.Fact|date=March 2008 [ cite web
url = http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a78705/sky-now-has-1m-broadband-customers.html
title = Sky now has 1m broadband customers
date = 2007-10-29
publisher = Digital Spy
author = James Welsh] . From a marketing perspective, Sky Broadband is an example of converged service.

Networking

Sky Broadband provides Sky Digital customers with Internet download speeds of up to 16Mbit/s (from Easynet enabled exchanges, by means of LLU), using ADSL and ADSL2+ technologies via an Openreach copper landline (often still referred to as a BT line).

Sky also introduced a free Broadband pack for its digital TV subscribers within its LLU coverage. This means anyone on Sky Digital can get Broadband (with a 2GB usage cap) for free, as long as they live in a covered area and pay the connection fees.

Alternative plans providing up to 8Mbit/s (Mid) or 16Mbit/s (Max) are also available. The Mid package has a 40GB usage cap, while the Max service is listed as unlimited, though it did include a common 'fair use policy' but this was dropped in mid-September [ cite web
url = http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a130499/sky-offers-truly-unlimited-broadband.html
title = Sky offers 'truly unlimited' broadband
date = 2008-11-17
publisher = Digital Spy
author = James Welsh] . Like the free (Base) service, Mid and Max are also only available to customers who are connected to an EasyNet enabled exchange. [ cite web
url = http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-guide/articles/is-sky-broadband-any-good.html
title = Is Sky Broadband Any Good?
date = 2008-02-12
publisher = ChooseISP.co.uk
author = Julia Kukiewicz]

For customers whose local exchange has not been Easynet enabled, the Connect service is available using the BT Wholesale network.

Unlike many other ISP's, Sky currently do not offer a dial-up alternative connection, to their broadband services.

Problems

Customers complaining of having to wait for weeks even months for activation due to sky's customer management system failing.

In November 2007, Sky Broadband began migration of its email services to the Google Apps platform. This did not go smoothly and caused many customers a lot of difficulty, with the user experience being described as "terrible". [ cite web
url = http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/25/0410232
title = Sky's Botched Google Migration
date = 2007-11-25
publisher = Slashdot
author = K Dawson]

A major problem, which still needs resolving affects all Sky Broadband routers. The problem is with the algorithm that Sky uses to generate their WPA-Key's and the ADSL username and password built into the router. In the white Netgear Sky routers the WPA-Key can be found by getting the target router's MAC address, which is broadcast freely over the network before authentication, and then translating this using a site which has broken this alogrithm. The WPA vaunrability only affects white Sky Broadband routers which have the default key still entered, however all routers are affected by the ADSL Username and Password vaunrability. [ cite web
url = http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/technical-discussion/19336-v1-router-wireless-security-flaw.html
title = V1 router wireless security
date = 2007-09
publisher = skyuser]

Future Plans

According to James Murdoch (current chief non-executive chairman of BSkyB), Sky intend to combine Broadband with Sky+ HD to offer a true on-demand service using the ethernet socket of the Sky+ HD box. Sky+ HD boxes are already being "geared-up" for this service, as the most recent boxes have a green outline on the Ethernet port, which matches that the new Sky Broadband router. [ cite web | url = http://w3.cantos.com/07/bskybint-701-5rhi3/interviews.php?task=view&cnt=bb&med=asx | title = Product innovation video]

ee also

*British Sky Broadcasting

References

External links

* [http://broadband.sky.com Sky Broadband] at sky.com
* [http://chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-providers/sky.asp Up-to-date comparison table of all available Sky Broadband packages]
* [http://www.skyuser.co.uk/ SkyUser - The Unofficial Sky Broadband Forum - Help with setting up and email etc]
* [http://www.chooseisp.co.uk/broadband-guide/articles/is-sky-broadband-any-good.html Is Sky Broadband any good?]
* [http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/showthread.php?threadid=21991/ An insiders view on Sky Broadband]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5190710.stm BBC article]
* [http://www.free-broadband-blog.co.uk/category/sky-broadband/ A UK Blog about Free Broadband Providers including Sky Broadband]
* [http://www.skyblogband.org.uk A consumer's (and former ISP manager/systems administrator) experience of Sky Broadband]