Have Sky Thought This Through Properly?

[Quenched]

Sky are hoping to be broadcasting their service via streaming either via their Glass televisions, or their stream box, and making the use of the dish redundant by 2029, although that date isn't official. 

 

How I see it is that's fine if you got a brilliant broadband infrastructure in place in 100% of the country, but at the moment this sadly isn't the case.

 

A whole village near me had an internet outage recently, and it wasn't repaired for a week. 

 

So this meant any Sky customers who were relying on broadband to watch tv couldn't view anything as a Sky Glass tv or streaming box relies on broadband to operate. 

 

Now this got me thinking, are Sky being premature in assuming they can rely on broadband to serve their customers with a reliable service via broadband compared to the more robust tried and tested way of recieving Sky via a dish.

 

Are Sky being a little nieve here, as it could land them and their customers without watchable tv during a broadband outage. 

 

2029 isn't that far away, and I can't see all corners of the UK having reliable fibre broadband by 2029.

 

I enquired today with BT about when would our area get fibre broadband installed in our street, and they just said we're not sure yet, there are no plans to at the moment. 

 

So needless to say I won't be getting Sky anytime soon. 

 

It just seems Sky are not thinking this through very well, and it could land them in hot water. 

[DDIL]

Yes sorry Prudie trying to get links to work is so hit and miss for me 

[Quenched]

I'm just concerned that Sky are trying to promote their service via streaming, when sadly quite a lot of potential customers wouldn't be able to use it yet. 

 

Its like the are trying to run before they can walk. 

 

Or trying to drive a bus with a motorbike engine, it obviously won't work. 

[DDIL]

You know that over 95% of the U.K. has super fast broadband capability don't you?

[Quenched]

DDIL, 

I'm surprised to hear 95% has fibre broadband, especially as so many people I know are still waiting for it. Or is it just that Cornwall is always behind on everything.

I'm assuming other rural areas must be the same, as its less cost affective to spend a fortune installing fibre broadband to just a minority, compared to a city.

 

Yet again we get left behind. 

 

But being constantly left behind shapes how a person looks apon things. 

 

And it can lead you into hating change in the first place. Especially as change doesn't always seem to equal improvement. 

[DDIL]

OMG I just saw this, as explained in the very beginning, there is a huge push to give broadband to rural areas, and I know it's 95% as I worked for the government agency overseeing it.

You do know that super fast is not the same as fibre don't you!!

[barry1010]

If super fast broadband isn't fibre, what is it? I thought it just meant a speed above 30Mbps which most people will get from fibre to the cabinet or fibre to the premises. Over 80Mbps is ultrafast or gigabyte broadband.

Others will choose mobile broadband via a 5G SIM card in a suitable router such as MiFi.

A few will have satellite broadband. 

What sort of broadband are you referring to, DDIL?

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

Fibre broadband is brought to households via fibre cabling and not copper cable which is still in use in a large way. 

 

The thing that is slowing down the fibre cable roll out, is the fact the fibre cable can not be bend or kinked in anyway, because its a beam of light running through the cable, simular to fiber optical audio cables. 

 

So installing fibre cable in some areas has been challenging. 

 

So home owners like myself are still using copper cable which can be unreliable. Hence my original concern that has Sky jumped the gun a bit by pushing their services via streaming?

 

To me its perfectly valid concern. 

[jno]

no fibre on my side of the street. On the other side, yes. These things don't always happen as you might expect, so I'll believe it when I see it.

[barry1010]

Quenched, I have fibre broadband to my house (fttp), before that I had fibre to the cabinet and copper to the house and I was still getting very fast broadband. You don't need high speed broadband to watch TV via the internet. 5 Mbps for HD TV; 25 for 4K.

BRSK is installing fttp in my locality above ground, using poles (old telephone poles where possible). 

Also the use of BIF (bend insensitive fibre cables that can be bent more acutely) is becoming more prevalent as it is much less complicated to install.

[chelle7272]

Super fast is a mixture of full fibre and partial fibre. it is 97% of premises which have access to superfast broadband, so no Sky have not jumped the gun. They need to remian competitive.

https://www.uswitch.com/broadband/compare/fibre_optic/fibre-broadband-statistics/

[barry1010]

Even Freeview is planning to ditch the aerial in favour of streaming. The new service, Freely, is already up and running. 

[Quenched]

barry1010, 

That concerns me aswell, because if everything moves onto broadband its a very risky future for television in my opinion. 

We still get Internet outages quite regularly, and it would seem worse if it affected tv viewing. 

 

I'm all for progression, but this seems too much like running before they can walk. 

 

I still remember my dear Dad God bless him saying in the 70's, why should we buy a colour tv when our black and white one is still working perfectly fine, and I can see his logic in that. 

Our first color tv cost him over £700, it seemed a fortune in 1979 I think it was before we had color tv.

 

Why is the world obsessed with repairing things that are not broken, especially when the world is broken. We need to start looking in our own back yard. 

[Neveracrossword]

Quenched,  I think you might be in a  small minority that feels this is 'running before we can walk'. I know your/our personal experiences colour our thinking, but you really do seem to want to return to much earlier times!

[New Judge]

"I'm just concerned that Sky are trying to promote their service via streaming, when sadly quite a lot of potential customers wouldn't be able to use it yet."

BT has a target date of January 2027 to complete its "Digital Voice" programme. This will bring fibre to the premises for all its domestic customers. Other providers who use BT's network will also have to work to that date as the PTSN (Public Switched Telephone Network) is expected to be retired shortly after then.

[barry1010]

My landline is being cut off in June. 

[Old_Geezer]

Should've paid your bill 😕

[barry1010]

😁

[Quenched]

Neveracrossword, 

Not such a small minority as you might think. 

Trust me I do observe these things, otherwise I wouldn't have genuine concerns. 

 

A bit off topic but look at the syber attack that has recently put a strangle hold on the supermarket chain coop. Our local coops are bare, or the shelves are bare. And what caused it? The Internet?!!

 

I think this country is skating on very thin ice if we think pushing more onto relying on broadband is a way forward. 

Watching tv via broadband is only half the problem. 

They reckon syber attacks will eventually cripple the whole internet. 

 

Am I still worried over nothing? I think not? 

[ToraToraTora]

"is the fact the fibre cable can not be bend or kinked in anyway," - perlease, of course it can that's the point it can be tied in a knot. The light bounces down it it a series of straight lines.

[barry1010]

Who are 'they' that reckon?

Some people were once frightened to have electricity installed in their houses, or couldn't see the benefit of it. There was a band of people concerned about the switch to natural gas, the switch to decimal money. People used to unplug their TVs during a thunderstorm, fearing the aerial would be struck by lightning.

People were against canals, railways, cars.

You just want to go back to your childhood where things seemed easier, better because you didn't have to worry about adult things and had no responsibilities.

Believe me, there was plenty to worry about back then.