The alternatives to Sky TV

[Saintsteve]

You take the chance but if you do take boxes on holiday Repeatly, or be silly enough if abroad to phone in with a fault, the call centre pick up where the call is being generated from so be carefull.  

They can't do that if you withhold your number.  

Erh no you can't, because on the white 5th gen cards, this was addressed and the 1471 dial setting in the boxes was made de-fungt 

[Hedge]

You can have your number set to withhold permanently. 

[Saintsteve]

You can have your number set to withhold permanently. 

Yes, not disputing that, but even if your phone line is Ex directory , Sky still know the number it calls from.

The white viewing cards were shall we say tweaked, from the old 4th version Blue sky cards were totally withholding was possible.

We as field engineers are now told to no longer input anything into dial prefixes.

But what do I know 

[Hedge]

Oh Steve. Bless. This has nothing to do with dialling prefixes. 

[Saintsteve]

Oh Steve. Bless. This has nothing to do with dialling prefixes.  

Then please explain how our viewing cards cannot tell sky there location if your saying phones can be set to withhold perminantly.

do remember sky have a tie up with BT so blocking a line, is not something anyone can just phone up and ask for.

You in your job I expect you know a way to, but its not a public get around.

[chungster]

I have to say that the HD offerings from Sky makes quite difference IMO. Ok we pay over £50 pm thanks to Sports pack really but comparing the number of HD channels Sky provides vs the alternatives means I don't want to give up Sky.

SD sucks big time once you've seen what HD is like!!!! Freesat / BT only have 4-5 HD channels at the moment so don't think I'll be ditching Sky just yet.

[Tamiyoman]

Do sky boxes still require to be connected directly to a phone socket?

Only if you have multiroom--- fact

Stops people moving boxes from address to address and watch sky on the 2nd,3rd,4th viewing cards .

Phone line proves boxes location.

Single box isn't needed to be, only for interactive spend more money function or box office/on demand.
subscriptions are not reduced on a single card hence why phone doesn't have to be attached.

This answers the question . 

My mum n dad had Multi-room and used to take one box on holiday with them in the caravan (my mum cannot miss her Tennis!) and both boxes worked fine, they did that for 4-5 years at least 

They will still work, but if they were removing for holidays, coming home and reconnecting, the minute the box senses dial tone, it will call back Sky by itself.

Some people get away with it, but if they do, they take the risk of making each viewing card missing its scheduled call back a full charge debit from their bank account. Sky issue 3 warning letters before this happens.

They also monitor what's called Call back sequences, ie all boxes on a multi basis should reply 1 after the other. If they don't and one responds say a week later from the other, the customer is written too, and warned about charges etc.

You take the chance but if you do take boxes on holiday Repeatly, or be silly enough if abroad to phone in with a fault, the call centre pick up where the call is being generated from so be carefull.  

Never had a letter, nor phone call from Sky in almost 5 years and never been charged due to line not being connected either, due to location of boxes neither of them were connected as they repeatedley caused problems and refused to connect so were both disconnected after 6 weeks of being installed.

No need to worry about moving boxes now as they bought another house where they were going on holiday anyway, so new sky package on that house.

[monte]

I'm with Virgin. I pay £42 for cable M+ TV, 60MB Broadband, and Phone with free eves/weekends.

Never ever had a problem.

Not many Channels when compared to XL+ but I could easily cope with Freeview with a humax box, and Cable Broadband.

Main thing I'm with Virgin for is the Broadband.


I'd love Sky. I was with em for years, but had a lot of problems with the Internet service.
SkyGo looks amazing. 

[Deako]

We have an intruder...... 

Seriously... anyone paying 50-60 quid PM for sky needs their bonce checking!

It depends if you get it for that price with broadband and a landline included.

The equivalent service from cable for me is £63 p/m, but will be swapping to Virgin when we move due to it being cabled into the new house already and restrictions on dishes on the outside of the house.

[RetroRaz]

I card share for 20 quid a month and get all sky channels for that

thats quite a lot. I know people who have paid around £90 - £100 for the whole year

[Deako]

The modem died in my main Sky+ HD box 2 years ago in a storm. It has not worked since then and I've never had a letter. My 2nd Sky+ HD box in the bedroom is only turned on once every couple of weeks, and never had a letter for that too.

[monte]

Does anyone know if its possible to just get Virgin Fibre Optic Broadband without a phone line or tv package?

If so, is it extortionate?

The landline is pointless.

The M+ TV package, I could live without.

My Panasonic plasma has Freeview and FreesatHD and there is more than enough channels for me.
I would miss the recording facility of my V+ box though...but I'm sure I could buy something to do the job.

...I just want Virgin Broadband 

[Leesey]

http://store.virginmedia.com/broadband/compare-broadband/index.html

There's a little box which lets you uncheck the phone line option, puts the price's up though. In fact, it's probably worth having the line for the price difference.

[MarkMarked]

Does anyone know if its possible to just get Virgin Fibre Optic Broadband without a phone line or tv package? Yes

If so, is it extortionate? Yes, you may find it cheaper to have the phone line as well even if you never use it

Broadband on its own:

30Mb £22.50
60Mb £27.50
100Mb £35.00

[gfrost]

Hi Monte,
Yes it is, possible to have VM Fibre Broadband without a phone line. I have VM 100mb broadband only
If you click the link below, you get the option of choosing your broadband, with or without a land line.

http://store.virginmedia.com/broadband/compare-broadband/index.html