Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I'm moving house and as part of the move I'm moving TV/Phone and Broadband supplier. Now both have compatible packages, but I'm still not sure which on to go with. At the moment it looks like I'm moving from Virgin to Sky... any opinions.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Funnily enough we had the same conversation in the office yesterday. The concensus of opinion is that Virgin is the way to go.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Virgin is fine as longa s you dont have to log on to the RBS website, wirelessley!!

I got an email form Richard Branson (Himself) yesterday saying that my 2mb connection will be increased to 10mb in the not to distant future! 8)

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

anything but sky

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Just get Virgin broadband, go VoIP for your phone and don't buy a £100 box that enables you to view every channel on the cable feed without paying for it because that would be illegal.

Never ever get a virgin phone. They charge 6p/call connection charge.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Forgetting the telly part - you need to look at the AUP etc for their broadband products.

I haven't in any detail so I cannot comment beyond the fact that I wouldn't use either as a Broadband provider...........

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Unless you get free calls in your package (which we do)

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I have a V+ box for sale as the feckers havent collected it yet...!

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

i would say it depends what you are after, i have virgin media, the on demand stuff is great. the only thing it lacks is HD channels, sky has more HD stuff, although VM has HD films on demand if thats what you want

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

We have that too.

Been with Virgin Media / NTL for 6 years.

If your on the top broadband package and its upgraded, they upgrade you free of charge, we went from 128KB > 1.5MB > 3MB > 20MB.

Great service, the free TV is only worth watching as they have Sky 1 now.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

So true, they are also expensive. but what the heck, work pay for my internet. I would love to be able to leave them for a provider who can supply me a /28 subnet, decent upload speeds etc. but I cannot get ADSL as the copper between me and the exchange isn't up to it.

BT visited me 3 times to install an ADSL line and said sorry we might be able to do something in 20 years when we do it all on fibre to the home.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Sounds like you would want to be speaking to BeThere.

They dont seem to mind me sharing Linux Distributions via Bittorrent @ about 100kbps most of the time, and still having the bandwidth for both me and the Mrs to browse the web - even including streaming iPlayer....

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Cheers all, I'll stick with Virgin for now, it suits my needs and I managed to get a V+ box out of them for £49.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

No point, I live about 8 miles from my exchange, I would need to have the old BT line re-activated(No phone here just VoIP) and the copper between me and the exchange has already been condemned.

My neighbour managed to get an ADSL connection from Tiscali. 256K on a good day, frequently dropping to dial up speeds. He was not happy.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

BeThere and other ISPs into unbundling are only worth talking to if their equipment is already in your exchange. Some of us will only ever have a choice of BT to provide our ADSL line, no matter who we pay our bill to.

Sky, TalkTalk etc who provide phone/ADSL packages only go into exchanges with a large number of customers where they are sure of ROI.

However being on a small exchange (200-odd lines) has the advantage of rarely getting network congestion (if ever) so service from BT is good.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I can only get Sky. I can't even get terrestrial tv.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Had NTL for years. Boxes slow as hell (bad software), internet great except when it wouldn't get going, never used the phone. Parents have Virgin, they have trouble too.

Now have had Sky for over two years. Sky+ is great when it works (have had to go onto Skyuser several times to get the secret installer menu instructions to sort what would otherwise have been an expensive engineer visit), can be affected by weather. Internet is great when it works, alas the router they initially sent was duff and it took months of angry phone calls before they replaced it.

In summary, both are crap.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I voted Sky. Had to really, since I work for them.

<ad>We're definitely best for High Definition - 31 HD channels at the moment, so if you've bought a shiny new HD TV, then Sky is probably worth it.</ad>

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Why? I work for BT and their Broadband is poop. I tell everyone that as well. :lol:

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

What makes you say it is crap? What is wrong with it as a systemic failure rather than local capacity issues?

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Another +1 for Virgin. Their customer service isn't the best when you have to use it but I believe the packages to be pretty good value. We get fast enough broadband (no idea what speed but it's quick enough for me, I don' do downloads or owt), phone with free evening and weekend calls, V+ with XL TV channels and Sky Sports for about £50 all in. The on demand stuff is great, as is the V+ facility.

Can't fault it really.

Cheers,
Matt

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Well, had the top package with Virgin Media in the old house and Stretchie will tell you as well that it was awful. If you want to have more than one computer connected either wired or wireless it's a stupidly overcomplicated process. Also, we had the 10mb broadband, but when tested, it was only just over 3mbs. Then, we had a couple of storms that threw the service out and it took three months to get everything back to normal. Then, I called to say I MIGHT BE moving, they checked and I couldn't have Virgin in Old Sodbury, so I said thanks and left it at that. Two days later, no services available as apparently I had called and cancelled the service.....I had said I MIGHT BE moving. We never got it back on. They said an engineer needed to come and reset the connection or something and there was a three week wait for that, then they double booked so it was another three weeks, then I told them I was now moving so they could take their service and shove it a certain somewhere.

Moved in here, got Sky total broadband, phone and tv package and we've not had one single problem. I had sky a few years ago too and had no problems then.

I have always found Sky to be really easy to use, really reliable and worth what you pay for it.

EDIT: Yes, Virgin+ is great for the on demand music and tv and when it did work, it was great. It's just when it went wrong, it went really wrong and we were left with no service for almost two months which is unacceptable when you work from home like I do.
A few years back, I had a problem with Sky and they were out two days later and the problem was solved!

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

As I said, customer service ain't the best but the packages are cheaper than Sky on a like-for-like basis!

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Its not that complicated to get more than one computer on the network?

Your customer service does sound typical of Virgin Media, when our internet down once they said you need to restart everything, did so. Then they set an engineer out a week later after it was one of the local exchanges down. Muppets.

Your speeds are strange though as the lines they run are cable I thought so the distance to the exchange was less of a difference to ADSL? (Soulkiss help?) Only thing I fault with VM is the crappy upload rate, get Be Broadband and then the rest with VM.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Ive never had any problem with virgin. we have two comps hardwired to the router and 4 laptops on wireless, no issues ever. except when we got cup off afternot paying the bill. but thats fair i guess!

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Not read all the posts but here's my opinion....

The only thing Sky has over Viring is the HD channels and the menus are a little quicker, other than that Virgin broadband is muuuuch better than sky, plus there are 3 tv cards with virgin so you can record 3 channels at a time, or watch 1 and record 2 others, which is 1 better than sky.

I will always choose Virgin if only for the broadband benefits.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

maybe I have been lucky with virgin, my 10mb broadband constantly averages 8.5mb when tested. I'm moving soon so hope that continues, you've worried me now ....:confused:

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I hear what you are saying about customer service, I have heard that from many others. As mine is a corporate provided service, I got great customer service the few times I used them. TalkTalk will (most likely) have an LLU service at your exchange so you got swapped out from BT's DSLAM which may have been limited to 2meg onto a TalkTalk DSLAM.

Just wondered why BT were rubbish because a large percentage of ADSL connections are over BT hardware, just re-badged and sold as someone else.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Don't seem to have too many problems at all with Virgin broadband, even when running a PC and two wireless laptops - just done a speed test now and got this:-

http://www.speedtest.net/result/432905268.png

Think I pay about £40 per month for 10mb, XL TV & phone with free calls. I think we have about 120 channels or so, however still sit there moaning that there is bugger all worth watching :rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I get less than half of what you et.
Thats using the server in Dublin, i have never been able to add one..
Which server did you use?

http://i386.photobucket.com/albums/o.../boradband.jpg

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

That's cos your on BT, and I am on Virgin - fibre optic cable, innit ;)

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Awww :(

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Plain old copper pair......

http://www.speedtest.net/result/432958844.png

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Ah, but what download speed are you PAYING for ;)

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I have moved recently and was looking at sky or virgin.
I decided to go with virgin in the end, I got the package deal of tv, phone (free evening and weekend calls) and broadband for £27 month. It does really depend on what you want but it has all the channels I need, the broadband is quite quick and never had a problem with the phone or anything, plus I found it was the cheaper option for what I needed.
I'll have to agree on the customer service tho it's not that great.
I have heard from a few people that BT and Sky isn't that good, very slow and is expensive with the extra costs, but it does depend on what you want from the service.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

I am 200 miles from the nearest server though :(

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

Well, having the laptops wired to the router worked ok, but as soon as we tried to get a second laptop on wireless, the connection on either the main PC or the original laptop would cut out.
Suirrel Hunter, El Saxo and Xan all tried in vain on numerous occasion to sort it out as we had no help from Virgin despite hours on the phone and in the end we just gave up and used whichever laptop was working or the main PC.

As for the speeds, the fibre optic cables mean there is little degredation in the speed from the exhange but it will depend on how many people in your area are sharing the bandwidth and when the fibre optic cables were installed. Where me and Stretchie used to live, that was about 30 years ago. Saxo just told me the cables at his were installed in 1990 and he has no problems, so I think it may just be a lottery of where you live and how the initial install was done. Ours, it would seem was bad!

The reason I like Sky is that when I had it a few years back and for the last 10 months of having it here we have not had one single problem. Anyone can come in the house and get their laptop online in a matter of seconds, we have really fast TV with the loading of the menu and I think the only thing that can be slow is when you want programme information sometimes, but I don't really notice it.

It would be a shame that we can't record more than 2 things at a time, having to watch one, but as you can now have a +1 channel on a lot of things and also watch most things back online, it hasn't bothered us yet.

I'll pay more for the lack of hassle that we've had with Sky.

Re: Virgin Media or Sky.
 

What GG said is right, the Virgin installation at their old house was a nightmare for some reason, it never worked properly.

However, my own experience with Virgin has been fine - I have the 20mb broadband, and I have a laptop, 2 desktops, 2 Nintendo DS and a Wii sharing the connection with no problems. Online gaming works great on the Wii and downloading from newsgroups is rapid & with no connection issues whatsoever. I think Stretchie & GG just got unlucky with their installation. The customer service team have always been decent with me too whenever I have had a problem, which sadly has been quite frequent with the TV service.

On that note, I'd say their broadband is great but don't bother with the TV (V+ Box) - if you want TV then go for Sky. For the money, Sky HD is the much better package.