Sky Broadband 
Got an Xbox 360? Got an Xbox LIVE Gold account? Want to watch Sky TV without having to have a satellite dish installed? Well, now you can. Leading pay-TV platform and rising broadband star Sky has done a deal with Mircosoft which will allow the Sky Player video on demand platform to be accessed through any Xbox 360 console with a broadband connection.
Best thing about this is that you don’t have to be a Sky TV or Sky Broadband subscriber to watch Sky programmes on your Xbox 360. However there is a £15 monthly subscription for non-Sky TV customers wishing to make use of the Sky Player platform, and Sky TV customers on the Sky Broadband Unlimited package (20Mbps, Unlimited downloads from £10 a month) can get access to this service for free.
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Posted by Tom on October 29th 2009 in Sky Broadband
Sky’s the limit right? Leading pay-TV operator and rising star of UK broadband Sky is preparing to launch a new digital music service to rival the likes of Spotify and iTunes as well as Virgin Media’s recently announced Music Unlimited platform.
Called Sky Songs, the service launches on the 19th of October in a week’s time and will be available to anyone in the UK with broadband. Over four million songs will be available to both stream and download on a subscription basis.
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Posted by Tom on October 12th 2009 in Next Gen Broadband, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media
Sky is helping those getting ready for the Digital Switchover save money with a Sky+ and Sky HD TV bundle deal.
OK, so we know this strictly isn’t broadband-related news as the deal is based around the Sky TV packages, and it look like it will only available in those TV regions where the Digital Switchover is taking place. But you have to have Sky TV in order to get Sky Broadband and of course, Sky Broadband Base (up to 2Mbps, 2GB, £15 set up) is included free with a basic Sky TV and Sky Talk bundle deal.
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Posted by Tom on October 2nd 2009 in Broadband Bundles, Sky Broadband
An Ofcom report published yesterday suggests that the average download speed received by UK broadband customers is only just over half the speed of the average advertised rate. Data from the report shows that while the average broadband package is sold as “up to” 7.1Mbps, the actual average speed delivered is thought to be 4.1Mbps, little more than half the average theoretical maximum.
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Posted by Tom on July 29th 2009 in AOL, BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, O2 Broadband, Orange Broadband, PlusNet, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Tiscali, Virgin Media
Illegal downloads are on the wane in the UK according to a survey results published yesterday on Music Ally. A survey of 1,000 UK music fans suggested that illegal downloads and file sharing of audio content had decreased to 17 per cent in January 2009 from 22 per cent in December 2007.
Music streaming sites such as Spotify and YouTube are said to have contributed to the decline in P2P and torrenting.
Paul Brindley, the CEO of Music Ally said, “File sharing is a moving target, so industry and Government policies need to recognise this. It’s already being somewhat displaced by other means of accessing music for free. Some are licensed [Spotify] and some involve a bit of both [YouTube]…
Kids find services like YouTube much more convenient for checking out new music than file sharing. But even YouTube can become a source of piracy with some kids ripping YouTube videos and turning them into free MP3 downloads”.
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Posted by Tom on July 14th 2009 in 3 Mobile Broadband, BT Broadband, Be Broadband, Demon Internet, Eclipse Internet, Orange Broadband, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Virgin Media
BT has begun rolling out its next-gen fibre optic network in Muswell Hill in London, and in the Whitchurch area of Cardiff.
Roughly 15,000 properties are covered in each of the regions, and rival providers such as O2, Sky and TalkTalk are also reportedly taking part in the trials. We expect that this is to see whether or not BT could adopt an Openreach style platform with their new network.
BT expects to have up to 29 exchanges enabled with Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology by 2010, and to be providing fibre connections to 40 per cent of the population by 2012. Internal trials of the technology reportedly saw BT able to achieve download speeds of up to 40Mbps.
In addition to this, BT has also begun trials of Fibre to the Home (FTTH) services, which offer speeds of up to 100Mbps at a housing development in Ebbsfleet in Kent. A separate trial of this FTTH technology is set to take place in March 2010, and is said to cover some 40,000 UK homes.
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Posted by Tom on July 8th 2009 in BT Broadband, O2 Broadband, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk
Virgin Media may have reopened old wounds with a recent letter campaign. Despite the cable carrier and Sky kissing and making up last November it seems like the gloves are off again.
In a bid to add more customers, Virgin Media recently sent letters to the homes of broadband customers in cabled streets, highlighting ten reasons why going cable is better than signing up with Sky.
The letter, signed off by Mark Davidson Executive Director of Customer Care for Virgin Media, underlines the benefits of cable over both copper phone lines and satellite, both of which are used to deliver Sky Broadband and TV respectively:
“You don’t need a dish or an aerial because Virgin TV comes down a fibre optic cable (bad weather can seriously effect your viewing with a dish.) … The same fibre optic cable brings you fast, future proof Virgin Broadband at up to 50Mb the UK’s fastest.”
The letter then goes on to mention some of the various bundle deals on offer: Virgin Media L Broadband (up to 10Mbps, unlimited downloads) comes bundled with unlimited UK weekend calls (01, 02 and 03 numbers) and the M+ Digital TV offering (60 channels, free Catch Up TV) for just £19.50 a month, with no additional free for installation or connection. The offer of free connection ends on the 31st of July.
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Posted by Tom on July 7th 2009 in BT Broadband, Broadband Bundles, Carphone Warehouse, Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Tiscali, Virgin Media
Sky Broadband has just announced speed increases for its Mid and Max broadband packages, which are now known as Sky Broadband Everyday and Sky Broadband Unlimited respectively.
Sky Broadband Everyday now rocks with a top speed of 10Mbps, up from the original 8Mbps that was available when it was called Sky Broadband Mid. Unfortunately, this shift in speed also sees the monthly usage cap drop from 40GB per month to 10GB.
Sky Broadband Unlimited comes with a top speed of 20Mbps, up from the top 16Mbps available before, and as it’s name suggests, retains the same Unlimited usage cap that Sky Broadband Max customers enjoyed.
Other changes to Sky Broadband packages include the increase of Sky Talk line rental on all packages up to £11 a month, although this is not due to take place until the 1st of September.
From today, Sky is reducing the free trial period of McAfee Internet Security from 12 months to 3 months on Sky Broadband Base and Everyday. Sky Broadband Unlimited subscribers and those who have already registered for McAfee trial will continue to benefit from their 12 months free McAfee Internet Security service.
The picture to the right is of part of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. In a nutshell, the LHC shoots particles around a large underground circuit at mind-boggling speeds, and so the pic was chosen to reflect Sky Broadband’s recent upgrades.
Photo Credit: [CERN]
Posted by Tom on June 22nd 2009 in Sky Broadband
As well as offering Tiscali customers thinking of switching to Sky a free Sky+ box and £50 Credit, Sky are now giving everyone else the opportunity to qualify for free Sky+ with a Sky TV package if they switch from their current broadband provider, and take up the full line up of Sky’s services.
Normally costing you £49 when you sign up for Sky TV, the Sky+ box allows you to pause, record and rewind live TV. With Sky Active, you can also set your Sky+ box to record from your desktop at work or anywhere in the home thanks to the Remote Record service.
If you’re already with Sky and have the standard Sky Broadband Base package, then you can also benefit from upgrading to the Sky Broadband Mid and Max packages.
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Posted by Tom on May 19th 2009 in Sky Broadband, Tiscali
Sky has just launched a great promotional offer that is exclusively available to Tiscali broadband customers. From now until the 11th of June, Tiscali subscribers who switch to Sky Broadband will receive £50 credit, and will get a free Sky+ box thrown into the bargain.
This seems like a really good deal, as no-one really knows whats going to be happen with all those Tiscali TV boxes in June, when TalkTalk are supposedly migrating Tiscali customers. Plus, it sees punters making a saving of £99; £49 that you’d normally pay for the Sky+ box, plus the £50 credit.
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Posted by Tom on May 14th 2009 in Sky Broadband, TalkTalk, Tiscali
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