UPC or Sky?

Hi,

I have my TV with Sky and Brodaband/Phone with UPC and am generally very happy with both services except for the cost.

Every now and then I look to move it all to UPC but Sky come up trumps with a reduced package for 6 months and I stay with them. Then this ends and it takes me 4-6 months before I get around to arguing with them again.

I would be interested in moving all to UPC but have some reservations:

I have Sky with 1 extra box, Sports and kids channels etc - whenever I ring sky they tell me the UPC package is dearer for the same service but if it is its only marginally so from what I can see (I know this should be easy to figure out but its deliberately not)

My reservations on moving all to UPC are:

1. Quality - the broadband although great in terms of speed can die for no apparent reason every now and then - wouldn't want this happening with the TV.

2. Quality - had NTL before and the quality was patchy. Throwing all into the one basket puts me at the mercy of their serivce - at least now if the broadband goes the family can watch TV

3. Channel choice - I know I need to research this properly but its really the kids channels I'm worried about - do both packages have the same? Don't want to cut off whatever random channel Power Rangers are on!

4. Price - Does anyone have any opinion on this? Combined I am paying €135 a month for both services - surely there's a cheaper option?

Thanks

BS

IMO Sky for TV is better than UPC. Number of reasons for this but I find the EPG a lot easier to use, the channel selection far better and the service much more consistent.

Now Sky have released their phone and BB offer in Ireland it might be worth you looking at moving everything in that direction. Depends of course on whether you have an Eirecom phone line into the house and what the connection/activation fees would be.

I am paying about 70 a month to upc for TV, broadband & home phone (Anytime 100). I have always been with that company, going back to their Cablelink days.

Customer service has iomproved a lot over the last few years. Being on hold for 20 minutes is, for me, a thing of the past.

The big advantage of upc is broadand speed. I am on 50 Mb download, and the SKY broadband offering is, I believe, supplied by eircom. eircom line speeds are nowhere near 50Mb (If I have that wrong, someone is sure to clarify ).

Channel line-ups vary. The one channel I want buit cannot get on upc is SKY Atlantic. The prices for the add-ons, like Sports & Disney, would be similar (upc higher than SKY There are loads of channels on upc that I never watch. I assume the same would be true too of SKY.

I have been with upc for all 3 services since October and all is good so far. Losing broadband and/or TV has not been an issue.


Also, upc are continuing to improve their offerings, most recently with Horizon TV. This allows you to watch certain channels using an iOS or Android app, via your upc broadband service, i.e. can't watch it on 3G or a different wifi connection.

Hello,

In my view, you might first want to contact Sky, to check out details on part of their sales pitch relating to the Broadband service they are selling. The people before me, are correct, it is with Eircom .... who Sky say, are starting to upgrade their lines. So the big question is... when will it be available to you and then, what download speed will you get ?

In my view, you currently have the best services from each provider. Sky TV is definitely better, in terms of quality of broadcast, superior sound and more choice of channels, not to mention such services as SkyGo ... UPC is however better, for broadband at present.

I'd suggest you immediately get on the phone to both service providers and press them for a discount, clearly telling them it's too much and you can move everything to the other competitor for a significant saving. Both should offer you something ... now you've saved some money in the short term.

Next, get into Sky (who will probably send you to Eircom in turn) and see if you can find out when they are upgrading the broadband service near you ... if and when this happens, it's time to move and quite possibly to Sky in my view, but perhaps not beforehand if you value your top rate broadband.

Just my personal opinion.

Regards

Mr. Earl.

I'm in the same boat as you Bigspender. I hope to move to Sky later in the year for the lot.
I tried UPC two years ago for phone & broadband but the phone was useless, calls weren't coming through. If you are getting dropped signals with UPC the phone also won't work. They let me out of my contract because they couldn't fix the problem with the phone. I went back some months later from eircom to UPC broadband which is excellent.

The Sky website will tell you if you can receive they're broadband service via your phone number and Eircom UAN. I can't vouch for how reliable this is however, and obviously, if you don't already have an Eircom line this may complicate things.

Just to throw this into the mix, I'm currently with UTV for phone and BB and have found them to be consistently cheaper than any other provider. Their BB speed is dictated by the hard line but Eircom are constantly contacting me to see if I'll switch back and even with their new customer offers averaged over the first 12 months they are more expensive than I'm paying for UTV.