View Full Version : Phone line to get Sky TV
Why?
Does anyone work for them and fancy enlightening me as to why you need a working phone line to get Sky TV?
I'm living in a newly built flat and I refuse to pay BT the greedy and excessive £125 fee to connect up a new phone line (when the engineer came to sort the neighbours phone line, he was in the building less than 30 mins. How the hell is that worth £125?!), but I'd like to get Sky as I'm currently looking to get a fairly decent LCD TV in the new year.
My parents have told me that when their phone line goes down, so does the Sky. I'm genuinely intrigued as to what Sky use your phone line for?
They insist you have one at installation, but you do not need it - disconnected mine ages ago mate and Sky is fine.
I believe updates on the box are done by phone line, however the real reason is for to purchase Sky Box Office and films, or the interactive service. It is not needed to be honest.
That's a quick reply! Thanks! So I'm probably going to have to fork out for a phone line I won't need or use then :rolleyes: This moving house lark is getting more expensive all the time and I've been moved in nearly 6 months!
Just tell them you dont have a landline, see what they say mate - Sky does not NEED it.
This is NOT strictly speaking true... If you have a multiroom setup, it uses the phone to establish both boxes are in the same house otherwise they charge you for 2 subscriptions...
Just tell them you dont have a landline, see what they say mate - Sky does not NEED it.
I'll give them a ring when I'm back home and ask, I just thought I might find out why they needed it before being put on hold by them for half an hour :d
This is NOT strictly speaking true... If you have a multiroom setup, it uses the phone to establish both boxes are in the same house otherwise they charge you for 2 subscriptions...
I live in a one bedroom flat, so multiroom is hardly an option for myself :d
PM Todd I am sure he works for them.
I live in a one bedroom flat, so multiroom is hardly an option for myself :d
Single box not a problem unless it is sky+ in which case it won't activate.
Single box not a problem unless it is sky+ in which case it won't activate.
So the interactive stuff uses your phone line then?
So the interactive stuff uses your phone line then?
Some yes, ie the pay stuff, the free stuff like bbc red button and that used to work just fine for me.
Some yes, ie the pay stuff, the free stuff like bbc red button and that used to work just fine for me.
Think I'll be cheeky and see if I can get away without then - I'm sure I'll live without the pay per view stuff. At least to start with anyway!
So the interactive stuff uses your phone line then?
Yep. The RED interactive bit is through the phone line. Never had it connected. Ever.
Didn't know about the Sky Plus though. :)
Big problem is it is part of the initial contract, when they give you the box, you are tied to a contract for 12 months, much like a mobile. They might refuse to install without phoneline.
You might get away with putting a box in the house next to the sky box with a bit of cable, and just claim your line is faulty and BT are coming out to fix it. Might help to have a phone on the side or something. (Or so I've heard :) )
Big problem is it is part of the initial contract, when they give you the box, you are tied to a contract for 12 months, much like a mobile. They might refuse to install without phoneline.
That's the other thing actually. The building has a communal Sky dish on the roof, so I wouldn't need to pay the setup fees for an engineer to install that. I was half hoping to be able to bag a used Sky box off fleabay and setup a Sky contract over the phone.
they use the phoneline to id you as a phone line is a contract
you can get sky through your mobile instead if its a contract i used too
We use our sky hd box without a line into the box, we just dont have access to the interactive services etc.
I think it is in the contract that you must keep the line into the box for the first 12 months, I have heard of people over on avforums on the multiroom package being fined a months subscription for not having all their boxes plugged into the lines as sky think they have sold the boxes and cards, I am pretty sure sky send a signal down the line to check the boxes are at the address they are registered at.
We use our sky hd box without a line into the box, we just dont have access to the interactive services etc.
I think it is in the contract that you must keep the line into the box for the first 12 months, I have heard of people over on avforums on the multiroom package being fined a months subscription for not having all their boxes plugged into the lines as sky think they have sold the boxes and cards, I am pretty sure sky send a signal down the line to check the boxes are at the address they are registered at.
Aah. Before my time.
Still just threaten 'em with cable. :)
We use our sky hd box without a line into the box, we just dont have access to the interactive services etc.
I think it is in the contract that you must keep the line into the box for the first 12 months, I have heard of people over on avforums on the multiroom package being fined a months subscription for not having all their boxes plugged into the lines as sky think they have sold the boxes and cards, I am pretty sure sky send a signal down the line to check the boxes are at the address they are registered at.
So if your box isn't plugged in at all, it will simply register on their check as not being used anywhere?
I'll ask them all these questions when I ring, I just want to try and understand their logic beforehand :)
i have had sky since it started, think i am paying about £45 a month now but rarely watch it, tried to cancell a few times but they just keep passing you over to someone else till you end up hanging up:blink: the last time i was that pissed off i waited and waited finaly got through to the cancelation supervisor, and the sod convinced me to stay at half price another year, the saga continues, never had my phoneline connected:D and don,t get me started on bloody bt;)
never had my phoneline connected:D and don,t get me started on bloody bt;)
I really really really really want to avoid installing a phone line due to:
1)The incompetence of BT that I've experienced in the past
2)I never use one - free minutes on my mobile or a few pence every minute on the landline? It's a no brainer!
It seems like I'm going to need one installed, but I'll see what they say in the New Year when I ring them.
i had sky multi room put in the stupid engineer ran a phone line across my hallway floor as we were decorating a the time consequentially i tripped up it and ripped it out the phone box now they keep sending me letters saying they will charge me another tenner a month if i dont get it reconnected, ive rang them and told them its their fault and until they come and sort it out properly im not paying. But convieniently i work 12 hours a day so im never in for them to come. dont seem to be able to give me a good enough reason to why it needs to be plugged in to phone anyway.
i had sky multi room put in the stupid engineer ran a phone line across my hallway floor as we were decorating a the time consequentially i tripped up it and ripped it out the phone box now they keep sending me letters saying they will charge me another tenner a month if i dont get it reconnected, ive rang them and told them its their fault and until they come and sort it out properly im not paying. But convieniently i work 12 hours a day so im never in for them to come. dont seem to be able to give me a good enough reason to why it needs to be plugged in to phone anyway.
I'd lose it if some git told me I had to get something that's none of their business done.
Followed by a call to Virgin Media. :d
Followed by a call to Virgin Media. :d
I'm kinda after Sky Sports though - do Virgin Media do that?! :confused:
I think you DO need it plugged in the phone line as my box started playing up recently so i rang sky and they asked if it was plugged in to the phone line (which i thought it was) and for some reason it wasn't connected (pulled out by mistake at some point i guess). She told me to plug it in and leave it for a while as updates would be sent along the box to try and fix it and sure enough it worked :)
Single box not a problem unless it is sky+ in which case it won't activate.
My Sky+ aint connected to the phone line ;)
Soonto"HAS"soop
31-12-07, 09:19
I've had two mates boxes go down after they had the cable disconnected. They both didn't like the big brother idea of Sky seeing what they where doing and Sky admitted to sending some updates that you would have to receive or face a bricked box. Due to this, they both got new free boxes.
Just spoken to some woman at Sky. Apparantly you don't need a phone line, but you can only have regular Sky. She also said that if anyone has a Sky+ or SkyHD box unplugged, they will catch up with them eventually.
It's apparantly used for monthly "Callbacks" to the box. This provides Sky with any info on pay-per-view services you've used that month so they can bill you correctly. It will also mean any interactive services won't work.
Gonna have to see if I can blag using my neighbours phoneline I think :d
If you had a friendly neighbour you could get them to get an extra digibox installed in their bedroom and then remove it to your house by extending the cables to give you sky too for half the cost.
You could probably buy a quad LNB and Digibox and install it yourself and then phone Sky and ask them to turn on the multiroom subscription.:blink:
If you had a friendly neighbour you could get them to get an extra digibox installed in their bedroom and then remove it to your house by extending the cables to give you sky too for half the cost.
You could probably buy a quad LNB and Digibox and install it yourself and then phone Sky and ask them to turn on the multiroom subscription.:blink:
I'm currently thinking along these lines! My sisters bf is an electronics "geek", as it were, and he mentioned there are wireless devices available in case you haven't got a phone line in the room the Sky box is in.
I might see if I can get one of those, use the neighbours phone line (already asked and she said OK, so long as she can abuse my Sky Sports subscription :)) then Bobs your uncle, fannys your aunt, job's a good un.
I also won't need installation fees as the flats I'm in have a communal Sky dish on the roof. Might try and pick up a cheap box on fleabay or similar.
I'm currently thinking along these lines! My sisters bf is an electronics "geek", as it were, and he mentioned there are wireless devices available in case you haven't got a phone line in the room the Sky box is in.
I might see if I can get one of those, use the neighbours phone line (already asked and she said OK, so long as she can abuse my Sky Sports subscription :)) then Bobs your uncle, fannys your aunt, job's a good un.
I also won't need installation fees as the flats I'm in have a communal Sky dish on the roof. Might try and pick up a cheap box on fleabay or similar.
If you are going to do that, why not get a mirror box for your 'spare room' which by default has all the same channels as the sky+ box.... Might be of benefit to your neighbour. Run a phone line to both sky boxes and perhaps at the same time put a bit of coax which could run all the way to your neighbours place...
That is of course if you want to be really friendly and to your neighbour.
Might also be a way of lower subscription costs (nudge nudge)
EDIT : Seeing that you already have the coax, perhaps a wireless phone line extender might sufficient for the 'two' boxes
http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page22.htm
If you are going to do that, why not get a mirror box for your 'spare room' which by default has all the same channels as the sky+ box.... Might be of benefit to your neighbour. Run a phone line to both sky boxes and perhaps at the same time put a bit of coax which could run all the way to your neighbours place...
That is of course if you want to be really friendly and to your neighbour.
Might also be a way of lower subscription costs (nudge nudge)
Would that be on a non-multi room subscription then? So the girl next door will have to watch what I'm watching?!
Also, the neighbours encouraging me to get Sky cos of my new TV :d
Would that be on a non-multi room subscription then? So the girl next door will have to watch what I'm watching?!
Also, the neighbours encouraging me to get Sky cos of my new TV :d
No, you get a mirror subscription, I believe it is £15 extra....
And for that you get a 2nd box which is completely independent.
http://mysky.sky.com/portal/site/skycom/skyproducts/skytv/boxes/multiroom Sorry, it is a £10 extra.
Heard some good stuff from Virgin lately. Stops us having to spend loads.
Have to get into it.
End of day, we're better off.
How's this for good business, I'll reduce your output by half, take the residual for myself, everyone happy???
Needs to be done. IMO.
Heard some good stuff from Virgin lately. Stops us having to spend loads.
Have to get into it.
End of day, we're better off.
How's this for good business, I'll reduce your output by half, take the residual for myself, everyone happy???
Needs to be done. IMO.
Couldn't quite make sense of that, but it has been a long day on the spanners in the cold.
I'm with virgin with the 3 way package (tv, phone, broadband). V+ box and a standalone box. Can't complain really, customer service is better than it was and is actually helpful. Don't have sky one, can't say I've noticed that I've missed anything. Most of the viewing in this house is discovery channels.
Couldn't quite make sense of that, but it has been a long day on the spanners in the cold.
I'm with virgin with the 3 way package (tv, phone, broadband). V+ box and a standalone box. Can't complain really, customer service is better than it was and is actually helpful. Don't have sky one, can't say I've noticed that I've missed anything. Most of the viewing in this house is discovery channels.
Know where you're coming from Gav Fortuneately you're with a sound provider. Thought they were crap at the start, lol,but now Virgin is giving people what they need.
I'm paying for 8 meg bb getting 1.93 because BT reckon we can't sort this out.
Had the guy out at a cost of £90 the other day. Sussed I had better security than him in about 5 secs. Couldn't tell me how to improve though. Good luck bud.:)
Single box not a problem unless it is sky+ in which case it won't activate.
My Sky+ aint connected to the phone line ;)
Just spoken to some woman at Sky. Apparantly you don't need a phone line, but you can only have regular Sky. She also said that if anyone has a Sky+ or SkyHD box unplugged, they will catch up with them eventually.
I have had sky for 6 years and only ever had the phoneline connected for the initial 12 months. The minute 12 months was up cable went into a draw and has stayed there since. I have now been on Sky+ for two months and my Cable is still in the Draw. My bro in law who is an ex Sky engineer told me they say you need to have it plugged in to scare you into doing so, only so that they can feed information of you though.
So, long story short you do NOT need your phoneline connected.
I have had sky for 6 years and only ever had the phoneline connected for the initial 12 months. The minute 12 months was up cable went into a draw and has stayed there since. I have now been on Sky+ for two months and my Cable is still in the Draw. My bro in law who is an ex Sky engineer told me they say you need to have it plugged in to scare you into doing so, only so that they can feed information of you though.
So, long story short you do NOT need your phoneline connected.
Insider information! That's what I've been after! Thanks! Looks like I'm going to have to sort something through the neighbours phone for 12 months. It sounds quite creepy that they gather information on you. Not unexpected, but creepy.
we got multi room and sky+ installed. one of the extensions for the multiroom was faulty and we got a letter from sky basically saying, check and reconnect your phoneline within 14 days or we will have to charge you for 2 subscriptions. they were nice about it though. letter was very well put.
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