News about O2’s Home Broadband and Home Phone Service

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

We have reached agreement with Sky for them to acquire our consumer Home Broadband and Home Phone business.

For more information on what this means, read more here: http://o2lin.kr/Z1CRJT

If you’d like to read our press release, it’s here: http://o2lin.kr/Z1zF10

O2 Social Media Team

[Anonymous]

---

@Toby wrote:

Hi joypip,

Your contract will not change, so any of the conditions on your contract will still apply. When I receive more details I shall let you know.

Keep posted on the FAQ page (link below) for more information, as well as on this thread.

http://www.o2.co.uk/broadband/broadbandchanges

Thanks, Toby

---

I presume that Toby is the hired-hand.  The contract WILL change.  It has already been announced that the email service will be drastically reduced.  The FUNDAMENTAL contract will not change - you'll continue to get a home broadband service.  That's it.  There's no obligation on Sky to provide anything else.  Start looking NOW for a supplier of your choice.  

[adamtemp64]

The email service will move to sky the o2 one will revert to a basic o2 email account that anybody can have. (will that be at date of handover to sky or when your existing contract finishes)

But until the deal is signed off by the regulators it is all guess work the main page here will be updated as and when the decisions are made http://www.o2.co.uk/broadband/broadbandchanges

[Anonymous]

As expected there seems plenty of dissent on here, presumably just what O2 expected. However I do feel some are acting rather too fast. I am prepared to wait and see what is actually on the table before doing anything, you may well end up with a better deal and service. I have no particularly allegiance to O2 (don't have an O2 mobile) and even less to Sky (watch very little TV so their TV offerings don't interest me). But I just cannot understand those who won't have anything to do with that company, it is after all just another company.

I am prepared to wait to see what they offer us, what the deal is for those of us who have BT phones with long to run payment in advance deals, and the likely timescales for individual exchanges to be moved to the Sky platform. If as seems likely it will happen over up to two years then the BT phone issue is not so relevant. I will then decide whether I will stick with the new deal or move elsewhere - fibre is also an option, via BT, Sky or whoever.

Realistically it is far too early to jump.

[Bambino]

A very calm and well thought out response. What's been happening here is nothing more than the typical knee-jerk reaction when something like this occurs. Nothing has been settled yet, and all the details are still to be disclosed. There's a case for a wait and see attitude, and then make up your mind when you have the full picture.

[Anonymous]

Just off the phone to the migration team. I'm actually moving to Sky early as their router seems better than the O2 one (searches for conflicting channels) and in addition, I went through Quidco, so get £50 cash back, 6 months free broadband and a free router 🙂 My O2 router seems to be playing up recently, so I was going to return it for a new one anyone.

Sky will be reconfiguring O2 routers to work with their system somewhere down the line as they're on the same fixed line system as O2 (Virgin aren't), so you'll keep your own router and in addition, I understand that if you stay with O2 you get 12 months free broadband.

O2 customer service has always been exemplary, hence I put my whole family on their broadband, but think Sky gets pretty good write ups nowadays for broadband, so I'm pretty relaxed about having Sky. They'll also be on a fibre network which O2 would never have rolled out, which makes future speeds and stability something to look forward to.

If you do move to Sky early as I have you don't even need a MAC code.

Which is nice.

[YorkshirePud]

I rarely frequent this forum but i felt very compelled to come by and comment.

Ive been with o2 as a mobile customer since 2003 when i finished Uni and was able to get a contract phone. I moved away from BT some years ago owing to the great deal you get with the discount on home phone and broadband and i am deeply concerned about what is going on, angry as well because of who sky are.

before i was made redundant i worked for a small IT company that resold broadband from Thus/C&W who had assimilated other previous companies and infrastructures in a Borg like fashion and this always had issues, and it never went quickly so at least there is some time before we move to sky, it wont just be flicking a switch. Having worked in the IT industry and having resold broadband ive worked with a number of ISP's and i was always amazed at how shambolic some of these were. my home broadband had better reliability than some of the Fibre connections that my previous company was supplied with, o2/BE were a niche and i loved that about them, now all this seems to be under threat. In my experience when these sort of buyouts/mergers occur the infrasturcture and customer service suffers.

Indeed yes many have said there are kneejerk reactions going on but i think peoples concern is justified considering who we are getting shifted to. I really really hope that whoever is going to look at this for approval takes a good strong hard look at it, personally i hope it doesnt go through. And i feel sorry for the employees at o2 who are no doubt having to deal with all the flak from this because i have always had excellent service from them. But this is sky, and where sky are concerned, it seems resitance..... is futile.....

I see a bad moon rising.

[Anonymous]

..yes waiting is fine Jonny, unless your one of the many like me who has his phone rental with BT (under contract) and his broadband with O2, we really need some answers pdq..

As it stands at present, Sky will not let you have broadband without taking their line and calls package, that for me is unworkable, i have no intention of changing my line rental to Sky just to save a few pounds..

There will surely have to be an option for people like myself to leave O2 before the end of our current contracts so that we can migrate to another ISP without having to go to Sky first...

[Toby]

Good morning guys, thanks for your thought this morning.

@About-to-leave, I can understand that the change of company ownership will present difference and doubt, but the fundamental aspects will remain to your service. I know that you need more detail than that as everyone will and I'll let you know as soon as I have that info

Hi gazza, davews, JonnyCJ and YorkshirePud. Thanks for your detailed posts, they have some great points and should be useful to other's too, which is what this community is all about.

Hi Allinoneword and biggered. I know that the lack of every details is frustrating and I'll update as and when I have more info.
As far as I know, you'll be able to use your router as detailed in the FAQs as you are and I'll get some more details on that.

As ever, keep posted on the FAQs on the main site, and keep posting your thoughts.

http://www.o2.co.uk/broadband/broadbandchanges

Have a lovely day

Cheers, Toby

[Anonymous]

davews, I'd argue that if you're so naive to current events as to not understand why people have a problem with Sky, then you should carry on in ignorant bliss! That's not meant to be provocative, I just find it hard to believe you don't get why people hate 'that company'.

With regards to potential changes I'd like to hear about:

Sky offer a maximum of 1.3Mb upload from what I can see. Users on The Works package should expect to be paying less if they are being held to their contract, seeing as there's a significant drop in upload speed. O2 now seems to be saying upload is 2Mb, despite the fact it was previously 2.5Mb. Whatever the case, that's still a big drop and I would not be prepared to pay the full package price unless Sky were to provide the full 2Mb (or 2.5Mb, in my case).

I'm on BT Basic, so if Sky think I'm suddenly going to begin paying them £14.95 a month for a phone service, they can think again.

At the end of the day, Sky will be looking to shaft us all as much as possible but there's obviously a team of marketing people sat around trying to work out how they can make it look like we're getting a good deal (without actually giving us one, of course.) No faith in Sky here, sincerely disappointed in o2's (or whoever the parent company is) decision to sell to them.

[Anonymous]

I moved my data sim to three, decided my mobile was useless and got rid of it, and I am going to see the woman next door tonight and ask if I can pay her internet bill for a month if I can use it.  (Work at home as a game dev, and may be offline for 1-3 weeks according to BE). 

So if nothing else, atleast I will never be an o2 customer again.

Selling to sky... how embarassing.