Will our multi room sky boxes work on the new fibre phone system??

[PDS66]

This whole new enforced fibre phone changeover is a pain in the backside!! 

Not only are we expected to rearrange our time to allow engineer visits for something we didn't ask for, we also may lose third party services that we as customers choose to pay for!. There are households out there with alarm systems and emergency contact systems in place that may not work with the new fibre system and it's down to us to then have to sort them all out with those providers!! 

How about you ask us what we have running at home before you go changing everything and potentially leaving us with stuff not working.

We have multi room sky boxes that have to be connected to a phone line to function properly. Why should  we have to have loads of additional cables run everywhere to make stuff work. Should we not be able to choose when we want to change over to the new service, like at a time when its all been tested properly to make sure it all works ok with what customers may need to have running and not be worried that something will not work properly if there's a power cut.

And to top it all you can't get hold of anyone on the phone to talk about it currently as the automated options system is a joke!

[Ashleigh_C]

Hi there @PDS66

Thank you so much for your first post and welcome to the community forums, we are very happy to have you here.

I am so sorry to hear that you are disappointed with this new change over, this is a government enforced change over that will effect all phone lines, the change over is due to be completed on all lines by 2025. 

We are very sorry again that you are disappointed again. 

[nodrogd]

Sky+ boxes no longer need a phone line connection. As long as they are connected to Broadband at the same location they will continue to work.

https://helpforum.sky.com/t5/Sky/Does-the-Sky-box-still-require-a-landline/td-p/3932720 

[PDS66]

So because it is a government enforced change over that means you can just do what you want with a couple of weeks notice and expect everyones add ons to work ok still?? Or better still you have the get out clause that is " It's all third party suppliers kit and nothing to do with us".

All that third party kit worked fine before the changes.

But to avoid any joint customer issues we have collected lots of useful info from all of our customers and we have touched base with the most commonly used suppliers and we are all putting together some helpful info and FAQ's before rolling out the changing over of systems over an agreed period of time to allow everyone to be sure that everything works ok.

[PDS66]

Hi.

I didn't say that it was a Sky + box issue. I'm fully aware of how that works as I have it situated close to our WIFI router. We have a couple of old sky boxes that are supposed to be connected to a phone line otherwise they keep showing messages about certain services not working. We have considered the Sky Q boxes but I don't like the restrictions on the number of boxes that can be in use at the same time. We have looked at getting rid of Sky altogether as its more expensive when compared to virgin TV, even with the Sky bits added in. Not sure what we can run the Virgin TV Go on? We have Smart TV's upstairs and have Virgin wiring to one room already. Shame Virgin don't do a version of Sky Q yet??

[Roger_Gooner]

Of course VM has an alternative to Sky Q, the V6 was launched almost six years ago and now the replacement is the 360 (with up to two minis), all boxes are 4K and HDR.

All boxes must be connected by coaxial cable and to VM's hub for networking by Ethernet cable or WiFi.

[Reece_MH]

Hi @PDS66,

We understand your frustration with this completely. As mentioned previously, this is a Government enforced change, and as a result, we are required to begin this changeover. We contact customers within 3 months of this change, through various channels such as email and text. 

I understand that 3rd-party equipment may prove to be an issue with this - however, these businesses/product providers are aware that this change is mandatory and will be the only method of telephone line by 2025, therefore, they should already be making changes to their own products to provide compatibility. From my experience, most providers now offer compatibility for the Fibre Phone service.

As @Roger_Gooner has mentioned, we do offer an alternative service, and you can find out more about the TV360 Service, here.

Thanks,

[PDS66]

So it's a cabled option to Sky Q which works over WIFI?? We have 2 multi room boxes currently but want to get it up to the loft conversion room without having to drill any additional holes anywhere. The issue with the Sky Q boxes is you can only watch TV on 2 of them at a time and I think they come off your Sky Go count as well?

[Molly_T]

Apologies PDS66 we are limited in our knowledge of 3rd party products and services. 
If you have any specific questions about our TV boxes and services we will be more than happy to answer these and offer further support with them?

The help page posted by Reece above does include a pretty comprehensive FAQ's section, which will hopefully help!

You can have up to 3 boxes with our TV services. The TV360 option has a main box and 2 mini boxes. These do require a COAX connection (This is because they do not have a hard-drive for recordings, so they connect to the main box so you can watch these across any of your TV360 devices). You can use all 3 of these at the same time. 

You also get access to our TVGO service. You can read more about TVGO here: Download the Virgin TV Go app! | Virgin Media. This allows you to watch TV online across 5 registered devices, you can change these 3 times per month. 

Hope this helps! Let us know if there's any other specific questions and we will do our best to help. 
All the best. 

[Roger_Gooner]

As I said, the VM minis support 4K and HDR, so are superior to Sky's minis. You will have to have holes drilled for the coaxial cable to the loft, but the same holes can be used for the Ethernet cable (which virtually guarantees problem-free performance - unlike WiFi). This installation only has to be done once, so why is it a problem. Furthermore reliable WiFi can be obtained by connecting a wireless access point to the Ethernet cable.