View Full Version : Anyone that has skydigital? help on this.
anyone?
I moved from Virgin.
Anyway got the viewing card and it says the box needs a phone line?
Is this the case?
My Sky digital is going up stairs and the only phone was my old Virgin one that is now off.
anyone?
I moved from Virgin.
Anyway got the viewing card and it says the box needs a phone line?
Is this the case?
My Sky digital is going up stairs and the only phone was my old Virgin one that is now off.
I'm not on Sky but I'm sure I saw in their adverts recently that a BT line is essential. I hope for your sake someone says I'm wrong about that.
You are supposed to have a phone line (can be BT or Cable). From a technical point of view. the box only uses the phone line if you use pay per view stuff or some other interactive options.
If you have multiroom, you will need a phone line as Sky require all the boxes to be connected to prove you aren't sharing them with your friends.
fireman328
03-03-2007, 20:29
As far as I am aware Sky requires a return path, this is provided by the BT line.
I had cable phone up stairs but BT (main phone downstairs). If its for ordering films only then I never did that. I hope i can just get the standard box.
Dont wont the house turned upside down. Can the Sky guy add a phone Box upstairs, there is now way in hell its running down the side of the stairs etc. if it come to that then i'll have to cancel.
no you don't need a phone line anymore but i think you pay extra for installation (£25?)
free install, and trust me it will be!
Ps thanks EB048
handyman
03-03-2007, 20:35
The phone line allows the box to call in and give advertising information to a company that subsidise the cost of the box making your install free. Part of your contract with sky is that the line is connected for 12 months tpo the box. The sky engineer that fitted ours made a massive extention to reach our socket advising me to get a proper fitted extension sorted within 12 weeks.
The sky engineer that fitted ours made a massive extention to reach our socket advising me to get a proper fitted extension sorted within 12 weeks.
that will not work in my house!
If you don't connect it sky will charge you extra.
Result!
Sky- Digital getting installed on Tuesday the 6th
Phone and TV form Virgin Cancelled without notice due to the number of years I’ve been a customer and to top it off £10 off My BB for 12 months.
I’ve just to chuck my Ntl Box out as it was the original box and disconnect it all myself.
So basically by Tuesday I’ll have my skyone back and still have my Virgin BB for only £25 a month adding both sky and virgin together which works out £7 better off a month.
I felt sorry for the poor guy on the phone, yesterday they had a hell of a day. But at least he sounded like he knew what he was doing.
I had cable phone up stairs but BT (main phone downstairs). If its for ordering films only then I never did that. I hope i can just get the standard box.
Dont wont the house turned upside down. Can the Sky guy add a phone Box upstairs, there is now way in hell its running down the side of the stairs etc. if it come to that then i'll have to cancel.
Schadenfreude, anyone?
I guess I'll have to make the Cable Box a BT one!
As long as I've got my Skyone on tuesday I'll be happy.
Foreverwar a helpful comment if you please mate not immaturity, for a guy with those post counts you let yourself down…….”.I’m loving it”
iain_herts
03-03-2007, 22:04
right if u dont want to have any more wires run and u dont want to change the upstairs socket this is what u can do (save the installer time and he will love u for it)
wen the installer comes advise him that u only have 1 live phone point in the house and that you are haveing a new point fitted by bt a weeklater.
what he will then do is use his own extention lead to connect ur box up to do the callback. its what i used to do wen i worked for sky.
but if u have multi room he wont do this.
iain
Tezcatlipoca
03-03-2007, 22:26
The phone line connection is a requirement of the "Interactive Discount Contract" (IDC).
Sky give you the STB for free if you sign the IDC & agree to have the box connected to a phone line for 12 months.
Don't agree to the IDC, or don't connect the box to the phone line = Sky charge for the box (not installation - installation of a standard box is free if you subscribe to at least 2 mixes).
AndyCambs
03-03-2007, 23:00
Tell me if I'm wrong, but anytime you use interactive on Sky - you get charged for a phone call. Is that right?
Tezcatlipoca
03-03-2007, 23:16
Tell me if I'm wrong, but anytime you use interactive on Sky - you get charged for a phone call. Is that right?
Nope.
All the normal "Red Button" stuff (e.g. BBCi, Sky News Active, etc.) is free & does not involve the use of the phone line.
Things like the Dominos pizza ordering uses the phone & costs you, as do various other things which IIRC are pretty crap & pointless anyway.
Also, when it does need to go online for something you've told it to do, the box does warn you first.
THanks lads for some more info.
So its works fine without this connection when its set up.
Could i not just add the tel cable once every so often when is says?
its not a big deal i know as BT willl fit for free.
Plus i got a £10 credit off them, anyone know the price they want for the box?
AndyCambs
04-03-2007, 02:33
Well the terms and conditions for Sky are pretty clear:
Sky Box Terms and Conditions
Free Sky box offer: You do not have to subscribe to Sky digital. You must enter into an Interactive Discount Contract (IDC). Offer limited to one per household. You are ineligible if you have signed an IDC or taken up a Sky TV Month by Month equipment offer or your household has benefited from either. Sky selects your equipment.
Installation: Standard installation of your free Sky box is free. Standard installation for non-subscribers is £120. Non standard installation costs extra.
General: Your Sky box must be connected to a fixed telephone line for 12 months. You must get any consents required (e.g. landlord's). Installation may be subject to delay. Offers exclude Sky TV Month by Month customers. Further terms and conditions apply. Information only applies to residential customers in the UK, Channel Islands, and Isle of Man. Correct at time of print (December 2006).
Calls cost up to 8 pence per minute for BT customers. Calls from other providers may vary.
They check periodically if your phone line is connected, they aint daft enough to hope that the GBP will just leave it connected.
My brother-in-law had sky fitted xmas and has adsl, because he never had a splitter on the STB he was having issues with his adsl so he disconnected the STB until he could buy the new splitter, within 3 days sky were on the phone quizzing him as to why his phone line wasnt connected to his box and reminding him of the T&C's.
Dan_Sette
04-03-2007, 10:13
Yes. That happened to me also. When I had Sky installed I was still with BT and signed up to skytalk (or some such) You paid a fee and got certain call benefits. Over the two years I had it not one quarter was billed correctly. When they finally got it right I within three weeks I had a letter saying that the offer was finishing.
At that time I had just upgraded from an old Pace box to Sky+ and signed a new 12 month contract. I was so annoyed with BT I told them where to go and signed to Birmingham Cable. This gave me the chance to site phone points where I wanted which didn't include anywhere near the Sky+ box.
So I left it unplugged. I had a call within days to warn me the box should be connected. I told them why it wasn't, and it was partly Sky's fault, with their offer that changed price every month. They told me I should connect it within 90 days.
I forgot, and the Sky+ bit of the Sky box stopped working. It only came back when I got an extension and connected it to the B'ham Cable socket.
Dan
You can pay a small fee and not have to a line connected. But this is only on a single box installation. Multiroom requires a phone on all boxes.
“small fee” if it’s a case of small then that’s fine.
Last time I was on to BT They were offering BB with some wireless Router or there Home hub as they call it. They should do if free after all we out BT bill is quite large as they will see, think my last Virgin bill was 20p as I called a mate on it because his numbers was on the phone and not on my mobile.
I’ll get onto BT first thing, bend there ear.
Just a wee update! BT got hold of me as I emailed them first, it was probably free was the response, then over £100 to get a connection box upstairs when they phoned. So that’s not going to happen. :mad:
Your right about the small Fee its only £25 as I don’t have Multi-Room, so the £10 discount for ordering it online from sky and the £10 discount a month for 12 months for my Broadband off Virgin has it nearly covered within the first month.:tu:
So I’m back to £25 a month all in, but with all this Virgin and Sky thing you can probably get the £25 free wavered – well you have to try don’t you…..We will see tomorrow. :)
So will the red Button thing work on it then if its free from a phone line and that reminder thing that’s so useful?
downquark1
05-03-2007, 22:37
We obtained the boxes via 3rd party, so are we not subject to the 12 month rule?
Does the activation require both dish and phone connected at the same time?
(We are in a similar situation).
Tezcatlipoca
06-03-2007, 01:06
So will the red Button thing work on it then if its free from a phone line and that reminder thing that’s so useful?
Yep. As I said before, all the normal "Red Button" interactive stuff (BBCi, Sky News Active, etc. etc. etc.) does not use the phone line.
But if you want to order a pay-per-view movie, order a pizza, play certain crap games, or vote on certain things, then it does need a phone connection.... anything which requires the box to *send* info needs it.
---------- Post added at 01:06 ---------- Previous post was at 01:01 ----------
We obtained the boxes via 3rd party, so are we not subject to the 12 month rule?
Does the activation require both dish and phone connected at the same time?
(We are in a similar situation).
The 12 month phoneline connection contract (IDC, Interactive Discount Contract) is what you sign up to to get a free standard box.
If you didn't get the box from Sky, or a Sky supplier, for free then there won't be an IDC.
Boxes though? If you have Multiroom, Sky do require that *each* STB is connected to a phoneline, even if you bought them elsewhere, or have gone past the 12 month IDC if you got them free. As Stuart said earlier, Multiroom requires a phone connection for each box so Sky can check you haven't actually taken out the £10/month multiroom as a cheap subscription for someone else.
As far as I know the engineer will install it without the phone, I’ll get on later Quark!
Theres no problem connecting to the BT phone to register it.
It’s in and it’s great! Better picture than my old Virgin one but it was analogue and made a electrical noise-bless its now in an Amazon Box in the hut……
Tell you what that TV guide thing is great, you know what’s on and what coming on, even had that Reminder swap the channel when SG1 and Battlestar was on as I was on the Liverpool game….
A few interesting channels that I need to look more into like FX….Only hassle was that the install took all of about 20 mins if that by the two lads but its taken me about 5 hours to get everything back to normal with regards to Music systems which are connected to the Box now, Video/DVD player and even the PC., and all the crap back around the Desk.
So enjoyed my Battlestar and SG1.
With regards the box is not connected to the phone, the lads made a cable up and left it but as its only £25 I can live with it especially with the better picture, crisp sound and a shed of new channel I’ve never seen.
SMHarman
06-03-2007, 23:52
Tell me if I'm wrong, but anytime you use interactive on Sky - you get charged for a phone call. Is that right?to an 0800 number so there should be no charge, but if it were say an old NTL line wouldn't you get the 3p connection fee or whatever it was?
Tezcatlipoca
07-03-2007, 01:18
AFAIK, it's not 0800. I think it's 0845.
It is free though when the box does its random dial outs at night or whenever.
However, it does not dial out all the time with interactive - only for certain things, which require the box to send data (e.g. ordering PPV, ordering a pizza, certain vote things etc etc.).
Most "Normal" Interactive stuff (e.g. news on BBCi, multiscreen sport on BBCi, Sky News Active, etc. etc.), plus teletext, do not use the phone line at all.
That reminds me to call as its not on the phone! £25 to sky but cant be helped.
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