[RainmakerRaw]

As above the SH delivery fee is meant to be around a fiver. That said, I've never ever paid for new equipment in the past (at any amount, under any pretext) - right back to the Telewest days. Any time VM have tried to charge me I just point out they're trying to charge me for equipment they will still own, and that Sky would happily send me free equipment... The phone operatives don't really care, in my experience. It just seems to be policy to at least try to get money out of you before they (easily) relent and supply for free.

On a related note, I'm in a similar boat (re: wanting the 300Mbps upgrade). We currently have Vivid 200 Gamer with standard Homeworks. The latter was thrown in free during a contract renewal as Homeworks+/300Mbps wasn't available in our area at the time. So, what exactly is required for an area to be capable of / compatible with the 300Mbps service?

We were (finally!) recently upgraded to 24 downstream channels (from 8), and now receive a solid >200Mbps 24/7 without any slow periods even at peak times. I know 300Mbps requires 24 channels, but is this the only criteria? I don't want to go through the hassle of calling VM and jumping through the hoops, only to be told 'It's not available in your area yet Sir' again. Sorry to hijack your thread OP but given the context it seemed pointless to open a similar new one.