Sky Broadband vows network won't crumble following O2 and Be buyout

Sky Broadband promises network won't crumble following O2 and Be acquisition
O2 and Be Broadband are now owned by Sky

Sky has responded to concerns that its broadband network will not be able to handle the demands of extra customers following its acquisition of the O2 and Be Broadband brands.

The satellite TV giant last week agreed to pay £180 million to Telefonia in order to acquire both O2 and Be with a further £20m dependent on successful migration of customers to Sky.

Those customers will be moved onto Sky's unlimited and un-throttled packages later this year, adding to its existing 4.2m customers and making it the second largest ISP in the UK, after BT.

However, in January, the company was forced to admit that taking on too many new customers, had caused a slowing of download speeds for users in some areas of the country. Won't this problem be exacerbated by adding even more newcomers to the network? According to Sky it will not.

Extra capacity

The ISP told CNET UK that has been making and will continue to make the necessary infrastructure upgrades in order to cope with this influx of users, if and when those slowdowns occur.

In a statement the company said: "On the rare occasions where temporary congestion issues have arisen in specific exchanges Sky has moved quickly to upgrade them with extra capacity."

The company added that it would not be changing its policies of: "totally unlimited broadband with absolutely no usage caps or traffic management policies.

"Traffic is not shaped at any time on any application, by Sky on its network."

Sky customers and those coming over to its network are likely to remember those words if the ISP falls short on its promise.

Via CNET UK

Chris Smith

A technology journalist, writer and videographer of many magazines and websites including T3, Gadget Magazine and TechRadar.com. He specializes in applications for smartphones, tablets and handheld devices, with bylines also at The Guardian, WIRED, Trusted Reviews and Wareable. Chris is also the podcast host for The Liverpool Way. As well as tech and football, Chris is a pop-punk fan and enjoys the art of wrasslin'.

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