SKY require 'available' phone line...?

[Andyajh1977]

Hi,

I have just moved into a house where the previous owners had sky installed and a BT phone line. When leaving the address they had the phone line disconnected. I have arranged for Sky to be installed and they are installing sky tv and then sky talk 10 days later.

One requirement of installing sky tv is that 'a BT phone line must be available'. Is my phone line classed as 'available' even though I have no active line? Do I need to pay BT to re-activate my line before sky can install my sky tv? Can I do this without entering into a contract or paying a large amount of money?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Andy

[Rick]

You'd have to speak to BT about charges, I would suspect a 12 month contract.

Sky Talk will require the BT Line, and so will the reciever, unless you pay £25.00 to forgoe the interactive agreement. Or you have multiroom where you must have both recievers connected to the same phoneline.

[Andyajh1977]

Thanks for the reply. I'a bit confused as initially I arranged for BT to re-activate the phone line and I agreed a 12 month contract. However, I immediately cancelled this when sky told me that if I signed up to them that they would approach BT on my behalf. However, sky don't do the sky talk switch until 10 days after the broadband/tv installation which requires the phone line to be 'available'. I suppose my question is: Is 'Available' the same as 'active'?

[stevieboy10]

here's some food for thought m8, when i initially wanted sky they told me the same thing about needing an active bt line, so i called bt and asked them for an engineer to call and reactivate my line. although something went wrong and they had too give me a different installation date 2 weeks after sky install date. so i said nothing and when the sky engineer came i told him what happened aso he proceeded with installation. needless to say as soon as he left my house i phoned bt back and cancelled the reconnection, and my sky service worked as well as ever.

[brian]

You don't "need" a phone line to watch Sky TV through a normal Sky box and satellite dish - I believe it simply offers "enhanced features".

My Sky+ box isn't connected to the phone line at all, TV runs fine, we get the red buttons, extra games, etc, so I'm really not sure what we're supposed to be missing out on.

However, you will need an active BT line for Sky Talk, though - but sounds like you've got that addressed.

[TheCoder]

Originally Posted by brian

You don't "need" a phone line to watch Sky TV through a normal Sky box and satellite dish - I believe it simply offers "enhanced features".

Exactly right, there's no requirement to actually have an active phoneline on a non multi-room setup although you do have to pay an extra installation charge as you wont get the 'interactive' subsidy.

Sky rarely tell you this as they seem desperate to have people connected to the interactive services. I suspect this is because they like to collect info on customers viewing habits. If you have taken the subsidy, then you need to keep the phone connected for 12 months only, after which you can do as you please !

[nvingo]

On the side of the marketing van that's regularly in the local shopping centre, I noticed they're now pushing free HD receiver, free installation, no BT line required.

[iain66]

I have no phone line to my property and had to pay the £25 manual install fee, but when my HD was installed the viewing card hadnt arrived so had to do it myself and complained and was refunded the £25