Simply put - IT DOESN'T EXIST!!! Brits (including Scots) like to moan about things that they can't control, so I thought I should do the same!
We moved into out flat at the beginning of Sept. As soon as we moved I called
BT (British
Telecom) and Sky in order to get phone, TV and Internet up and running.
After 12 days, my phone line was activated by
BT. Why did this take almost 2 weeks when the last tenant had
BT as well? I don't know (I have heard this can take up to 2 months so I will count myself lucky). Getting the phone line active was key because sky will not do anything (even install satellite
TV) until your phone line is active.
Now that the phone line is active, the Sky contractor comes out to install Satellite TV (he doesn't do anything with Internet, that is a separate department that I need to deal with).
When the sky contractor comes out to do the box installation (which is completely unnecessary in my case since all I really need is the box (satellite already installed and wired), which I should have been able to pick up from a store), he hooks the box up to the phone line. There are 3 reasons for this;
1. From the consumer point of view, this is how you can order additional programming, etc (because the box calls sky through the phone).
2. From the contractor point of view, this is how they get paid, i.e. they notify sky through the phone line that they have done the installation.
3. For the first year of service, sky does randomly checking to ensure your box is matched to your local phone number to ensure you are in the UK (I guess you are no supposed to have sky outside of the UK), but after you have been a customer for a year I guess you could take the box anywhere (I might have to try this when we come back to the states).
So, after 3 weeks, I finally have TV, but no Internet. I called Sky to figure out what I needed to do to get Internet up and running, but there was a problem, somehow the phone number I was given, still has broadband attached to it from the previous user, and sky has to call
BT to remove the broadband from the line, before they will do anything for me. So, maybe after 4 weeks in our place we will have Internet!
In connection with getting the TV up and going, I was checking out the connections. We have a standard TV in our flat, a dvd player, and a Sky digital satellite box. All these devices are hooked up through SCART cables (see picture). Its a huge old school looking cable (picture the old printer connections that were used before USB became the standard) that has been around since the 70's and is the standard in Europe. They have upgraded it over the years to get better picture and sound quality out of it, but I think its days are numbered. Currently, it video quality is the same as analog RGB cables or S-video, but it is destroyed by new technology such as component video or HD technology.
