How are Sky and Eir physically connected?

Hi All, I'm looking at options for broadband, TV and landline at the moment. We have had everything through Virgin Media for years, and everything is connected at one physical entry point where the old 'piped' TV came into the house. Before everything was available this way, we had an Eircom landline, and the socket for that is still in the hall.

My question is, if we change to Sky or Eir, how will we be physically connected to the service? Would it be run through the phone socket in the case of Eir, or would it be a new line and connection for Sky? Or does it all come through the Virgin Media cable irrespective of supplier, same as electricity? Or are there differences in different areas, we are in suburban Dublin.

Sorry if these sound like very basic questions. It would require some internal wiring, in particular for the TV, if we had to use a different connection point, so I'm anxious to factor that hassle in if it's necessary before we change.

I appreciate the collective wisdom and knowledge of this forum, thanks in advance.

Eir will be via the internet/ wifi connection but from personal experience, would not be recommending Eir to my worst enemy, certainly the tv solution anyway.

Only Virgin services can be carried on their dedicated cabling. Most other options come via broadband via phone lines, and there are multiple providers with offerings there. Sky are pushing new connections to IP services over broadband, it's looking more and more like satellite TV's days are numbered.

Most modern IP TV boxes support wireless, so you may not need to run wiring from your modem to where your TVs are located.

I got a notice to say VM are upgrading me to full fibre which will open up sky and VF as supplier over the virgin backbone.

Eir have been a disaster

Use them in work on multiple sites and they are worse than useless.

Sky are a re-seller or Eircom broadband.

The Sky broadband will use the Eircom cables.

Protocol said:

Sky are a re-seller or Eircom broadband.

The Sky broadband will use the Eircom cables.

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So are all the other "providers" like Pure, Virgin,Vodafone,etc. out in the sticks. Only one cable out there- and that belongs to Eir.

No, Virgin have laid fibre and SIRO also have a fibre network

jpd said:

No, Virgin have laid fibre and SIRO also have a fibre network

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May be in some areas/towns- but not out here.

Out in the sticks, NBI have been layimg fiber. My brother and my dad have it, bro through Sky, dad through eir. No probs for either, I think. Close to a village Openeir have laid fiber, no probs for my MIL through Sky, BIL through eir.

Thanks all for your replies. I was talking to a Sky rep. in a shopping centre today. He checked out my address and says that they will connect separately from either Eir or Virgin Media. He said that they install a small socket inside the house and everything else is connected into this. The deal he offered me is a substantial reduction from our current package with Virgin Media, at least for the first 12 months anyway.

Only problem is we won't be able to sit the TV on the tiny TV box, the way we do with Horizon box at the moment !