In this article we’ll review Sky Broadband’s Essential, Superfast and Ultrafast fibre broadband deals. We’ll also cover Sky Broadband Boost and check out customisable options.
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Sky Broadband offers three different types of broadband plans in the UK and all these services come with a Sky Broadband Hub. Sky charges you £9.95 for the delivery of the router regardless of your plan choice & there’s also a £10 connection fee.
The network’s Essential Broadband plan (11Mbps) is ideal for emailing, shopping, banking and other light internet activities. Their Sky Broadband Superfast plan offers five times faster download speeds (59Mbps) and 16 times faster upload speeds (16Mbps). Sky’s fastest service is called Ultrafast Broadband and it offers an average download speed of 145Mbps and has a 27Mbps upload speed.
You can also purchase an add-on called Sky Broadband Boost. This add-on will get you Wi-Fi in every room of your house. Sky also checks your connection daily and if they see a problem they aim to fix it right away.
You can also get customised broadband deals from Sky, which may include Netflix, BT Sport, Sky TV, Sky Sports and more.
Sky Broadband is a broadband service offered by Sky UK. The network offers three main broadband plans to choose from and they’re all 18-month contracts, locking you in for quite a bit of time. All Sky Broadband services offer unlimited data.
On the bright side, Sky guarantees you’ll get the speed they promised, or you’ll get your money back. Obviously, you won’t be charged for cancelling your contract either. Customers who subscribe to any Sky Broadband packages will receive the Sky Broadband Hub as standard. Keep in mind that your broadband won’t work until your activation date.
There are three different plans to choose from, if you wish to get a Sky Broadband deal without the extras such as Netflix, BT Sports, Sky TV and Sky Sport. These services are: Sky Broadband Essential, Sky Broadband Superfast and Sky Broadband Ultrafast.
If your download speeds drop below your guaranteed minimum for 3 consecutive days or more you can claim your money back regardless of your choice of plan. If you already have an active line with Sky, an engineer won’t be needed. You can simply connect your Sky Hub yourself on the install date. If not, an Openreach engineer will need to install your broadband service.
All Sky Broadband plans are 18-month contracts and their broadband services are inclusive of line rental. We’d also recommend checking Sky Broadband deals during Black Friday Sales. You might pick up a great discounted deal.
This is Sky’s entry-level home broadband deal, but we think it’s better to skip this service, unless you have a specific reason for choosing it.
Sky Broadband Essential offers 11Mbps download speeds and 1Mbps upload speeds. If you’re the only person using the internet in your household these data speeds may work for you. However, 1Mbps upload speed is really slow and 11Mbps is barely enough for streaming full HD content, let alone 4K. Buffering happens when your download speed is too slow to download the amount of data needed and if multiple people are using an 11Mbps connection at the same time, even full HD streaming might be problematic.
Sky Broadband Essential | 11Mbps Download | £25/month |
Keep in mind that this is also the estimated average download speed, as you might get slower data speeds in your area. Even if you’re just going to use your connection for checking your emails, shopping online and paying bills etc. this plan is far from ideal.
Sky Broadband will also provide you a new router: Sky Broadband Hub (SR203). You’ll be charged £9.95 for the delivery of the hub. You’ll also pay £10 for the connection fee. If you already have an active line and service, Sky can take over the line at no extra cost.
For just £2 more you can get the Sky Broadband Superfast service. According to Sky, around 90% of the UK can get this service and they’re working to improve their infrastructure. The service is only available in Sky Fibre areas.
The network says the average download speeds of Sky Broadband Superfast service is around 59Mbps and upload speeds are around 16Mbps. This means even if you have multiple heavy data users in your household you can easily stay connected and stream full HD or 4K content. 16Mbps upload speed is great for sharing large files on the web or streaming your own live content on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Of course, actual data speeds may vary depending on the distance between your home and Sky’s nearest green cabinet, where you’re getting the connection from.
Sky Broadband Superfast | 59Mbps Download | £25/month (Black Friday Offer) |
Sky Broadband Superfast service also comes with Sky Broadband Hub (SR203) and the same delivery and connection fees apply. This also means if you have an active service, Sky Broadband will take over the line at no extra cost.
This is Sky’s fastest home broadband service and the service lives up to its name. Sky Broadband Ultrafast delivers around 145Mbps download speeds and around 27Mbps upload speeds.
This service is great for uploading large content, doing live streams and hours of gameplays without disrupting the rest of the house, while everyone else is busy with their heavy data consuming activities. If your download speeds go below 100Mbps for three consecutive days, Sky will give you your money back and won’t ask for a cancellation fee.
Sky Broadband Ultrafast | 145Mbps Download | £35/month |
Unfortunately, Sky Broadband Ultrafast is only available in selected regions. The network says their Ultrafast service is available in around 1 million homes, but that isn’t much given how 68 million people live in the UK. You’ll have to pay £19.95 upfront for the set up.
Sky Broadband Boost is an add-on you can add to your Sky Broadband service. The add-on is priced at £5/month, ensuring that your connection is top notch and hassle-free at all times.
Sky Broadband Boost gets you multiple extra benefits. If you purchase this add-on:
Sky also guarantees you’ll get a decent Wi-Fi connection in every single room of your house. If your download speeds are lower than 3Mbps in any part of your home, Sky will either send a Sky WiFi Booster -similar to BT Complete WiFi– or offer you a refund.
While you can get Sky Broadband Boost with Sky’s essential broadband service, we don’t recommend it. As we described earlier, the Essential plan is barely good enough for a single person and rather than paying an extra £5 for Sky Broadband Boost, it would make more sense to upgrade your deal to Sky Broadband Superfast and then see if you want the boost as well.
You can customise your Sky Broadband Superfast deal with TV add-ons. The network’s Superfast Broadband is priced at £27 a month, and from that starting point you can build your own TV & Broadband bundle on Sky.
Alternatively, you can also pick a premade Sky Broadband & TV bundle. All the bundles are 18-month contracts and they also come with a money back guarantee.
This bundle gets you Sky TV with your Superfast Broadband for £39 a month. You’ll be saving £13 a month.
If you pick this bundle, you can watch all the available series on Netflix and Sky TV, live and on demand. This bundle will save you about £15 a month.
If you bundle your Sky Broadband Superfast service with Sky Sports, you can watch live Premier League games, as well as EFL, Formula 1, Golf Majors, T20 & IPL Cricket, NFL and more! You will save about £18 a month with this bundle.
Do you want the ultimate sports bundle and watch 207 live Premier League games as well as UEFA Champions League games on BT? Then this is the deal for you. With this bundle you can watch both Sky Sports and BT Sports in one place. You’ll also get all the other benefits of Sky Sports.
Sky’s download and upload speeds vary depending on which broadband service you choose. The table below shows the average download and upload speeds you’ll be getting from the network for each deal.
Broadband Plan | Average Download Speed | Average Upload Speed |
---|---|---|
Sky Broadband Essential | 11Mbps | 1Mbps |
Sky Broadband Essential | 59Mbps | 16Mbps |
Sky Broadband Essential | 145Mbps | 27Mbps |
We’d like to underline that the data speeds you get may vary depending on the distance between your home and the nearest Sky Broadband green cabinet, as well time of the day. During peak times, your data speeds may be slower than expected.
Luckily, if you experience major issues with Sky Broadband and can’t get the guaranteed download speeds for three consecutive days Sky will give you a refund. Just don’t forget to use Sky’s own speed test for measuring and reporting.
Speaking about data speeds, we’d also recommend checking out Three 5G Home Broadband deals. These wireless broadband deals are competitively priced and offer faster download speeds than classic broadband services. However, 5G coverage is only available in selected destinations at the moment.
Alternatively you can check out Three’s Mobile Broadband deals and SIM Only deals. Make sure to have a look at our Three Review to find out about all the benefits of joining the network.
If you sign up for a Sky Broadband service the network will provide you a brand new router capable of delivering super high speeds. Sky Broadband Hub (SR203) also works with the Sky app and Sky Broadband Buddy parental controls.
Sky Broadband Hub is capable of providing Wi-Fi access to 64 devices at the same time and it has dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity. The router has 8 built-in Wi-Fi antennas, providing strong coverage over a short distance. This new router replaced Sky Q Hub (ER115) most recently. If you have an out-of-date Sky Hub, but also have Sky Broadband Boost, you can upgrade to Sky Broadband Hub at no extra cost. The hub also has 4 ethernet sockets if you want to connect your PC, consoles or other compatible devices via a network cable.
This router also allows Sky Broadband’s tech team to carry out checks if there are any problems with your service. The network will ask you to use this hub to provide Sky Broadband Boost support.
We think Sky’s broadband service is decent, but it has room to improve. The Ultrafast plan isn’t available in most locations in the UK. Meanwhile the Essential plan is overpriced for what it offers. The sweet spot for Sky Broadband is their Superfast Broadband deals. You can bundle it with Netflix, BT Sport and Sky sports and save a few quid.
Sky Broadband Boost is also a great add-on, but perhaps one of the features of the boost, Sky Broadband Buddy parental controls, should be available to all customers at no extra cost. If you can’t get the speed Sky promised for 3 consecutive days or more you can claim money back.
If you already have an active line, no engineer help will be needed and you can connect your Sky Broadband Hub yourself on the install date. However, if you don’t have an active line an Openreach engineer will have to come and install your new broadband service. If you purchased Sky Broadband Boost, you get to choose when the engineer will come and install your Sky Broadband service. Otherwise it depends how busy the network’s services are.
All Sky Broadband services require landline rental. Sky Pay As You Talk comes as standard, however, you’re not charged for it (except the initial rental fee) as long as you don’t use it.
Yes, in most cases Sky will allow you to keep your existing phone number. The network will let you know if they have to provide you with a new phone number when you place an order for their broadband service.
If you already have an active phone line, Sky will just take over the line at no extra cost.
Sky Broadband Boost is an add-on, which improves the service you get from Sky Broadband. They do daily line checks, offer fast fixes to your problems and you get to choose when an engineer visit will happen if you need that kind of support. You also get a parental control app. Sky Broadband Boost also guarantees Wi-Fi in every room of your home. If you’re also a Sky Mobile customer, they will add 2GB of data to your Sky Piggybank when an outage happens.
Sky Broadband will check your line every night between 12 to 3 a.m. If they detect any issues, they’ll run a line test.