NOW Superfast, powered by Sky

NOW Superfast is the provider's part fibre plan, with competitive pricing and better features now the service is powered by Sky.

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Speed:

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Router:

NOW Broadband Superfast offers average download speeds of 61Mbps at peak times and provides a connection using part fibre technology.

The biggest benefits of the plan lie in its value for money, coming in as one of the UK's cheapest broadband deals. Customers also get a Sky router and Sky's customer service.

Availability for the plan is now declining however, as full fibre enabled areas are ceasing the sale of part fibre plans, so some customers will want to look at NOW Full Fibre 75 instead.

Now Broadband

At a glance

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
Go	Superfast	61Mb average	£23	£5	24 months
	Offer: £5 refundable advance fee for new customers if applicable

Who is NOW Superfast broadband best for?

NOW Superfast is a part fibre broadband package that will suit small to medium sized homes, with customers able to boost WiFi with optional add-ons if they need to.

The average download speed of 61Mbps at peak times will be adequate for a range of online activities including:

• Streaming HD and UHD content
• Online gaming
• Working from home
• Making video calls
• Content sharing on social media

NOW Superfast is also a good option for people who want to bundle a home phone call plan with their broadband, with a choice of off-peak or anytime calls.

Now powered by Sky, NOW Broadband Superfast comes with the Sky Broadband Hub and access to Sky's parental controls 'Sky Broadband Shield'.

It's also possible to upgrade to Sky's WiFi Max plan to get an upgraded router and whole home WiFi guarantee, although this costs £6 per month extra.

In comparison to Sky Superfast, which is an equivalent plan, NOW Superfast is cheaper by £3 per month, and even with the Sky WiFi Max add-on remains cheaper than Sky by £1 per month.

NOW Superfast can also be bundled with Sky TV, although there aren't any exclusive discounts for bundling as can be found with Sky broadband.

Overall, NOW Superfast is a great option for those living in part fibre areas, with customers able to benefit from Sky's improved hardware and support for lower prices. However, for those living in a full fibre enabled area, they should look to NOW Full Fibre 75 instead, which is priced the same but offers a full fibre to the home connection.

Check availability for NOW Broadband in your area.

What does NOW Superfast offer?

NOW Broadband Superfast offers a part fibre broadband connection with average download speeds of 61Mbps at peak times.

It's the fastest - and only - part fibre plan available from NOW Broadband, and will offer the fastest speeds a part fibre line is capable of, but this could be affected by distance.

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Superfast	61Mb average	£23	£5	24 months
	Offer: £5 refundable advance fee for new customers if applicable

NOW Broadband Superfast comes with the Sky Broadband Hub as well as access to the MySky app and parental controls through Sky Broadband Shield.

It's possible to upgrade the router to the Sky Max Hub, which is WiFi 6 enabled, and get up to three Plume WiFi Pods by taking the Sky WiFi Max add-on for an extra £6 per month.

The minimum term contract is 24 months, and any inclusive call plans added to the package will also have a 24-month minimum term. Out of contract pricing increases to £43 per month, but customers will be notified when their contracts are expiring and given options to recontract onto a cheaper deal again, or they can switch away at this point too.

Customers pay a £5 upfront fee when they sign up for NOW Broadband, but this is refunded on a customer's first bill as it's used for the credit checking process.

New customers signing up to NOW Broadband Superfast before 1st April 2025 will have their prices frozen until April 2026, so won't see any price rises until next year. At that point, NOW Broadband use 'prices may rise' terms so don't specify exactly how much, but it's likely to be around £3 per month, as it was in 2024.

NOW Superfast + call plans

NOW Broadband come with a home phone line as standard and this is provided at no extra cost for Superfast package customers.

Calls will be on a pay as you go basis as standard, with UK calls charged at 27p per minute, plus a 25p connection charge.

Those who want to add an inclusive call plan can choose from the following options:

These call plans only cover calls of up to one hour in duration, so for longer calls customers need to remember to hang up and re-dial.

Sky Talk taken out as a new customer with NOW Broadband is also subject to a minimum term of 24 months, and so the talk plan can't be cancelled early.

NOW Superfast Broadband + Sky TV

NOW Superfast can be bundled with Sky Ultimate TV and the new Sky Stream box, which streams TV content over the broadband connection and doesn't need a satellite dish.

This the current price of NOW Superfast and Sky TV:

	Package	TV	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Superfast + Sky TV	150	61Mb average	£45	£5	24 months
	Offer: Save £6/mth on Sky TV + £5 refundable advance fee for new customers if applicable

New customers can get £6 per month off Sky Ultimate TV, costing £22 per month in total, reduced from £28 per month.

However, despite being made available during the checkout for NOW Broadband, this is the same deal made available by taking Sky TV on its own, and so there aren't any exclusive discounts available here which are made available with Sky Superfast Broadband.

Sky Ultimate TV includes over 150 live TV channels, including Sky Entertainment channels like Sky Atlantic, Sky Showcase and Sky Max, and customers also get a subscription to Netflix Standard with Ads and Discovery+ Basic.

Unlike NOW TV which comes in 720p HD, Sky TV is in full 1080p HD as standard and customers can add premium channel packs on a monthly basis including Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, Sky Kids and TNT Sports.

In addition, NOW Broadband customers who take Sky TV will also gain support for a wide range of on-demand apps on the Sky Stream Puck Box, including Paramount+, Apple TV+, and Disney+.

Overall, Sky TV is a cost-effective and flexible way to watch premium Sky content, and can be easily bundled with NOW Broadband, although people may find better deals on Sky TV when bundling Sky broadband instead.

How does NOW Superfast compare?

NOW Superfast is one of the cheapest broadband deals available, even when compared to packages offering slower speeds.

Here is NOW Superfast side-by-side with some equivalent plans from other providers:

	Package	Broadband	Monthly price	Upfront price	Contract term
	Superfast	61Mb average	£23	£5	24 months
	Offer: £5 refundable advance fee for new customers if applicable
	Fibre 2	65Mb average	£24.50	Free	24 months
	Offer: £2 off for Vodafone pay monthly customers
	Fibre	66Mb average	£25.99	Free	24 months
	Offer: £110 Reward Card + Save over £12/mth + No setup fee + Exclusive offers and discounts for Plusnet customers (Ends 05/03/2025)
	Superfast Broadband	61Mb average	£26	£5	24 months
	Offer: WiFi Max just £4/mth + (£5 refundable setup fee for new customers if applicable)

NOW Broadband Superfast is cheaper than most other equivalent plans, including from low-cost providers like Vodafone and Plusnet, as well as TalkTalk and BT.

NOW Superfast is also cheaper than parent company Sky's equivalent plan, Sky Superfast, which costs £3 per month more for what's effectively the same package as NOW is now 'powered by Sky'.

Compared to even cheaper providers, such as Onestream, which cost just £19 per month for similar speeds, prospective customers should note that NOW Broadband include a better router in the Sky Broadband Hub, compared to a very basic model from Onestream.

NOW Broadband customers also benefit from a home phone line, which isn't included with Plusnet or Onestream, and BT customers have to pay an extra £5 per month.

Overall, NOW Broadband is a good choice for those on a budget as customers get one of the cheapest prices in the UK for superfast part fibre, whilst also benefiting from more premium hardware and service from parent company Sky.

How fast is NOW Superfast broadband?

NOW Superfast offers average download speeds of 62Mbps at peak times, and average upload speeds of 16Mbps.

These speeds are received by at least 50% of NOW Broadband customers during the busiest hours of 8pm to 10pm, when the network can experience slower speeds due to congestion.

The connection is delivered using part-fibre technology, so the fibre cable is only installed to the green street cabinet, and then the copper telephone line is used to a home.

Because of this it's worth being aware speeds can vary more than with full fibre (FTTP), especially where a property is further from its local telephone exchange.

Minimum guaranteed speed

NOW Broadband have signed up to Ofcom's code of conduct on broadband speeds however, so they will provide customers with personalised estimates and a minimum guaranteed download speed during the checkout process.

The minimum guaranteed download speed effectively provides a service guarantee and if customers don't receive at least this speed or faster, and NOW can't resolve any issues within 30 days of being notified of problems, the customer should be free to leave their contract early and without any penalty.

We tested the minimum speed on NOW Superfast at a location with Openreach part fibre coverage and were given the below speed estimates and service guarantee:

Remember however speeds vary between locations and a different address could be given a different minimum guaranteed speed.

Sky Broadband Hub

NOW Superfast customers will be provided with the Sky Broadband Hub at no extra cost.

The Sky Broadband Hub is a decent router offering wireless support up to the WiFi 5, or 802.11ac, protocol, originally released in September 2019.

It's a good upgrade over the previous NOW Hub Two, which was a rebranded version of the older Sky Q Hub, which had just five internal antennae and noticeably struggled to provide coverage around a home.

The Sky Broadband Hub offers:

• Dual-band wireless channels (2.4GHz and 5GHz), with smart channel selection
• Support up to WiFi 5 or 802.11ac
• 4 x Ethernet LAN ports for wired connections
• 8 internal antennae
• WPA2 security

It's a reasonable router, but will be best suited for small to medium-sized homes where the wireless signal doesn't have too far, or too many walls, to navigate.

NOW Broadband customers do have the option to upgrade to the Sky Max Hub however, as well as access up to three Plume WiFi Pods with the Sky WiFi Max add-on, which costs just £6 per month extra.

The Sky Max Hub offers WiFi 6 and WPA3 encryption, while the WiFi Max whole home wireless guarantee promises minimum download speeds of 10Mbps in every room.

Overall, NOW Broadband Superfast customers now benefit from the upgraded hardware of Sky, whilst also having the option to access a WiFi 6 device and WiFi boosters for improved coverage around larger homes.

Verdict: Is Now Superfast broadband any good?

NOW Broadband Superfast is now the provider's sole part fibre package, with eligible customers getting the fastest speed their line can handle at the lowest price.

It's one of the cheapest broadband packages in the UK with wide availability, and unlike some budget deals still includes a home phone line as standard.

Customers also now get better features through parent company Sky, with NOW Broadband packages now coming with the improved Sky Broadband Hub, as well as access to the MySky app, Sky Shield parental controls, and optional Sky WiFi Max boosters.

However, there are drawbacks to the new 'powered by Sky' plans, with the main one being the withdrawal of discounts for bundling NOW TV, and while it's possible to add Sky TV at the checkout, unlike with Sky broadband, the offer isn't exclusive.

Ultimately, NOW Superfast is an unrivalled package for a low-cost broadband deal with Sky's reputed customer service. However, despite being cheaper than Sky for broadband, those who want to bundle Sky TV would be better off with Sky Superfast broadband instead.