Sky Broadband Review

Sky offer both part fibre and full fibre broadband across the UK, with the option for customers to save more by bundling Sky TV.

They have a market-leading customer services record, with the lowest complaints levels in the industry and won our coveted Best Customer Service award in both 2022 and 2023.

Customers can also access service extras, including the new Sky WiFi Max - a whole home WiFi guarantee that promises up to 25Mbps in every room.

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At a glance

Latest offers

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Sky broadband customer reviews

Our independent survey of broadband customers found Sky was rated 4 out of 5 overall, with good ratings for Speed, Reliability, Satisfaction, and Customer Service.

Sky was rated average (3 out of 5) for value for money and likelihood for customers to recommend the provider to a friend.

Very few of our survey respondents voted Sky Poor or Bad in any category, with the majority of Sky's customers rating them Average, Good, or Excellent.

Here are the results of our survey of Sky's performance:

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Our review of Sky broadband

Verdict: Is Sky broadband any good?

Sky broadband's biggest selling point is their excellent customer service record, with the lowest complaints levels across the industry for several years.

We also like the fact customers can save around £13 per month by taking Sky broadband with Sky TV services, including on their new Sky Stream platform.

Sky's Speed Guarantee also goes above and beyond voluntary codes of practice, offering customers money back on their broadband bill if speeds fail to deliver.

We've seen improvements to Sky broadband too, including the launch of a new WiFi 6 router and updated WiFi guarantee to up to 25Mbps, from the previously paltry 3Mbps.

Full fibre broadband customers now get the new Sky Max Hub as standard, while those on Sky's Superfast part fibre plan can upgrade from just £3 extra per month with the WiFi Max add-on.

Sky WiFi Max is one of the fastest whole home WiFi guarantees in the market, sitting alongside Virgin Media's WiFi Max which promises 30Mbps. However, customers on Sky's superfast plans are only guaranteed 10Mbps, so that's worth bearing in mind.

Overall, Sky remain one of our top choices as a broadband provider namely due to their excellent customer services, winning them our coveted Best Customer Service award for two years running.

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Sky broadband packages

Summary: Sky offer a range of broadband package options from superfast to gigabit-capable full fibre broadband on the Openreach network.

Sky broadband offers full fibre to the home connections wherever Openreach has rolled out their new 'FTTP' network, which is so far over 15 million premises, or 40% of the UK.

For those who have yet to be reached by the full fibre roll-out, Sky offers two part fibre deals, a Superfast plan for almost all UK homes, and an Ultrafast plan in some locations.

Dependent on availability then, customers can choose from download speeds including 61Mb, 145Mb, or 75Mb, 150Mb, 500Mb, and 900Mb.

Here are the latest prices of their full fibre broadband plans:

See our main Sky broadband deals page to check which packages are available in your area.

Setup fees are currently reduced across all Sky broadband packages to just £5 - which is also refundable for new customers, and all full fibre plans now come with the new WiFi 6 enabled Sky Max Hub at no extra cost.

The minimum contract term is 24-months across the board, which also matches Sky TV plans making bundling easier, and customers get a home phone line with pay as you go calls included as standard.

While Sky don't state annual price rises specifically, they do increase prices from time to time as well as reserve the right to do so in their contracts, although in 2024 this was less than inflation - unlike the majority of other providers.

Sky part fibre broadband

For people still waiting for Openreach full fibre broadband to reach them, they can get one of Sky's superfast broadband deals instead.

Here is the latest pricing for Sky part fibre broadband:

Sky Superfast is priced the same as their entry-level Full Fibre 75 plan, but is available to all homes that can't yet get full fibre. It's also possible some customers may be offered the Superfast 35 plan, but this will only be where distance from the exchange prevents the faster speeds of Superfast.

The Sky Ultrafast broadband plan offers average download speeds of 145Mbps over a part fibre connection. Although availability is limited to homes where the street cabinet has been upgraded to G.Fast, which is only around 2.8 million premises, and this technology is now being superseded by full fibre.

While these part fibre plans will be supported for some time, Sky is continuing to move their focus to full fibre, with new customers only offered full fibre broadband if it's available to them.

In September 2024, Sky renamed many of their broadband packages, with plans like Superfast becoming Full Fibre 75, and Ultrafast becoming Full Fibre 150, to better distinguish between the connections offered.

Over 40% of UK properties will be able to access Sky full fibre broadband, which compares well to other ultrafast providers like Virgin Media, who cover around 55% of the UK, although this will change as Openreach continue to roll out their full fibre network, with a target of 25 million premises by the end of 2026.

See what's available in your area.

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Price comparison

Summary: Sky are becoming increasingly competitive on price, with broadband deals beginning to rank among the cheapest.

Sky's entry-level Full Fibre 75 and part fibre Superfast plans cost the same, at their cheapest price of £27 per month for 24 months.

The UK's cheapest broadband deals currently start around the £22 - £25 mark, so Sky's entry-level price point of £27 is still very competitive.

Here's how it looks compare to equivalent broadband packages in the market:

There are only a couple of cheaper options than Sky broadband for the same speeds, including NOW Superfast for £22 and Vodafone at £24.

Sky is cheaper than some other well-known providers, including TalkTalk and BT, whose equivalent packages offer average download speeds of 50Mb and 77Mb for £28 and £32 per month respectively.

For faster speeds, here's how Sky's Full Fibre 150 broadband package compares:

Sky is currently cheaper than equivalent plans from rivals BT. Yet it's still possible to find slightly cheaper deals from Vodafone and Plusnet.

It is worth noting Sky's customer service record is excellent and excels above any other broadband provider, while providers such as Vodafone, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media tend to gather more complaints.

Overall, while there are cheaper options to Sky, it's worth weighing up customer services and complaints records, as well as how reliable you need your broadband to be.

Lastly, here's some market pricing for equivalent gigabit-capable packages:

Sky Full Fibre Gigafast is priced less TalkTalk and BT, although cheaper gigabit deals are available with Vodafone, Plusnet, and Virgin Media.

Cheaper gigabit-capable deals may come with less however, with Plusnet providing an older WiFi 5 enabled router and no home phone, while Sky Gigafast includes a WiFi 6 router, digital home phone line, and access to a whole home WiFi guarantee for just £3 per month extra.

For those living in a Virgin Media enabled area, they can also opt for Virgin Media's Gig1 package for less than the price of Sky Gigafast, and they'll also get a WiFi 6 router and WiFi guarantee for free, although this doesn't include a home phone.

Overall, for households who want gigabit broadband, Sky is a good choice, customers now get the latest router included as standard and the WiFi guarantee is well priced too.

Read more on Sky Gigafast and gigabit broadband in our guides.

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Broadband & TV bundles

Summary: Bundling Sky TV can save customers around £13 each month over taking the services separately.

Sky broadband is great on its own owing to their excellent customer service record, yet it can also be bundled with Sky TV for extra discounts.

Savings average around £13 per month for taking both services together, and Sky's new Stream service means it available to even more homes, like those living in flats where installing a satellite dish isn't an option.

Sky TV has some benefits over rival providers including access to their exclusive channel Sky Atlantic, and more exclusive programming in the form of Sky Originals, like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, and Gangs of London.

Here are the latest prices for Sky TV and broadband:

It's possible to add extra channel packs including Sky Cinema, Sky Sports, TNT Sports, Sky Kids, and on-demand apps like Disney+ and Apple TV+.

Sky TV also bundles Paramount+ in the Sky Cinema pack, something which Virgin Media customers would have to pay separately for, and all Sky TV customers get Netflix Standard with Ads and Discovery+ Basic included for free too. They also deliver Sky Cinema, Sky Sports and TNT Sports in full 1080p HD as standard.

Compare more Sky TV and broadband bundles.

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Speed

Summary: Sky offers both superfast speeds and the option to take gigabit-capable full fibre broadband, with a Speed Guarantee so customers know what they're getting.

Sky broadband offers superfast, ultrafast and gigabit download speeds, ranging from an average of 61Mb all the way up to 900Mb.

Superfast speeds of 61Mb have the widest availability, with 97% of homes across the UK able to access them.

Sky's full fibre broadband plans offer download speeds of 150Mb, 500Mb, and 900Mb, and are currently available to over 40% of homes, but this figure is constantly increasing as Openreach, the network provider, aims to reach over 85% of the UK by the end of 2026.

Here are the speed choices with both average download and upload speeds:

The technology Sky uses to deliver its broadband services includes Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) connections and Fibre to the Home (FTTH) or Full Fibre.

FTTC broadband relies on the copper phone line network to connect a customer's home to the street cabinet. This means the distance a home is from the nearest street cabinet can result in slower broadband speeds, as signal attenuates (decreases) over distance. People living in rural areas are particularly affected by this.

FTTH broadband installs a full fibre line directly into a customer's home. As such, the broadband signal is much stronger and distance isn't an issue to speed or performance. So full fibre broadband often delivers better real-world experiences and a more reliable connection than FTTC broadband.

Where the network Sky uses does have a drawback however, is that even the full fibre broadband lines only offer asymmetrical upload speeds - this means the upload speed is slower than the download speed.

Some full fibre specialists, including Hyperoptic and Community Fibre, offer symmetrical upload speeds, so a gigabit line would offer closer to 900Mb down and 900Mb up.

Sky Speed Guarantee

Sky offer broadband customers a speed guarantee, which promises a minimum download speed, or a customer can claim money back and even leave their contract early.

While Sky's Speed Guarantee is also part of Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds, they offer over and above the voluntary code by also giving customer's money back on their broadband bill.

Here are some example minimum speed guarantees for each Sky broadband plan:

These speed estimates and minimum guarantees were taken from a test location in the UK, and other areas could vary.

Customers who sign up to Sky broadband but then subsequently experience a slower broadband speed than the minimum guaranteed speed for at least three days in a row in a 30-day period can get:

• One month's broadband & phone subscription refunded (excluding call charges)
• If it's within 30 days of activation, upfront setup costs refunded
• Option to switch broadband plan at no extra cost
• Option to leave contract early with no early termination charges at any time within your minimum term

Sky's speed guarantee doesn't start working until 14 days after activation to allow any connections to settle, and customers need to test broadband speed using Sky's My Broadband in their account to qualify.

It's also worth noting customers can only claim money back twice within their minimum term.

The Sky Speed Guarantee is different to Sky's Wall-to-Wall Wifi Guarantee and Sky WiFi Max guarantee, that also offer money back for poor speed performance, that we look at below.

Overall, Sky offer a range of broadband download speeds and provide customers with assurances over the speed they'll receive.

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Sky Max Hub

Summary: The Sky Max Hub was new in 2023 and offers WiFi 6 dual-band wireless for all full fibre broadband plans.

As part of a refresh of Sky's full fibre broadband plans in September 2024, all these packages now come with the newer Sky Max Hub as standard.

The Sky Max Hub offers dual-band wireless up to the WiFi 6 protocol, or 802.11ax. It can supposedly support up to 250 devices, and comes with 4 x 1Gb Ethernet LAN ports for any wired connections to gaming consoles or smart TVs.

However, users should note the Sky Stream Box and Sky Glass TV set both support WiFi 6 for faster speeds over wireless, so wired connections to these devices should no longer be necessary.

Customers still living in part fibre broadband areas who sign up to Sky Superfast or Ultrafast will still be provided with the previous Sky Broadband Hub. It's still a decent router with the same 8 internal antennae as the Sky Max Hub, but only supports up to WiFi 5.

It's possible to upgrade by taking the WiFi Max add-on, which we look at below, that includes the Sky Max Hub for any customers who don't have it as standard.

Overall, the Sky Max Hub is a decent piece of kit and its welcome to see it now being offered as standard on faster plans.

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Sky WiFi Max

Summary: A whole home WiFi guarantee which promises market-leading speeds of up to 25Mbps in every room.

Sky WiFi Max, launched in July 2023, offers a well needed upgrade to the previous Sky Broadband Boost add-on.

WiFi Max bundles a whole home WiFi guarantee that promises minimum download speeds of 25Mb per second in every room.

One noteworthy caveat however is the 25Mb promise only applies to Sky broadband customers who take the Full Fibre 150 and faster packages. With customers on Superfast, Full Fibre 75, or Full Fibre 100, only promised minimum speeds of 10Mb per second.

Either way, it's still a good WiFi guarantee which replaces the previous Sky Broadband Boost promise of just 3Mb per second.

Where customers don't achieve the minimum speeds over wireless throughout their home, Sky will send them up to 3 WiFi Pods, as well as an engineer visit, and if that still doesn't work, they'll refund customers one month's broadband subscription.

WiFi Max customers will also get the previous extras included in Sky Broadband Boost, as well as advanced security via the updated MySky app:

• Daily line checks to ensure your connection is working, with automatic fixes if Sky detect any issues
• Free off-peak engineer visits (evenings and weekends) at no extra cost
• 2GB free data on Sky Mobile if your broadband connection goes down

Customers who don't take the WiFi Max add-on will still get the Wall-to-Wall WiFi guarantee included for free, which promises minimum speeds of 3Mbps in every room or one month's broadband subscription refunded.

At the time of writing, Sky WiFi Max isn't yet compatible with Sky Q, so new and existing Sky Q and broadband customers can still access the older Sky Broadband Boost for £6 per month instead.

Read more about whole home WiFi guarantees and how they work.

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Home phone: Sky Talk

Summary: All Sky broadband packages come with a home phone line as standard, including their full fibre plans.

While many full fibre broadband providers are making a home phone an optional extra with an additional cost, or some providers like TalkTalk and Plusnet removing the option altogether, Sky are keeping with tradition and offering a phone line as standard on all their packages.

Sky Talk comes with pay as you go calls, but customers can upgrade for an inclusive call plan including free calls in the evening and at weekends, or free anytime calls.

Here's how much the call plans currently cost:

All home phone packages include calls to UK mobiles as well as landlines and, like other providers, Sky limits free calls to 60 minutes, though customers can hang up and dial again.

Evenings start at 7pm and end at 7am Monday to Friday, and so weekends run from Friday 7pm to Monday at 7am.

While Sky have previously lowered the price of their calls plans in recent years, they rose again in 2024, including for out of allowance calls, which are now charged at:

• UK landlines: 27p per minute
• UK mobiles: 27p per minute
• 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers: 15p per minute plus Service Charge

Connection fees of 25p may be applied unless you're on free, inclusive or unlimited call packages. These fees will not apply to calls that start within an uncharged period but end during a charged one.

Switching from an existing provider to Sky is free if the current phone line is compatible. Otherwise, you may need to pay £20 for line installation. Find out more about getting a new line installed here.

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Parental controls

Summary: Sky Broadband Shield protects both young users as well as everyone else from malware, phishing and viruses.

Sky offer all broadband customers router-level parental controls called Sky Broadband Shield.

However, Sky Shield offers more than just the ability to filter the Internet for children, it also helps protect users from phishing and malware sites. As a result, it's on by default for new customers.

Parental control is automatically activated when you sign up with Sky broadband. The standard setting is suitable for teenagers during the day and those over 18 later in the evening.

These settings are easily customised. You can choose a general rating of PG, 13 or 18, along with setting age-related restrictions on content at specific times of day.

Specific websites can be blocked via these settings and using Safe Search means that adult content will also be blocked in image search results.

Customers can turn off Sky's parental controls entirely by signing into broadbandshield.sky.com (using their Sky ID), scrolling down and finding the 'switch off' option. Blocked websites should be viewable in about 15 minutes.

We've got a full guide to how Sky Broadband Shield works.

We've also got more information the effectiveness of parental controls and the different parental control options offered by UK broadband providers.

Broadband Buddy app

The Sky Broadband Buddy app was a downloadable app for mobiles and tablets that enabled Sky customers to create different filters and activity times for different devices to connected to Sky broadband.

It's handy for families who want to limit screen time or set more solid routines. Users can see which devices are online, set regular/repeating time limits and use custom filters for different family members.

However new downloads for the app were paused in May 2022 and so far, it's unclear whether or not Sky is planning to replace it.

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Customer service

Summary: Sky are our top pick for customer service, winning Best Customer Service in the Choose Broadband Awards 2023, and consistently having the lowest complaints figures.

Sky won the Best Customer Service award at the Choose Broadband Awards 2023.

They have low complaint figures and, if complaints do occur, customers are more satisfied with the outcome from Sky than any other broadband provider.

The latest complaints figures released by Ofcom for Q1 2024 show Sky were the least complained about provider, with only 6 complaints per 100,000 customers, around half the industry average of 11 for the quarter.

As complaints trends for the previous six years show, Sky have a consistently excellent record, registering less than half the industry average each year.

Sky also have a good record in other customer service metrics as we explore in our full guide to broadband customer service.

Here are some key metrics compared to industry averages:

While Sky are close to the industry average on several measures, they pull ahead when it comes to complaint handling and getting complaints sorted on first contact.

Coupled with low overall complaint rates, that's a good sign for potential Sky customers. It's also important to highlight that Sky's good complaints record doesn't just encompass broadband - they also have the lowest TV complaints, the lowest landline complaints and the joint lowest mobile complaints for 2023 too.

Sky offer 24/7 technical support online via Live Chat, Facebook Messenger and by email. Customers can also contact them by SMS. Sky's call centre is based in the UK.

People who would prefer to speak to Sky directly, can call their dedicated customer service phone lines, and calls are free of charge from a Sky Talk landline.

The Sky number is an 03 number, so it is often included in mobile call plans, meaning that calls won't cost premium rates if the landline isn't working.

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Summary: Should you choose Sky broadband?

Sky broadband is a good option for households who want a reliable connection with decent speed assurances and excellent customer service if they run into any problems.

It's not the absolute cheapest broadband in the market, but new customer offers are very competitive, and Sky's untarnished complaints record provides value for money for the slight increase in price over budget providers.

One of the biggest strings in Sky's bow however is the ability to bundle Sky TV, with discounts available for those taking their new streaming service Sky Stream or a Sky Glass set.

Both TV options bundled with Sky broadband provide a discount of around £13 per month over taking the services separately.

It's also really good to see Sky updating their whole home WiFi guarantee to faster speeds, and now bundling their latest WiFi 6 router with all full fibre broadband plans.

Drawbacks to Sky broadband?

There aren't many, but customers joining on their part fibre plans will have to pay extra for the latest router, or they'll be provided the older Sky Broadband Hub, which only supports dual-band WiFi 5, and is no longer the latest tech.

While it's currently been reduced to just £3 per month for new customers, those on slower plans, but including Full Fibre 75 and Full Fibre 100 are only promised minimum speeds of 10Mbps with the whole home WiFi guarantee, which contrasts starkly with Virgin Media's support of 30Mbps in every room even for customers on their M50 plan.

Overall, Sky are one of our top choices for broadband provider owing to their excellent customer service and low complaints records, coupled with the ability to save money on TV bundles.

Read more on how Sky compares to Virgin Media, and how Sky compares to BT.