Sky Superfast Broadband

Sky Superfast Broadband, also known as Superfast 80, is the provider's main part fibre package, offering average download speeds of 61Mb per second.

New customers will often save on the monthly price with introductory offers, and it can be bundled with Sky Stream for further savings on home entertainment.

Sky Superfast Broadband is an affordable option for customers living in superfast part fibre enabled areas, with availability spanning the majority of UK homes.

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At a glance

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Who is Sky Superfast Broadband best suited for?

Sky say Superfast Broadband is ideally suited to users who want to stream TV, download films, and game online.

The average download speed of 61Mbps means it can be used to:

• Stream TV and film in up to 4K Ultra HD resolution
• Make UHD or HD video calls
• Game online with an Xbox or PlayStation console in 4K UHD or HD
• Work online from home

While the package will support multiple users, it's ideally suited to one to two people or devices going online at the same time.

Subject to availability, much larger households, or those with a lot of devices, may want to consider the upgrade to Sky Ultrafast - if it's available to them, or keep their eye on the full fibre rollout and in time switch to Sky's Full Fibre 150 plan when they can.

One benefit to Sky Superfast over these faster plans is availability, with the package available to 97% of homes, compared to around 40% for the faster full fibre options.

For those who can get Openreach FTTP full fibre broadband, Sky offer two entry-level full fibre broadband plans, including Full Fibre 75 as a direct replacement from this Superfast plan, and Full Fibre 150, which offers twice the download speed for just £1 per month extra.

Customers who had looked at Sky's entry-level Superfast 35, will now find it replaced by Superfast 80, unless they live far from their exchange and physically can't receive the faster speeds.

Overall, Sky Superfast Broadband is a good choice for most households still in part fibre areas, especially those looking for a faster connection without spending too much each month..

See the latest prices and availability for Sky broadband.

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What does Sky Superfast Broadband offer?

Sky Superfast Broadband offers a fast part fibre connection, with average download speeds of 61Mb per second.

Delivered over fibre to the cabinet, Sky Superfast covers over 97% of UK homes that have yet to be passed by the Openreach FTTP network.

At the time of writing, Sky Superfast Broadband costs just £27 per month for the first 24 months, with out of contract pricing increasing to £43 per month.

Customers are provided with the Sky Broadband Hub, Wall to Wall WiFi Guarantee, and a digital home phone line as standard. They can also choose to upgrade the Talk plan, router, and access a faster WiFi guarantee with the WiFi Max add-on for an extra £3 per month.

The minimum term is for 24-months, which is fairly standard, and setup currently costs just £5, although this fee is refunded against the first month's broadband subscription.

Sky Superfast is the provider's main part fibre plan, and while there are other options, they both have much more limited availability.

The slower Superfast 35 option for example, is still available, but is only offered when customers in part fibre areas live too far from their local exchange to receive the download speeds offered by the Superfast plan.

Alternatively, those with faster part fibre speeds may have had their street cabinet upgraded to G.Fast, and with that they'll also be able to choose from Sky Ultrafast, which offers 145Mbps average download speeds.

See exactly what's available to you with our Sky broadband search here.

Lastly, it's worth noting that while Sky don't explicitly state annual price rise amounts in their contract, they do reserve the right to increase them, and in fact did for existing customers in April 2024.

However, Sky increased prices by 6.7% on average, while providers such as BT increased theirs by 7.9% this year.

Sky Superfast + calls

Unlike an increasing number of providers, Sky include line rental with calls on a pay as you go basis as standard for all customers taking their broadband deals, including Superfast Broadband.

It's possible to add inclusive call plans, but otherwise out of allowance calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles are charged at 27p per minute, with a 25p connection charge.

Sky Talk call plans include:

Call plans include 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 broadband is subject to a minimum term of 24 months, and so the talk plan can't be cancelled early.

Sky Superfast + Sky TV

Sky is well known as a premium TV provider, and customers who bundle their broadband and TV plans can get extra discounts compared to taking the services separately.

Sky Superfast Broadband can be bundled with either Sky Stream or Sky Glass.

It's possible to save £10 per month compared to taking Sky Superfast Broadband and Sky Entertainment TV on their own.

Sky Stream is the provider's new online streaming platform, which offers the same premium content on a more flexible basis.

Customers get Sky Entertainment and Netflix, and premium packs are also available to add, including Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, TNT Sports, Sky Kids, Disney+, and Paramount+.

The other major benefit to Sky Stream is that no satellite dish is required as the TV content is delivered over the Internet connection.

With the average download speed of Superfast Broadband recently boosted to 61Mb per second, it should be more than fast enough to handle 4K Ultra HD content as well as 1080p HD content from Sky.

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Sky Superfast vs Sky Ultrafast

The next plan up from Sky Superfast Broadband is Sky Ultrafast, which offers average download speeds of 145Mb per second.

Sky Ultrafast is less widely available than Sky Superfast, with only around 2.8 million premises having been upgraded to the part fibre G.Fast technology that Ultrafast uses.

Where it is available however, Ultrafast offers more than twice the download speed as Superfast broadband.

Current offers mean Sky Ultrafast broadband is only £1 more per month than Superfast, or £24 more over the length of the 24-month contract, making it a worthwhile upgrade to consider for the few of those living in upgraded G.Fast areas.

At the end of the minimum term, Sky Superfast Broadband will cost £43 per month, while the price of Sky Ultrafast will increase to £46 per month, unless customers choose to switch or re-contract.

Should you upgrade?

Customers who have the option of Sky Ultrafast, which won't be many, may want to consider the upgrade to Sky Ultrafast over Superfast, as the faster average download speed of 145Mb per second is likely to be noticeable.

The extra speed offered by Sky Ultrafast will suit families and homes with more than one occupant where householders go online at the same time, or multiple devices are in use.

At just £1 more per month, but with double the download speed, Sky Ultrafast is worth the upgrade, especially while households wait for the full fibre rollout to reach them.

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How does Sky Superfast Broadband compare?

There are plenty of alternative options available that offer equivalent download speeds to Sky Superfast in part fibre areas.

Here is the latest pricing for a range of equivalent plans:

Sky's current offer for new customers makes it cheaper than similar packages from BT and TalkTalk's Fibre 65, although it's currently a little more expensive than budget-brands NOW, Vodafone, and Plusnet. It's also slightly more than Virgin Media's M125 broadband only plan, which currently costs just £24 per month.

Plusnet is a good alternative provider to Sky, beating them for customer satisfaction in the most recent research by Ofcom. Yet Sky have the lowest complaint levels in the industry amongst other major providers.

NOW Broadband is powered by Sky, so offers a similar service along with the exact same router and Sky Talk home phone plans. The downside is NOW Broadband customers can't access the same savings on Sky TV as Sky broadband customers can, and the WiFi Max add-on to improve wireless coverage in the home costs twice as much.

WiFi Max costs £3 per month with Sky, while NOW Broadband customers pay £6.50 per month. And, Sky broadband customers can save around £10 per month by bundling Sky TV at the point of sign up, making it an exclusive discount unavailable elsewhere.

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How fast is Sky Superfast Broadband?

Sky Superfast Broadband offers average download speeds of 61Mb per second, and average upload speeds of 16Mb per second.

The average download speed increased from 59Mb to 61Mb in May 2023, which means customers are now receiving a faster service.

Advertised average speeds must be received by at least 50% of a provider's customer base during the busiest times of 8pm to 10pm in the evening. So, we know most customers on Superfast 80 are receiving speeds of 61Mb per second or faster.

Speeds are likely to vary more on part fibre plans like Sky Superfast than on full fibre alternatives when they become available, as part fibre is still affected by distance from street cabinets as well as the local telephone exchange.

Real world speeds

The most recent research from industry regulator Ofcom into broadband speeds and real world performance comes from September 2023.

Ofcom found Sky's Superfast 80 package delivered the following to customers in real world tests:

Considering their advertised average speed was 59Mb at the start of 2023, Sky are easily outperforming that figure as well as their newer advertised speed of 61Mb.

Ofcom's previous report, published in October 2022, also showed Sky Superfast 80 outperforming their advertised average, with peak time speeds of 62.01Mb per second.

Ofcom also looked at real world performance of upload speeds, and found Sky Superfast was delivering 18.14Mb per second on average at peak times.

The report showed Sky to be outperforming equivalent packages from TalkTalk, Vodafone, and Plusnet. While BT reported a slightly faster average upload speed of 18.43Mb.

Overall, we can see Sky Superfast 80 is achieving its advertised average speeds, and outperforming many of its closest rivals on similar packages.

Speed guarantee

Sky offer customers a minimum guaranteed speed at the point of sign up, and we've found this can be around 50Mb to 62Mb, although it will vary between customers as it's a personalised speed based on an individual property's connection.

If the broadband speed drops below this minimum for at least three days in a row, and Sky don't resolve the issue within 30 days, customers can:

• Get one month's broadband subscription refunded
• If within 30 days of activating the line, upfront costs will also be refunded
• The option to switch broadband plan at no extra cost
• The option to leave the contract entirely with no early termination charges

It's possible for customers to claim money back up to two times during their minimum term under this guarantee.

To claim, connections must be at least 14 days old to allow them to settle, and customers need to test their broadband speed using Sky's My Broadband app.

WiFi guarantee

In addition to this speed guarantee, Sky also offer customers the choice of two WiFi guarantees.

The Wall-to-Wall guarantee comes as standard with Sky Superfast 80 and promises minimum download speeds of 3Mb per second in every room of a customer's home or they can claim one month's broadband subscription back.

It doesn't cost anything, so is a good extra included in the plan.

Customers can choose to take Sky WiFi Max, although if they do, the Wall-to-Wall guarantee no longer applies to their account.

Sky WiFi Max currently costs from £3 per month, and promises minimum wireless speeds of 10Mb per second in every room on Superfast Broadband. If customers don't get this, they'll get one month's broadband subscription refunded.

Sky WiFi Max also includes some extra features, including:

• Upgraded WiFi 6 router, the Sky Max Hub
• Daily line checks, with automatic fixes if issues are found
• Free off-peak engineer visits at no extra cost
• 2GB free Sky Mobile data if your fixed line connection goes down

Overall, it can be a worthwhile add-on if customer's want a more reliable connection with extra support if they have problems, especially as it now includes a router upgrade too.

See how Sky WiFi Max compares in our WiFi guarantee guide.

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What's included?

Sky Superfast Broadband comes bundled with the Sky Broadband Hub, as well as parental controls in the form of Sky Broadband Shield.

Router

While the Sky Broadband Hub is no longer the provider's best router, it's still offered to all part fibre customers as standard, as well as all NOW Broadband customers, including those taking NOW Full Fibre plans.

That's good news for customers on Superfast 80 as they're still getting a decent router that can support speeds of up to 1Gb per second, more than enough for Superfast's 61Mb average.

The Sky Broadband Hub offers:

• Dual-band wireless (over 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels)
• WiFi 5 protocol
• WPA2 security
• 4 x 1Gb Ethernet LAN ports
• Intelligent Mesh, for seamless network extension with boosters

However, the Sky Broadband Hub doesn't have the absolute latest technology, such as WiFi 6 support, or tri-band channels, and has been replaced by the Sky Max Hub in our guide to the best free routers offered by broadband providers.

Parental controls

Sky broadband comes with free access to Sky Broadband Shield, the provider's parental control service.

It comes turned on by default for new customers, but is easy to adjust settings to suit individual requirements.

Sky Broadband Shield also protects customers from phishing and malware, as well as offering customisable settings for filtering based on age, time of use, and specific websites or categories of content.

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Verdict: Is Sky Superfast 80 any good?

Sky Superfast Broadband is the provider's main part fibre package and is also their most widely available plan too, covering over 97% of UK homes.

The 61Mbps average download speed should be adequate for most households, although larger households or heavy users living within an upgraded G.Fast area may want to consider the move up to Sky Ultrafast for just £1 more (although availability is very limited, so don't be surprised if Superfast is the fastest plan you can get until full fibre becomes available).

Superfast 80 offers the following benefits:

• 61Mbps average download speeds
• Delivered via part fibre technology
• Inclusive line rental with pay as you go calls
• Free WiFi in every room guarantee
• Minimum speed guarantee, with money-back promise
• Option to upgrade the router and access WiFi booster devices

Sky Superfast Broadband is competitively priced, coming in around the same as equivalent deals from Plusnet, TalkTalk and BT. It also outperforms rival connections from TalkTalk, Vodafone, and Plusnet in real world speed tests.

Lastly, Sky broadband customers get the added benefit of being able to bundle Sky's comprehensive TV plans if they want to save money on a home entertainment package. Read more about Sky TV packages here.