Sky broadband vs EE broadband

Sky broadband offer excellent customer service, with a WiFi 6 router and home phone line included on all plans.

EE broadband, on the other hand, is more expensive, yet customers get little extra for their money, with the provider charging even more for a home phone line.

Overall, Sky offer cheaper broadband prices than EE does, and also take the lead on customer service and bundled extras, like home phone and Sky TV.

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At a glance: Sky vs EE

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Price

Winner: Sky broadband offer cheaper prices than EE broadband across all equivalent speeds, and also offer a cheaper home phone service too.

Sky offer cheaper pricing on their broadband deals compared to EE, with customers saving between £2.99 and £4.99 per month.

Sky's entry-level full fibre plan, Full Fibre 75, starts at just £25 per month, compared to £29.99 with EE, although customers get faster 149Mb speeds for this.

Customers who want to keep a home phone line will have one included at no extra cost with all of Sky's broadband deals, while EE will charge an extra £5 per month for this.

Inclusive call plans are also cheaper with Sky, with unlimited UK anytime calls costing £16 per month, compared to £18 per month with EE.

Looking at faster speed plans, Sky remain cheaper than EE, with customers saving £3.99 per month on gigabit speeds.

Both Sky and EE provide customers with a WiFi 6 enabled router on their gigabit broadband plans.

Sky customers can also access their WiFi guarantee and boosters for an extra £4 per month, while this costs £7 per month with EE.

In terms of annual price rises, EE increase in-contract prices each year by £3 per month at the end of March, while Sky only say "prices may rise". Despite Sky's ambiguity on amounts, they generally do increase prices year-on-year, with prices going up between £1 and £4 per month in 2024.

Overall, Sky broadband is cheaper than EE broadband, as is their home phone service, and is likely to remain cheaper over the length of the contract too.

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Broadband packages

Winner: Sky and EE offer a similar level of package choices and customisable extra services, but Sky usually works out cheaper.

Sky and EE both offer part fibre and full fibre broadband connections over the nationally available Openreach network.

Both providers offer similar broadband speed choices, and additional services include WiFi boosters, advanced security, home phone, and pay TV plans. Although, Sky generally comes in cheaper than EE even with extras added.

For customers looking to move to a full fibre deal, here are the available plans from Sky and EE side-by-side:

Availability for full fibre with Sky and EE will be matched, while those living outside of Openreach's full fibre rollout will be able to access a superfast part fibre connection with either Sky or EE instead:

Sky customers can add their Sky WiFi Max add-on for an extra £4 per month which includes up to three Plume WiFi boosters, a WiFi guarantee up to 25Mbps in every room, advanced security and parental controls and a router upgrade to WiFi 6 for those on Sky Superfast.

In comparison, EE customers have to pay an extra £7 per month to access their Smart WiFi Plus service to boost wireless coverage around the home, and £5 per month for EE's Cyber Security software.

While Sky's advanced security is a router-level service to protect customers from viruses and malware, EE's Cyber Security is an anti-virus solution that can protect up to 15 devices, but customers would be paying an extra £12 per month compared to £4 per month with Sky.

Sky broadband plans also come with a home phone line as standard and customers can add call plans with pricing of £16 per month for unlimited anytime UK calls. EE charge an extra £5 per month for a phone line, and the anytime call plan costs £18 per month.

Overall, Sky offer cheaper prices and a similar level of service extras for less than EE does.

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Broadband speed

Winner: EE offer a multi-gigabit speed tier with average download speeds of 1.6Gbps, while Sky's top speed is a more standard 900Mbps gigabit plan.

EE are BT Group's flagship broadband brand and are one of just two providers currently offering their multi-gigabit full fibre connection with 1.6Gbps average download speeds (Vodafone is the other one).

While Sky resell connections over the same underlying wholesale network, they only offer speeds up to 900Mbps so far, although they also have future plans to work with CityFibre.

EE offer the following broadband speed options:

Sky offer these broadband speed options:

Advertised average speeds, like these above, must be received by at least 50% of a provider's customer base during the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm in the evening when the network is busiest. So, they're a good indication of the speeds we can expect to receive.

Both Sky and EE offer asymmetrical speeds, so uploads are slower than the headline download speed. However, EE's average upload speeds are faster than those of Sky.

We can also compare the minimum guaranteed download speeds offered by Sky and EE as both providers are signatories of Ofcom's code of practice on broadband speeds.

Minimum guaranteed download speeds are a voluntary measure, but when in place, promise customers an absolute minimum broadband speed or they can exit their contract if this isn't delivered.

Speeds must be slow for at least 3 days and providers usually want at least 30 days' notice in order to try and resolve any issues before customers are allowed to leave. Yet, it's a good practice that offers reassurance that will get the service we're paying for.

We tested a location with coverage for Openreach full fibre broadband and were given the below minimum speed guarantees from Sky and EE:

While Sky offer a slightly better estimated speed range than EE does, EE offer faster minimum guaranteed download speeds on their Full Fibre 500 and Full Fibre 900 plans.

Overall, EE beat Sky for broadband speeds, they offer a faster overall plan with their 1.6Gb option, while also offering faster minimum speed guarantees on 500Mb and 1Gb options too.

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Router

Winner: It's a tie. Sky and EE both offer their customers a WiFi 6 enabled router with options to access WiFi boosters.

Sky full fibre broadband plans now come with the new Sky Max Hub as standard, while part fibre customers can upgrade to it with the Sky WiFi Max add-on for £4 per month.

The Sky Max Hub was released in July 2023 and offers dual-band WiFi 6 (802.11ax) with updated WPA3 security encryption, mesh, and hosts 8 internal antennae.

EE broadband customers get the Smart Hub Plus, which also supports dual-band WiFi 6, WPA3 encryption and mesh, yet it has slightly fewer antennae at just 7.

Here's how the two routers look side-by-side:

The devices offered by Sky and EE are fairly comparable then with little between them.

EE also offer customers the ability to upgrade to the EE Smart Hub Pro for an extra £10 per month. This router supports the very latest WiFi 7 protocol, released in 2024.

However, being quite so cutting edge has the drawback that few customers are likely to have devices that also support WiFi 7 and therefore will be able to benefit from the faster wireless speeds. At this time then, EE's WiFi 7 router upgrade looks good, but it's unlikely to be worth the money just yet.

Overall, we've called a tie in this round due to the similarity in specifications between the Sky Max Hub and EE Smart Hub Plus.

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Call plans

Winner: Sky include a home phone line as standard with all their broadband plans, while EE charge an extra £5 per month for this.

All Sky broadband plans, whether part or full fibre, come with a home phone line included at no extra cost and calls available on a pay as you go basis.

To access this same service from EE customers will have to pay an extra £5 per month on top of their broadband prices.

Call plans are also cheaper with Sky, with unlimited UK anytime calls priced at just £16 per month, compared to £18 per month with EE.

Overall, for home phone Sky are the better choice over EE, with cheaper prices and off-peak inclusive call options.

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TV

Winner: Sky offer a more comprehensive TV service than EE does, it also tends to work out cheaper for access to premium Sky content too.

Sky offer a more comprehensive TV service than EE, which can also be bundled with Sky broadband for additional discounts of around £8 per month.

Sky Ultimate TV offers 150 live channels, including popular titles like Sky Atlantic, Sky Max, Discovery and National Geographic. Customers also get Netflix Standard with Ads and Discovery+ Standard included at no extra cost as well.

EE TV is now the same service as BT TV, with customers gaining access to TV plans based on NOW Memberships and the recordable BT TV Box Pro.

While it's possible to choose from a range of pre-made bundles with EE TV and customers can change their plan on a monthly basis, it generally works out more expensive to access premium content like Sky Sports or Sky Cinema than with Sky directly.

Here are two comparable entertainment deals side-by-side for context:

We've listed BT here as they actually offer the same pricing and similar broadband service as EE does. But you can see how Sky TV and broadband will work out cheaper than with EE.

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Customer Service

Winner: Sky have a better customer service record than EE does with fewer customers with a reason to complain, although EE has slightly higher satisfaction levels.

Ofcom's most recent complaint figures, covering the period Q2 2024, showed Sky remaining the least complained about broadband provider for the ninth quarter in a row, with just 5 complaints per 100,000 customers.

In the same period EE received 14 complaints per 100,000 customers, greater than the industry average of 10 for the quarter, and only surpassed by Virgin Media and NOW Broadband.

Over time we can see how consistently Sky has maintained their low complaint figures, while EE's complaints have been rising since the end of 2023, with the first two quarters of 2024 starting to raise concerns.

We can also look at Ofcom's research into customer satisfaction in their Comparing Service Quality report last published in May 2023. However, it's worth noting this research was carried out prior to EE's complaint levels rising, so satisfaction scores may have fallen since.

In this research we can see how EE look to be outperforming Sky for customer satisfaction, and they also have fewer customers with a reason to complain.

However, over 2023 and into 2024, EE have received more complaints to Ofcom than Sky have.

Overall, Sky are known customer service superheroes, and while EE has performed highly in the past, more recent figures show an increase in their complaint figures.

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Verdict: Sky or EE for broadband?

Overall winner: Sky offer cheaper broadband prices than EE does, they also match EE's premium service extras and have a better customer service history.

Sky and EE offer similar broadband package choices and extra add-ons, however, Sky tend to do it for less and customers will save more for a similar service with Sky.

Sky also outperform EE for customer service, with the lowest complaints records of all major broadband providers for the past two years.

While price will be an easy deciding factor for most, the choice between Sky and EE may well come down to customer preference, with EE also offering bundles with their mobile service, while Sky offer discounts for taking their TV plans.

We like Sky broadband because:

• More competitive pricing across all broadband plans
• Home phone included at no extra cost on all plans
• WiFi 6 router provided with all full fibre plans
• Substantial discounts available for those who bundle Sky broadband with Sky TV
• Excellent customer service record

However, EE also do well for:

• Including a WiFi 6 router on all plans
• Offering a multi-gigabit broadband plan with speeds up to 1.6Gbps
• Providing a range of premium upgrade options from WiFi boosters to a 4G back-up device and even a WiFi 7 router upgrade

Overall, we'd pick Sky over EE, they offer all the same features available with EE but at a better price and with less customer service complaints, especially recently.