Sky Broadband Review 2024

Author: Emma Davenport

Last updated: 17 April 2024

Sky broadband review 2024

Sky Broadband offers a wide range of packages, with everything from cheap fibre to premium satellite TV and broadband bundles up for grabs. If you're keen on speed, there's a choice of ultrafast full-fibre services too. Sky has a good customer service record, and you get useful extras.

On the downside, some of its packages are expensive, the ultrafast services have sluggish upload speeds, and you can't easily replace the Sky Broadband Hub with your own Wi-Fi router.

Sky broadband: In summary

Sky Broadband Speeds

Sky offers five different broadband speeds, with a variety of packages available for each, including broadband and TV bundles.

Sky Broadband Superfast 35

• Download speed: 36Mb
• Upload speed: 9Mb

This is its entry-level fibre service. It’s suitable for homes of two to three people. You should easily be able to stream video and audio from up to three devices at once.

Sky Broadband Superfast

• Download speed: 61Mb
• Upload speed: 16Mb

This is quick enough for many homes, and it can definitely handle multiple users at once.

You can find more on fibre broadband in our guide section.

Sky Broadband Full Fibre 100

• Download speed: 100Mb
• Upload speed: 20Mb

Sky Broadband Ultrafast

• Download speed: 145Mb
• Upload speed: 27Mb

Sky Ultrafast seriously improves download speeds. It’s good for larger homes where many people are going to want to stream or download at once.

Its minimum guaranteed download speed is 100Mb.

Depending on where your home is, this service may be delivered using either G.fast or FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) technology.

• What does FTTP mean?

  Full Fibre broadband is also known as ‘Fibre To The Premises’, ‘Fibre To The Home’. This is often shortened to FTTP or FTTH. They’re all the same thing!

  Instead of copper telephone wire making up the final part of the journey from that green cabinet on the street, fibre optic cables are installed right up to your home.

  It’s amazing the difference in speed this small data journey can have. With full-fibre broadband you can expect to receive speeds of 1Gb+.

  The downside is full-fibre is only available to a small percentage of homes in the UK, and it’s taking a good while to get everyone up to speed.

Sky Broadband Ultrafast Plus

• Download speed: 500Mb
• Upload speed: 60Mb

This option uses full fibre (FTTP) to provide quick download speeds. They usually average around 500Mb, but it also has a minimum guaranteed speed of 400Mb.

Visit our guide to ultrafast broadband services for more details about this type of broadband.

Sky Broadband Gigafast

• Download speed: 900Mb
• Upload speed: 90Mb

The quickest Sky package is Gigafast, which is a full fibre service. It provides an average download speed of 900Mb, which is super impressive. The guaranteed speed of 600Mb might be slower, but it’s still so much faster than Sky’s other deals.

Sky broadband speed summary

However, our survey results suggest Sky customers do have some issues with the service. Customer speed satisfaction score was 66%, below the average of 72%.

It’s also worth noting that Sky Ultrafast packages have disappointing upload rates in comparison to the upload speed. They’re still worth it for many homes, but if you have FTTP in your area, there are faster options.

Sky Customer Service

Going by both our survey ratings and Ofcom reports, customer service is good for Sky Broadband.

In our 2024 survey, Sky came out with a satisfaction score of 70% (the average for this category).

Sky is one of the providers featured in the Ofcom customer service report. It received the following scores in the most recent publication (18th May 2023): 

• Overall satisfaction: 82% (average broadband score 82%)
• Satisfaction with speed of service: 80% (average broadband score 80%)
• Customers with a reason to complain: 18% (average broadband score 20%)
• Overall complaint handling satisfaction: 55% (average broadband score 51%)
• Complaints per 100,000 subscribers: 16 (average broadband score 44)
• Call waiting time: 2:14 (average waiting time 2:37)

Meanwhile, more recent Ofcom stats on customers complaints show Sky to be the least complained about provider in the UK. We think you can be confident you’ll be treated well after buying from Sky.

You can find out more with Sky customer service contact information

Sky Broadband Value for Money

The Sky user value score of 3.2 falls just below the average of 3.25. It’s not catastrophic, but these user reviews suggest that Sky customers aren’t as happy with what they’re getting compared to some other providers.

Going by its pricing, Sky seems to offer competitive value for money, mostly.

Sky Broadband Superfast is just under £30 per month for a fast fibre service. While ultrafast deals start at a similar price for a 145Mb average download speed. 

Phone line rental is included in the monthly fee. But inclusive calls are extra. That means that if you want to make phone calls on your landline, it’ll cost you. That’s ideal if you only need the phone for broadband. But take the time to compare options if it’s a feature you need. There are broadband and phone deals out there with inclusive calls that could cost less.

Sky rewards

You'll often get a free gift when you sign up to Sky Broadband as a new customer. This is usually a shopping voucher or pre-paid credit card. It’s not as frequent as some other providers and tends to only be available with one or two packages. But when it does, the value can be in the region of £100.

When rewards aren’t available, you’ll often find Sky offering some kind of discount on the monthly fee. 

You can compare the latest Sky offers on our Sky cashback and rewards page. For general help with rewards, visit our guide to claiming free gifts and vouchers.

Sky Reliability

In our 2024 Broadband Awards, Sky scored just a little below average with a 72% satisfaction score. In Ofcom's 2023 customer service report, it stood out for its exceptionally low number of complaint numbers and reasons to complain. 

In Ofcom's April 2024 Report: Complaints about broadband, landline, mobile and pay-TV services, Sky continued to be the least complained about broadband providers. Between October and December 2023, it received just 5 complaints per 100,000 subscribers. To put this into perspective, the industry average was 12 per 100,000 subscribers.

Sky Broadband Boost is available as an add-on to its Superfast, Ultrafast, Ultrafast plus or Gigafast packages if you have Sky Q. For an additional cost, this offers a Wi-Fi guarantee for every room of your house. You'll also have access to more flexible engineer visits (including evening and weekends) and daily checks on your line.

If you don't have Sky Q, then Sky WiFi Max is an option. For an additional £7.50 per month, you'll receive an upgraded Sky Max Hub router and up to 3 Sky Max Pods, as well as similar Wi-Fi guarantees and engineer visits.

Sky Bundled Wi-Fi router

All new Sky broadband deals include a Sky Broadband Hub. 

The Sky Broadband Hub replaces the old Sky and Sky Q Hubs. When you sign up for a new Sky broadband package now, you’ll receive the newer version. If you’re an existing customer, then you should contact Sky about a router upgrade.

An optional upgrade is available – the Sky WiFi Max Hub. This is a Wi-Fi 6 router that uses smart features, allowing you to control Wi-Fi speed, device access and more. This will cost you an extra £7.50 per month, for the length of your contract.

For a more in-depth look at these two devices, head over to our Sky Broadband router round-up.

Router Installation

Setting up your Sky Broadband Hub shouldn't be difficult and, unless you need to have a line installed, you'll be able to do this yourself with step-by-step instructions being provided. You'll be able to get in touch for technical support through Facebook Messenger. There's also reasonably late night call centre opening times every day of the week.

Unfortunately, things aren't as intuitive or helpful as some providers. For example, Vodafone broadband has a dedicated app for mastering your installation and getting the best Wi-Fi coverage results.

• Sky broadband extras

  WiFi Max

  For an additional £6.50 per month, Sky customers can sign up to WiFi Max. As well as a Wi-Fi 6-enabled Max Hub device, this service comes with a Wi-Fi guarantee of up to 25Mb (10Mb for Sky Broadband Superfast). If these speeds aren’t received, there’s a money-back guarantee.

  WiFi Max is compatible with Superfast Broadband 35, Ultrafast Broadband, Ultrafast Plus Broadband and Sky Gigafast Broadband.

  Sky Wi-Fi from 'The Cloud'

  Sky customers can autoconnect to thousands of free Wi-Fi hotspots in the UK. You'll need to be registered and logged into a 'My Sky WiFi' account and look for '_The Cloud' from your available Wi-Fi network list. Some Sky WiFi venues will still require you to pay for access to the Wi-Fi. Others will give a few minutes of free access before asking you to pay.

  Sky TV

  Sky is obviously best known for its satellite TV. It’s been beaming channels into homes for decades. This is a service with a huge amount of content that’s available to view both live and on-demand. You can even watch on the move using the Sky Go app if you want.

  Sky TV is available as a standalone service, but the broadband and TV bundles do offer the best value. It's not the cheapest option for TV, but its lowest-priced packages deliver more channels than the basic offerings from other TV providers.

  You'll need to have a satellite dish installed, unless you’ve shelled out for the Sky Glass TV or Sky Stream. That may be an issue. If you’re a renter or are living in a block of flats, make sure you get permission before having one installed.

  If you’re interested in getting Sky TV, then check out these broadband and TV deals.

  Sky Broadband Boost

  Broadband Boost is a £5 add-on for Sky Superfast, Ultrafast and Gigafast packages that’s already included with Sky Broadband Essential Plus. Like your broadband package, it comes with an 18-month contract.

  It offers the following features:

  • Free engineer visits - Get an engineer visit at any time that suits you.
  • Daily line checks - Sky will run daily checks to make sure it's running up to scratch. If not, it will text customers.

  If you took Sky Broadband Boost out after 4th September 2019, it will guarantee Wi-Fi performance in every room of your home, with a money-back guarantee. 

Sky Broadband: Expert Summary

Perhaps Sky’s biggest strength is that it offers a complete home entertainment bundle. You can get TV, phone, broadband, and even mobile for one monthly price. That’s pretty handy.

The best thing is that none of these services feels like a compromise. The TV service is exceptional, while its broadband is on the same level as the big competitors, and better than many. Sky deals include lots of extras, too, like free public Wi-Fi hotspots and minimum speed guarantees.

The TV and broadband bundles can get expensive. If you’d rather drop the TV package and save money, its standalone broadband service and other packages are reasonably priced. 

Sky has also improved its reputation when it comes to after-sales support. And in recent years, has been reasonably well-rated for tech support and customer service. 

The things we don’t like about Sky Broadband aren’t necessarily a big issue.

For instance, not being able to easily replace its router could be frustrating if you prefer to use your own hardware. But most people won’t feel the need to do so. And while its Ultrafast packages can deliver very fast download speeds, the upload rates aren’t that impressive. 

Switching broadband providers

You can easily check which Sky packages are available in your area by typing your postcode into this checker. Don't forget to use our filters, so you can sort by price, speed or contract length. Our tables will also show you if there are any great reward offers available, too. You'll be able to see how much money these can save you in the long-run with our clear 'Effective Monthly Price' summary.

If you’re out of contract, switching providers is easy. In most cases, you shouldn’t even need to speak to your current provider - your new one should do all the admin for you.

Check out our guide on ‘how to switch broadband and get an amazing deal’ for more hints and tricks, learn how to save money and upgrade your home's internet connection with little fuss.

More broadband reviews

We review every provider we list on Broadband Genie. Check out the following reviews for our thoughts on other ISPs:

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