Sky TV, Phone & Broadband
Sky are best known for their satellite TV deals, but how does their broadband service fare? We investigate. Read more »
Is Sky broadband any good?
When they're not busy hanging out with the Murdochs, Sky find time to run the UK's most successful satellite TV service.
Does that mean that their broadband is just an add-on for their sofa-captive pay TV customers? Is Sky broadband any good?
We'll aim to find out - focusing on connection quality and value for money - in this full review.
For more on Sky TV please see our digital TV and Sky versus Virgin guides.
Sky broadband in brief
Sky have four broadband options: Lite, Unlimited, Fibre and Connect.
Broadband Lite is Sky's 'free broadband' package and is only available when customers also take TV.
Unlimited broadband - and Connect (more on this below) on the other hand, are available both as completely standalone broadband packages or bundled with Sky TV.
Sky also offer Fibre Unlimited, an up to 38Mb broadband package available with or without Sky TV.
Here's a quick run down of the main prices:
| Package | Usage | Package Price | Line Rental | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband Unlimited + Wkend calls |
Unlimited | Free for 6 mths, then £10 |
£14.50 | Visit Sky » |
| Fibre Unlimited + Wkend calls |
Unlimited | £20 | £14.50 | Visit Sky » |
| Broadband Lite + Wkend calls + Sky TV |
2GB | £10.75 for 6 mths, then £21.50 |
£14.50 | Visit Sky » |
| Broadband Unlimited + Wkend calls + Sky TV |
Unlimited | £18.25 for 6 mths, then £29 |
£14.50 | Visit Sky » |
| Fibre Unlimited + Wkend calls + Sky TV |
Unlimited | £25.75 for 6 mths, then £41.50 |
£14.50 | Visit Sky » |
| Broadband Connect (out of area) + Wkend calls + Sky TV |
40GB | £27.75 for 6 mths, then £38.50 |
£14.50 | Visit Sky » |
You can compare more package options and check availability above.
First though, let's look at all three in a little more detail.
Broadband Lite
This is Sky's cheapest broadband deal: in fact, it's free.
There are two catches, though. First, the service offers a download allowance of just 2GB a month: that's the UK's smallest home broadband usage allowance.
It means that Sky Broadband Lite will only be suitable for those who need an internet connection only for browsing and emails: streaming video or audio and downloading large files are out.
Second, Broadband Lite is only available for new and existing Sky TV customers and only when subscribers take Sky line rental too.
In fact, then, the cheapest monthly price with Broadband Lite is £36: that's £21.50 for basic Sky TV and £14.50 for line rental with inclusive weekend calls to UK landlines.
£0 in addition to satellite TV is still a good price, though, but for those that want their broadband without TV, Unlimited, Fibre and Connect (for those outside of Sky's network area) are the only options.
Unlimited
Sky's big broadband draw is this (truly) unlimited package.
Unusually for a big provider, Sky don't impose any form of restriction on downloads on their Unlimited deal: no fair use policy, no traffic management and definitely no download cap.
Only Virgin Media's top packages (reviewed here) and packages from Be broadband are similarly unencumbered.
Read our network management article for more on how this actually affects broadband; most Sky unlimited users seem to just enjoy the peace of mind.
Unlimited offers speeds of up to 14Mb.
According to Ofcom's last large-scale report into broadband speeds, Sky customers were actually getting, on average, speeds of 6.6Mb to 8Mb.
That's about average for an ADSL provider although it's interesting to note that if it's unlimited you're looking for the two providers we mentioned above are also faster.
Interestingly, however, the same Ofcom report did find that Sky had lower packet loss rates than competitors including O2/Be, Plusnet, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.
Packet loss rate simply means the number of data units which go astray through a network. The less loss the better, high rates can cause the connection jitter that causes lag, for example, when a streaming video sits buffering for ages in the middle of Eastenders.
Consistent with that finding, Sky Unlimited users generally report decent, consistent service.
Unlike Broadband Lite, Sky broadband Unlimited is available without Sky TV, although subscribers must still take Sky line rental.
The deals without TV are some of the UK's cheapest unlimited broadband deals. They break down like this.
| Package | Price | Line Rental | Total Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sky Broadband Unlimited + Talk Weekends | Free for 6 mths, then £10 |
£14.50 | £14.50 for 6 mths, then £24.50 |
Visit Sky » |
| Sky Broadband Unlimited + Talk Anytime | £5 for 6 mths, then £15 |
£14.50 | £19.50 for 6 mths, then £29.50 |
Visit Sky » |
Many customers prefer to take Unlimited broadband in conjunction with Sky TV services, however.
In this case, the cheapest option is £43.50 that's: £21.50 basic Sky TV; £14.50 line rental with inclusive weekend calls and £7.50 for the Sky unlimited broadband.
| Package | Price | Line Rental | Total Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband Unlimited + Wkend calls + Sky TV |
£18.25 for 6 mths, then £29 |
£14.50 | £32.75 for 6 mths, then £43.50 |
Visit Sky » |
Further price options are available on our Sky package selector above.
Fibre Unlimited
Sky also offer their own version of BT's FTTC product - Fibre Unlimited.
Sky's version is truly unlimited and comes in cheaper than BT Infinity, currently by about £6 a month.
Sky were previously charging £50 for fibre installation, but this has recently been removed.
| Package | Price | Line Rental | Total Monthly | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fibre Unlimited + Wkend calls |
£20 | £14.50 | £34.50 | Visit Sky » |
| Fibre Unlimited + Wkend calls + Sky TV |
£25.75 for 6 mths, then £41.50 |
£14.50 | £40.25 for 6 mths, then £56 |
Visit Sky » |
Connect
Finally, the slower Connect package is the only option available for non-LLU (read: rural) areas.
Unfortunately, it's also much more expensive than Sky's two other broadband options - because it costs more for Sky to pay BT to use these exchanges - and features a monthly download allowance of 40GB.
That should be more than enough for moderate downloaders - plenty for everyday streaming, everyday browsing and more than occasional downloads - but it's certainly a poor cousin to Unlimited.
Note also that Sky don't really seem to offer Connect without TV in their product builder but it is available if you select Unlimited with calls and enter your phone number and postcode at the checkout.
All in all
All Sky broadband packages include a decent wireless router and customers taking Unlimited or Connect also get free access to wi-fi hotspots from The Cloud.
There's no charge for set up or installation, except a £15 setup fee when taking Sky line rental, (or when you need a new phone line, which costs from £39 with TV, more on this in general) on online orders.
Sky line rental
As we've noted above, Sky broadband is now only available to customers who are also willing to switch their home phone line to Sky's line rental.
Let's take a closer look.
Prices
Sky line rental is currently almost a pound less than BT's £15.45, at £14.50 a month, a fair saving of £11.40 over a year.
It's also currently just on the cheaper side of other mid market prices, although it's certainly not the lowest, as prices currently go as low as £10 for basic line rental with no inclusive calls from Be for example.
Talk Weekends
Sky Talk Weekends comes, as the name suggests, with inclusive weekend calls to UK landlines and adds no extra cost to basic line rental.
Out of inclusive hours call rates are fairly standard: 8.41p/min to UK landlines and 12.77p/min to mobiles in the day and 7.66p to mobiles in the evenings.
However, note that Sky's evenings start a little later than some other providers': at 7pm.
Talk Anytime
As it's name also suggests, Talk Anytime offers inclusive calls to UK landlines and 20 international destinations at any time.
Inclusive international calls are to landlines except within the US and Canada where calls to mobiles are included.
Talk Anytime costs an extra £5 per month. That's priced competitively, and while anytime calls can be found cheaper elsewhere, it's hard to beat when you consider taking broadband and/or digital TV as well.
Sky service
Finally, it's important to note that Sky broadband's customer service, in common with most of the biggest broadband providers, is not always held in high esteem.
You do start to worry when there's an independent website for problems.
However, Sky do offer 24/7 technical support (numbers here), they're currently using a 0844 number. It's free for Sky Talk customers, and currently 5.1p/min, plus 13.1p connection, from a BT line.
It's also worth noting that, in general, customer service has improved considerably since the service first started so take complaints from a few years ago with a pinch of salt.
For example, Ofcom's annual complaints data released in December 2012, showed that 24% of Sky customers said that they would use the service again purely on the basis of the quality of customer service they had received, that's 5% more than any other ISP.
Summing up Sky
All in all, with their Unlimited service, Sky are delivering much more than a basic add-on to their satellite TV: completely unlimited downloads makes the package one of the best liked and best value broadband deals around.
However, Broadband Lite and Connect continue to fit the add-on description pretty well. Aside from Broadband Lite's price, they can be easily beaten elsewhere.
This article was last updated 31 December 2012, it was first published 7 September 2011.
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Comments
Yes - the real problem with Sky is the constant and regular disconnects. They have a serious problem there, and have done nothing to sort it out. If you play games online, you can forget about using Sky. Simple as that.
This is more of a question. Why can't I get a line rental saver with Sky if I apply online? They insist I need to order the line rental over the phone to be eligible for the line rental saver. I can get some cash back (quidco or top cash back) if applying for Sky talk and broadband. I can get line rental saver if I buy Plusnet or TalkTalk online.
Yet 2 years on, it has problems with the constant disconnects, that a lot of people all over the country are having currently from around December 2012 - present March 2013, and it is ridiculous with the amount of times these disconnects occur. It differs from day to day, sometimes it's 2 or 3, sometimes it's 10 - 20. It can happen at any peak or off peak times. Everything that a Sky forum mod/op says on their forum is the same old rubbish, have you reset the box, are you sure it's not getting interference? What when it's plugged in through hardwire from the router to my computer? No its the same thing that happens, the router turns off, flashes an amber light which then goes green and then your internet comes back on. Now they say the line is ok, and there is no problems with the line? Then what is it? I'd say it's your router fix it, and stop telling people because you can't be bothered fixing it, everyone's fed up, including me with ringing over the same issue that's affecting the whole country. Best fix I can think of is move ISP, which should be free of charge due to the poor service and lack of fix after 3 - 4 months.
This is for mark p,
If you have Sky TV with a phone line, unplug your Sky adapter/line from the BT socket and put your phone line which is connected to your router in and watch your Internet speed shoot up.
I have BT internet but changed my Sky box to Sky+ and my internet speed went down to 1mb-2mb. I took my Sky line and put my phone line directly into the phone socket and my speed shot up to 8.86-9.25mb even after being told my exchange is only 5.5km away - the Sky box slows your speed down!
I have had Sky broadband for almost a year now. I got it because I wanted Sky+ HD and it was a lot cheaper if you get the full package with phone line as well. Also you get multi room. But I absolutely regret this. The connection of the router always remains existent but it frequently cannot pickup Internet signal as it's not fibre optic. This is extremely annoying because it happens at least once every couple of hours which means that if I start any long download then it will always phase out when the router fails to pickup signal or the internet signal received by the router gets very low: even if this is just for a second. Even when there is signal it gives a very slow Internet speed.
I have been with Sky for 6 months now and the best download is 2.2Mb downstream and 0.3Mb up. I live 2km away from the exchange and cannot have fibre optic as it's not set up in my area.
I have checked the filter, wires to the telephone etc, are all ok and had an engineer set it when I started with Sky. Sky have said there's nothing they can do until the exchange upgrades which could be years!
I contacted Virgin and they did a test on my line and so did I via their tester and they said iI could get 10Mb - 17.5Mb. Is this a con to get my business? They said it wasn't because of Ofcom.
Hi, just hoping for some advice if possible. I am currently with Sky for everything including my broadband and I have been with them for nearly two years and am no longer tied in to a contract. My broadband is truly shocking - I had problems since day one and last night was the last straw - 5 mins to upload a Sky page! I have checked on my connection speeds and barely touching 1Mb when I am supposed to receive 20Mb.
I am connected on the Connect package which I know doesn't hold the best speeds but was hoping for a lot better than this. The master socket is in the kitchen which can not be used as my living room is on the 2nd floor (3 story house) so I use the socket in my living room for my hub. Any suggestions as to how I improve my speed or do I transfer to another supplier? Thanks.
I've been using Sky broadband for a while now and to be honest, the quality of the service I get is truly awful. I live 1 1/2 miles from the exchange and the "up to 20mb" speed I get is actually 1.4 to 1.6mb, which in this age of ultra fast technology is shocking. I've asked them to sort it out for me but they say they're unable to help. Yes,the fee is cheap at £7.50, but in reality it's not even worth that.
I would strongly advise anyone to avoid Sky broadband at all costs, regardless of the price.
Sky recently sent me an email saying they will "automatically move you up to Sky Broadband Unlimited" if I go over my monthly usage twice (currently on Lite). Can they do this with out my permission? I'm happy on my current broadband package & stated they can throttle my internet if I go over.
Hi Chris, There's usually a section of your broadband terms and conditions that states that Sky are within their rights to do this. Checking the small print should be your first move with this.
If it costs more for existing Sky customers and am out of contract why can't I just cancel my contract, wait a day or two and take up a new contract in order to benefit from the prices for new customers?
This is something we've often wondered ourselves so we checked with Sky for the definitive answer.
This is what they said: "If a customer cancels their Sky subscription, they are not eligible for a new Sky offer for 12 months. In that 12 month period they would still be classed as an existing customer."
Hope that helps!
Do you qualify as a new customer if you already have Freesat?
As long as you don't have any Sky products we believe you qualify. You'll need a new dish but note that you can keep Freesat and have that and Sky connected to the same dish. That's particularly handy if you want TV in a few rooms: you could have freesat in one and Sky in another.
I have Sky TV. When I go to sign up for broadband they are charging a £60 set up fee. In the above you say it is free?
The prices above are for non-Sky customers signing up online. Sky have another set of prices for their existing TV customers.
What can I say about Sky. Well, we had BT internet at one point but as I am a gamer I needed a pretty fast connection and BT couldn't offer that, so we decided to swap over to Sky (since we already had a Sky+ HD box).
I must say that the Sky connection is a lot faster for browsing, gaming and downloading than any other provider.
After some terrible experience during a move to a new home with BT, I decided to swap to Sky. I have been a TV customer with them for many years and was hoping to get a fair deal on broadband. However, they didn't stick to any of their promises and after 2 months the Internet is still not working properly.
I live only a few miles out of Edinburgh and would have expected a fairly stable internet connection here. I haven't managed to discuss this with anyone from Sky on their so called 24/7 phoneline and they haven't responded to any e-mails I've sent. I might just cancel my direct debit as I'm not willing to pay any longer for this poor service.
I don't know if there is any real alternative as most of the Internet providers do not realise that we've reached the 21st century and people need a reliable and fast Internet connection for private and business purposes. Until the big companies get these issues sorted I would rather use mobile Internet on a Pay-as-you-go basis.
You say the following about Sky Broadband, "It's also worth looking at what you'll actually be getting before you jump in: this is a very basic broadband deal for browsing, emailing and not much else". What else is there to get with broadband, am I missing something here?
John
Yeah sorry John I can see how that could be confusing! So we mean browsing low-bandwidth websites and emails as opposed to streaming video on sites like Youtube and iPlayer or via your TV, listening to music online on sites like Spotify, playing games online, downloading large files etc. Hope this helps.
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