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A Step-By-Step Guide to Finding the Right Sky Broadband Deal for You

An Introduction to Sky

Sky is the second-biggest broadband provider in the United Kingdom, behind BT being the largest player in this space. The company was established in 1989 as the first-ever consumer satellite television service. Since then, Sky has extended its products to include broadband deals whilst continuing to dominate the television and home entertainment market. With an enormous customer base of more than 24 million individuals, Sky offers a wide variety of broadband, television, phone, and mobile deals to cater to numerous consumer needs.

What Kinds of Sky Broadband Deals Are Offered?

Sky has various types of broadband packages for different purposes, whereby users can subscribe to or remove premium features within their packages in a flexible manner based on their needs. To elaborate, Sky’s broadband packages typically include broadband and phone or broadband, phone, and television. Besides that, Sky deals also include offers that waive the installation fees (up to £20) for newly onboarded customers.

For the broadband and phone deals, users can select either Sky’s Essential or Superfast broadband to be synced with the company’s Sky Talk phone service. Specifically, Sky’s Essential broadband has an average speed of 11 Megabits per second (Mbps), whereas the Superfast broadband provides an average speed of 59 Mbps.

In addition, Sky Talk provides customers with three different options, namely Sky Talk Evenings and Weekend (which includes free calls within the United Kingdom at specified times), Sky Talk Anytime Extra (comprises free unlimited calls to UK-based mobiles and landlines), and Sky Talk International Extra (that consists of free unlimited calls to UK-based landlines and mobiles together with 50 overseas locations).

On the other hand, the broadband, phone, and television bundle offered by Sky grant customers the choice of the options mentioned earlier alongside a collection of add-ons on their television packages. Such television add-ons include:

  • Sky TV (which enables customers to access 70 premium television channels such as Comedy Central, Fox, Sky Atlantic, and many more).
  • Sky Entertainment (offers customers access to more than 300 premium channels).
  • Sky Cinema (includes 11 extra channels to allow customers to watch movies, each offering a particular genre).
  • Sky Sports (which comprises nine additional channels that cover various types of sports, including cricket, football, golf, Formula One racing, and others).

Meanwhile, consumers subscribing to any of Sky’s television packages will be given a Sky Q box. This essentially means that they will be able to record a maximum of six shows and watch the seventh, utilise voice controls to find a specific channel, binge watch the complete series of on-demand shows, on top of storing 500 hours’ worth of television programs of their choice (or 1,000 hours if the user chooses to upgrade to the 2TB box). Not to mention, Sky TV customers can also benefit from Sky Go. This feature lets customers watch their favorite channels via their mobile phone, tablet, or personal laptop at no additional cost. Furthermore, Sky TV customers may also access Catch Up TV, allowing them to access television shows from the last 30 days across 65 channels.

For Sky’s existing users, the company provides a VIP loyalty programme that covers notable events and bonuses. Depending on the individual’s duration of the subscription, they may be eligible for various tiers of offerings. The lowest tier begins with the Silver tier (for customers who have subscribed for up to three years), the Gold tier (between three and eight years), the Platinum tier (between eight and 15 years), and the Diamond tier (for users who have subscribed to Sky consistently for over 15 years). These different categories, in turn, provide various levels of incentives for their eligible members.

What Broadband Speeds Do Sky Broadband Deals Offer?

Sky has many broadband speed options ranging from its asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband, called Sky Broadband Essential, to the full-fibre broadband, which includes Sky Superfast Broadband as well as Sky Ultrafast Broadband.

Sky’s broadband packages come with varying broadband speeds. Sky Broadband Essential has an average download speed of 11Mbps (best suited for customers who are light internet users, e.g., for basic browsing and/or some streaming). Conversely, Sky Broadband Superfast offers an average speed of 59 Mbps, which provides just enough for several users to stream content simultaneously. Finally, Sky Broadband Ultrafast provides a broadband speed of 145 Mbps. It is the optimal choice for heavy internet users (gamers), a family household, or anyone who streams 4K content and/or downloads large files daily.

To help customers who may not be familiar with their typical internet usage, Sky has registered for Ofcom’s Voluntary Code of Practice, which permits the company to estimate the broadband speed users might need based on the results of a personalised speed test within their geographical location. Should Sky be unable to provide customers with the required broadband speed, users could, in turn, file a complaint and give the company 30 days to address the problem. If the issue continues to persist after a month, they would then have the option of quitting the contract without needing to pay an early exit penalty.

Other than that, customers could get Sky’s Broadband Boost service at an extra £5 per month, which offers routine broadband checks and access to experts to fix any issues. In essence, this service safeguards the quality of Sky’s broadband around the users’ premises.

How Could Customers Set Up Their Sky Broadband Connections?

If customers opt for the Sky phone and broadband deal, they will only be required to possess an active landline. Following that, they can self-install the broadband connection. Nevertheless, if customers choose Sky’s television and broadband deal instead, an engineer will have to visit their premises in order to install all the required equipment.

In the case whereby the customer’s current router is not compatible with Sky’s fibre broadband, they must purchase a new Sky router. The company will send this within a week so customers can smoothly switch over to Sky’s fibre broadband services.

When it comes to installation fees, Sky’s broadband-only packages have cheaper installation fees than the television packages. Based on the selected package, the expected price will be between £19.95 and £39.95. On the other hand, the installation process may take approximately three weeks to complete if the customer does not have an existing landline connection. Nonetheless, those with a pre-existing phone line that is active will only need up to two weeks to switch to Sky’s broadband services.