Sky Ultrafast Broadband & Ultrafast Plus Broadband Review: 145Mbps & 500Mbps Speeds

Sky offers Ultrafast Broadband from £32 per month with average download speeds of 145Mbps or 500Mbps.

In the UK, Sky has launched their next-generation home broadband service. They offer Ultrafast Broadband for £32/month with an average download speed of 145Mbps. They also offer Ultrafast Plus Broadband for £42/month with an average download speed of 500Mbps.

Save £3/month on Ultrafast Broadband →
(exclusive deal, ends 27th January 2022)

At present, Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband plan is available in 7 million homes whereas Ultrafast Plus Broadband is available in 5 million homes. The service uses either G.fast or full fibre (FTTP) technology depending on what is available at your address.

In this article, we’ll review Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband. We’ll start by looking at the Ultrafast Broadband and Ultrafast Plus Broadband plans. We’ll then look at the speeds available on the service along with Sky’s Ultrafast broadband router. Finally, we’ll look at the availability of the service and how you can switch to Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband.

Sky Ultrafast Broadband Plans

In the UK, Sky now offers a choice of two Ultrafast broadband plans: Ultrafast Broadband (with an average download speed of 145Mbps) and Ultrafast Plus Broadband (with an average download speed of 500Mbps).

You can get Ultrafast Broadband as a standalone service, or you can get it together with Sky TV to save on your overall package.

The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of the two plans:

In addition, you can also get Sky’s Superfast Broadband which has an average download speed of 59Mbps. If you’re living in a home with a full fibre (FTTP) connection, this will be delivered using the FTTP connection instead of fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology.

Sky Ultrafast Broadband

On Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband service, you can get a home broadband connection with an average download speed of 145Mbps. There’s a minimum guaranteed download speed of 100Mbps on this plan along with an average upload speed of 27Mbps.

You can get Ultrafast Broadband for £32 per month without Sky TV. This includes a Sky Talk home phone service (provided using Internet Calls). Alternatively, you can get Ultrafast Broadband together with Sky TV for £49 per month.

The following table shows Sky’s latest Ultrafast Broadband deals:

Service	Broadband	Television	Monthly Price
Sky Ultrafast	145Mbps average download	No TV	£32/month for 18 months
Sky TV with Ultrafast Broadband	145Mbps average download	Sky TV 300+ channels included	£49/month for 18 months plus £29.95 upfront
Sky TV with Netflix and Ultrafast Broadband	145Mbps average download	Sky TV with Netflix 300+ channels included	£50/month for 18 months plus £29.95 upfront

See Sky Ultrafast Broadband Deals →

Your Ultrafast Broadband service comes with the Sky Broadband Hub router. This produces a Wi-Fi network for your other devices to connect to. You’ll also need to plug your home telephone into the Sky Broadband Hub as the Sky Talk service is delivered using Internet Calls technology.

For an extra £5/month, you can add Broadband Boost to Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband. This gives you a WiFi Guarantee along with daily line checks, a Broadband Buddy parental controls app, flexible engineer visits and 2GB of extra data on Sky Mobile for unplanned fibre broadband outages.

You can get Ultrafast Broadband on a Gfast or full fibre (FTTP) connection. This means it’s currently available in around 25% of UK homes (about 7 million households). You can enter your postcode on Sky’s website to see whether Ultrafast Broadband is available where you live.

Sky Ultrafast Broadband Plus

Sky’s fastest available fibre broadband service is known as Ultrafast Broadband Plus. Making use of full fibre (FTTP) technology, it delivers an average download speed of 500Mbps into your home. This is backed by a minimum guaranteed download speed of 400Mbps and an average upload speed of 60Mbps.

You can get Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband Plus service for £42 per month. It’s also available together with Sky TV at a discounted price.

The following table shows Sky’s latest Ultrafast Broadband Plus deals:

Service	Broadband	Television	Monthly Price
Sky Ultrafast Plus	500Mbps average download	No TV	£42/month for 18 months
Sky TV with Ultrafast Plus Broadband	500Mbps average download	Sky TV 300+ channels included	£59/month for 18 months plus £29.95 upfront
Sky TV with Netflix and Ultrafast Plus Broadband	500Mbps average download	Sky TV with Netflix 300+ channels included	£60/month for 18 months plus £29.95 upfront

See Sky Ultrafast Broadband Plus Deals →

The Ultrafast Broadband Plus service also includes Sky’s Broadband Hub router. If you want a WiFi Guarantee, you can add the £5/month Broadband Boost add-on.

Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband Plus launched in July 2021. You’ll only be able to get it if your home has access to a full fibre (FTTP) connection from Openreach. At present, Ultrafast Broadband Plus is available in around 15.7% of UK homes (about 5 million households). You can enter your postcode on Sky’s website to see whether it’s available where you live.

Superfast vs Ultrafast Broadband

If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband, you can get their Superfast Broadband service from £25 per month. This gives you an average download speed of 59Mbps and an average upload speed of 18Mbps.

Service	Broadband	Television	Monthly Price
Sky Superfast	59Mbps average download	No TV	£25/month for 18 months
Sky TV Essentials	59Mbps average download	Sky TV Essentials 200+ channels included	£31/month for 18 months plus £29.95 upfront

See Sky Superfast Broadband Deals →

If you’re not currently able to get Ultrafast Broadband in your home, you’ll normally still be offered the Superfast Broadband option. That’s because Superfast Broadband is available in a lot more homes. You can get it in more than 90% of UK homes, compared to just 25% of homes with Ultrafast Broadband.

If your home is connected to the Openreach full fibre (FTTP) network, your Superfast Broadband service will be provided using FTTP (not FTTC which is used for most other customers). You’ll also get an Internet Calls service delivered using FTTP.

Sky Broadband Boost

You can add the Broadband Boost add-on to Ultrafast Broadband or Ultrafast Broadband Plus for an additional £5/month. The add-on gives you five extra features:

• Guaranteed wi-fi in every room of your home: Guaranteed speeds of at least 3Mbps in every room of your home, or money back on your Sky Broadband Boost subscription. You’ll be sent a Sky Wi-Fi Booster to help with the Wi-Fi coverage if required.
• Daily line checks: An automated check on your connection each day to ensure that your Ultrafast Broadband service is working correctly.
• Parental controls app: Access to the Sky Broadband Buddy parental controls app. This is designed to work across both wi-fi and mobile data connections.
• Flexible engineer visits: You’ll get free evening and weekend appointments with the Sky Broadband Tech Team (normally £15).
• 2GB mobile data for unplanned outages: An extra 2GB of data will be added to your Sky Mobile Piggybank if there’s an unplanned outage on your Sky Broadband service.

The following table shows Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband plan with Boost:

Service	Broadband	Television	Monthly Price
Sky Ultrafast	145Mbps average download	No TV	£37/month for 18 months with Broadband Boost
Sky Ultrafast Plus	500Mbps average download	No TV	£47/month for 18 months with Broadband Boost

For more information, see our Sky Broadband Boost review.

Sky Ultrafast Speeds

On Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband service, you’ll get an average download speed of 145Mbps or 500Mbps, depending on the plan you choose. This allows you to do a lot more with your broadband connection (e.g. you can stream 4K video on up to 6 devices at the same time with Ultrafast Broadband).

The following table shows the average download speed and upload speed you can expect on each of Sky’s Ultrafast broadband plans:

Both of the Ultrafast broadband plans include Sky’s Speed Guarantee. This gives you money back on your bill if the download speed to your Sky Hub router drops below the minimum guaranteed speed for three consecutive days. There’s more information about the guarantee on Sky’s website.

For an extra £5/month, you can upgrade your Sky Broadband plan with a WiFi Guarantee. This gives you a guaranteed download speed of 3Mbps in every room of your home. You’ll get a WiFi Booster device if required. Your Sky Q box also helps to boost your home wi-fi signal if you have Sky TV.

Sky Ultrafast Broadband Router

Customers signing up for Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband or Ultrafast Broadband Plus service will receive the Sky Broadband Hub router (Sky SR203).

The Sky Broadband Hub router supports dual-band Wi-Fi 5 technology, with 8 built-in antenna to optimise performance and coverage through your home. It supports up to 64 devices on Wi-Fi at the same time. There are also 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports available for connecting wired devices to your home network.

For more information and for full technical specifications, see the Sky Broadband website.

As an Ultrafast Broadband customer, you’ll be using Sky’s Internet Calls for your Sky Talk home phone service. This means your landline telephone will need to be plugged in to the Sky Broadband Hub instead of being plugged in directly at the wall socket.

If you don’t currently have an Openreach modem (ONT) inside your home, you’ll get one installed as part of the set-up process for Ultrafast Broadband. This is required for you to be able to access a full fibre (FTTP) connection.

Coverage & Availability

In the UK, Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband service is currently available in about 25% of all homes:

• Ultrafast Broadband uses either Gfast technology (available in 2.8 million homes) or full fibre technology (available in 5 million homes).
• Ultrafast Broadband Plus is only available in homes with full fibre technology (about 5 million homes).

Over the next few years, full fibre technology is due to be rolled out rapidly across the UK. The current ambition is for full fibre technology to be available in 25 million homes by December 2026.

To see whether Ultrafast Broadband is available where you live, enter your postcode on Sky’s online availability checker:

Check Sky Ultrafast Broadband Coverage (sky.com) →

If you’re not currently able to get Ultrafast Broadband where you live, you might still be able to get Sky’s Superfast or Essential broadband service.

Switching to Sky Broadband

If you’re currently using another broadband provider, it’s easy to switch your home broadband service to Sky.

Start by ordering your Ultrafast broadband plan online. During the online order process, you’ll be given an activation date for your Ultrafast Broadband service. An engineer visit will also be scheduled if one is required to set up a FTTP connection in your home.

Sky will normally contact your old broadband provider for you to cancel your old service. The main exception to this is if you’re a Virgin Media customer, in which case you’ll need to contact them separately to cancel the service.

For step-by-step instructions on how to change your broadband provider to Sky, please select your current broadband provider from the dropdown menu below:

You can also read our full guide on switching broadband providers in the UK.

Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

For more information about Ultrafast Broadband, please see Sky’s official website. You can also read our full Sky Broadband review.