Sky offers Ultrafast Broadband from £33 per month with average download speeds of 145Mbps.
In the UK, Sky has launched their next-generation home broadband service, Sky Ultrafast Broadband. It offers average download speeds of 145Mbps: more than 12 times faster than their Essential Broadband service (11Mbps) and more than twice as fast as Superfast Broadband (59Mbps).
Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband service is currently available for £33 per month on an 18-month plan. It uses either G.fast or full fibre (fibre to the home) technology, depending on what is available at your address.
In this article, we’ll review Sky Ultrafast Broadband. We’ll start by looking at the Ultrafast broadband plans, before looking at the Sky Ultrafast Broadband router and the speeds available on the service. Finally, we’ll look at the availability of the service before comparing it to alternatives from other providers like BT, TalkTalk and Virgin Media.
| Prices From: | £33 per month |
|---|---|
| Best Offer: | Free Anytime Talk & Save £19.95 On Set-up (January exclusive offer) |
| Contract Length: | 18 month contract |
| Speed: | 145Mbps average download speed 27Mbps average upload speed |
| Technology: | G.fast or Full Fibre |
| Router: | Sky Broadband Hub (Sky SR203) |
| Coverage: | 6 million+ homes |
Contents
Sky Ultrafast Broadband Plans
Sky Ultrafast Plans
In the UK, Sky currently offers just a single Ultrafast Broadband plan, with average download speeds of 145Mbps. This is currently available for £33 per month:
| Service | Average Speed | Contract Length | Upfront Price | Monthly Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sky Ultrafast | 145Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £33/month |
See Sky Ultrafast Broadband Deals →
At the end of your 18 month contract, the price will increase to Sky’s standard monthly prices (currently £44/month for Ultrafast Broadband).
This is the only ultrafast home broadband service currently available from Sky. In mid-2019, Sky originally announced two Ultrafast broadband plans (Ultrafast 1 with average download speeds of 145Mbps and Ultrafast 2 with average download speeds of 285Mbps). Unfortunately, the Ultrafast 2 plan hasn’t been mentioned for more than a year so it’s likely the launch of this is on hold for the time being.
Another important thing to note about Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband is that the Sky Talk phone service is delivered using voice over IP (VoIP) technology. This means the internet connection is used to deliver your home phone service. Your landline telephone will therefore need to be plugged in to your Sky Hub router for it to work. One downside of this is that if the power fails to your Sky Hub router, you’ll lose your home phone service. For this reason, Sky says their Ultrafast Broadband service isn’t suitable for people who rely on their landline for emergency calls.
Superfast vs Ultrafast Broadband
Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband offers download speeds that are twice as fast as their Superfast Broadband.
The following table shows a side-by-side comparison of Superfast Broadband and Ultrafast Broadband:
| Superfast Broadband | Ultrafast Broadband | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly Price: | £25 per month | £33 per month |
| Contract Length: | 18 month contract | 18 month contract |
| Download Speed: | 59Mbps average download | 145Mbps average download |
| Upload Speed: | 18Mbps average upload | 27Mbps average upload |
| Technology: | FTTC (or FTTP – see note†) | G.fast or Full Fibre (FTTP) |
| Router: | Sky Hub (Sky SR203) | Sky Hub (Sky SR203) |
| Availability: | Over 90% of UK homes | Approx 20% of UK homes |
† If you’re living at an address that’s connected to the Openreach full fibre (FTTP) network, you’ll still be able to get Superfast Broadband from Sky. However, this will be delivered to you over the full fibre connection, rather than fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) as it is for most other customers.
Sky Broadband Boost
You can add Sky Broadband Boost to your Ultrafast Broadband service for an extra £5/month. This gives you five additional 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 phone line each day to ensure your Ultrafast Broadband service is working correctly.
- Parental controls app: Access to the Sky Broadband Buddy parental controls app. This is designed to work both on wi-fi and on a mobile data connection.
- Flexible engineer visits: You’ll get free evening and weekend appointments with the Sky Broadband Tech Team (normally £15 for customers without the Broadband Boost).
- 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 broadband service.
The following table shows Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband plan with Boost:
| Service | Average Speed | Contract Length | Upfront Price | Monthly Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Sky Ultrafast | 145Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £38/month with Broadband Boost |
For more information, see our guide to Sky Broadband Boost.
Sky Ultrafast Broadband Router
Customers signing up for Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband 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 specifications, see the Sky Broadband website.
Sky Ultrafast Speeds
The average download speed on Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband service is 145Mbps, with a maximum download speed of up to 150Mbps (dependent on your line). This is enough to stream ultra-HD video (in 4K quality) on up to 6 devices at the same time, or to download a HD-quality film in around 4 minutes (increasing to 18 minutes for a film in ultra-HD quality).
The main benefit of choosing a faster connection is it allows more devices to be used at the same time in your home. The following table shows what you’re able to do with a download speed of around 150Mbps on Ultrafast Broadband:
| Activity | Required Download Speed | Usable on 150Mbps Connection? |
|---|---|---|
| Web Browsing, Messaging & E-Mail: | ||
| General web browsing | 0.1-1Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Social media, instant messaging & e-mail | <0.1Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Voice & Video Calling: | ||
| Skype/WhatsApp phone call | 0.1Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Skype/Zoom video call | 0.5-0.8Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Skype/Zoom video call (HD) | 1.5-1.8Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 80 devices |
| Zoom group video call (HD) | 2.5-3Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 50 devices |
| Streaming Online Music & Radio: | ||
| Listening to online radio | 0.2Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Streaming music (Spotify, Apple Music, etc) | 0.4Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Streaming Online Video: | ||
| Watching YouTube videos (basic quality) | 0.5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100+ devices |
| Watching YouTube videos (720p HD quality) | 2.5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 60 devices |
| Watching YouTube videos (1080p HD quality) | 4Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 35 devices |
| Watching iPlayer/Netflix (standard definition) | 1.5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 100 devices |
| Watching iPlayer/Netflix (high definition) | 5Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 30 devices |
| Watching iPlayer/Netflix (4K UHD) | 25Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 6 devices |
| Online Gaming: | ||
| Online Gaming (installed PC/console game) | 3Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 50 devices |
| Cloud Gaming (Stadia/PS Now/Xbox Cloud) | 10Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 15 devices |
| Cloud Gaming (4K Stadia) | 35Mbps | ✔ Yes, on 4 devices |
In addition, there’s a minimum guaranteed download speed of 100Mbps on Sky Ultrafast Broadband. If the speed of your service drops below this for three days in a row, you’ll be able to cancel your service without any paying any fees.
The minimum download speed guarantee covers the speed that is measured at your Sky Broadband Hub. You’ll need to carry out your speed test at sky.com/mybroadband. The guarantee doesn’t consider the impact of poor Wi-Fi in your home (there’s a separate 3Mbps Wi-Fi Guarantee in Sky Broadband Boost if you’d like this as well).
The average upload speed on Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband is 27Mbps.
Coverage & Availability
Sky’s Ultrafast Broadband service is available in about 20% of UK homes. This includes 3 million homes that are able to get a full fibre broadband connection from Openreach and another 2.8 million homes that are able to get a G.fast broadband service.
In the past, Ultrafast Broadband was only available in G.fast areas. However, in November 2020, Sky extended it across the rest of the country to work in homes that have a full fibre connection from Openreach. The ambition is for full fibre technology to be available in 20 million homes within the next five to ten years.
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 currently unable to get Ultrafast Broadband, you might still be able to get Sky’s other broadband services including Essential Broadband and Superfast Broadband.
Alternatives
If you’re looking for an alternative service that also offers ultrafast download speeds, the following alternatives might also be worth considering:
| Service | Average Speed | Contract Length | Upfront Price | Monthly Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gigafast 100 | 100Mbps download | 24 month contract | £0 | £25/month |
 Superfast | 150Mbps download | 12 month contract | £29 | £26/month |
 Fibre 150 Data Only | 147Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £28/month |
Sky Ultrafast | 145Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £33/month |
 M100 Fibre + Phone | 108Mbps download | 18 month contract | £35 | £34/month |
 EE Fibre Max 145 | 145Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £39/month |
 Ultrafast Fibre | 140Mbps download | 18 month contract | £0 | £39.99/month with 3 months free |
 Full Fibre 100 | 150Mbps download | 24 month contract | £9.99 | £39.99/month |
The availability of different services at your address will vary depending on the provider. You’ll need to check this on the individual provider websites.
More Information
For more information about Sky Ultrafast Broadband, please see Sky’s official website. You can also read our full Sky Broadband review.
Andy said:
I have purchased it and it’s being fitted in March, does an engineer need to come our before hand to check any thing? I can get an answer, not sure if I need a new BT phone socket, I want my wires under the floor not tacked around door frames , so I need to know what they will he doing.