Published: June 2026 | Reviewed by the FibreCompare editorial team
Two of the UK's biggest broadband providers are now competing at the very top of the consumer speed market, and their flagship products could hardly be more different in how they're packaged, priced, and positioned. Sky's Full Fibre 2.5 Gigafast+ delivers a headline 2,500Mbps — more than enough to be called genuinely future-proof — but it's exclusively available on the CityFibre network. EE's Full Fibre 1.6Gbps hits a slightly lower ceiling, runs on the far more widely available Openreach network, and comes with a compelling hardware bundle at a lower price point. Both include Wi-Fi 7 routers. Both will comfortably handle anything a modern household throws at them. But their availability and positioning are fundamentally different, and that distinction shapes the entire comparison.
So which one do you actually want? We've gone through the detail so you don't have to.
| Sky Full Fibre 2.5 Gigafast+ | EE Full Fibre 1.6Gbps | |
|---|---|---|
| Average download speed | 2,500 Mbps | 1,600 Mbps |
| Average upload speed | 2,500 Mbps (symmetrical) | 110 Mbps |
| Network | CityFibre only | Openreach (FTTP) |
| Contract length | 24 months | 24 months |
| Monthly price | £70/month | From ~£61/month (Premium) |
| Router included | Sky Gigafast+ Hub (Wi-Fi 7) | EE Smart Hub 7 Pro (Wi-Fi 7) |
| WiFi extender included | WiFi Max (Pods) included free | WiFi Extender 7 Pro included |
| Price rise | Annual in-contract increases apply | £4/month rise from 31 March 2027 |
Prices correct at time of publication. Always check fibrecompare.com for live pricing at your postcode.
Let's be direct about something: 1.6Gbps and 2.5Gbps are both far beyond what the vast majority of UK households will ever meaningfully use on a day-to-day basis. A single 4K Netflix stream uses around 25Mbps. A family of four streaming, gaming, and video calling simultaneously might peak at 200–300Mbps under heavy load. Even a full home office setup with multiple video calls and large file transfers won't consistently touch 1Gbps.
What these speeds are really about is headroom — the confidence that your connection will never be the bottleneck, now or as household device counts continue to climb. They're also about upload performance, and this is where the two products diverge significantly.
Sky's 2.5Gbps tier is fully symmetrical — 2,500Mbps down and 2,500Mbps up. That's exceptional for content creators, remote workers handling large uploads, and households running NAS servers or home cloud backups. This symmetrical capability is a feature of CityFibre's network architecture, which supports equal upload and download speeds — a meaningful advantage over Openreach-based products at any tier.
EE's 1.6Gbps tier offers 110Mbps upload. That's not slow — 110Mbps up is well above what most households need — but it's a fraction of the download speed, and it's a meaningful practical gap if uploading large volumes of data quickly matters to you.
For most households, EE's 110Mbps upload is entirely sufficient. For power users, creators, or businesses, Sky's symmetrical connection at 2.5Gbps is in a different class.
This is where the comparison gets genuinely interesting, because both providers have invested seriously in their hardware bundles at the top tier.
Customers on Sky's 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps plans receive the Sky Gigafast+ Hub — a cylindrical Wi-Fi 7 router with two 10Gb Ethernet ports designed specifically to handle multi-gigabit speeds. Wi-Fi 7 (the 802.11be standard) delivers faster wireless throughput, lower latency, and significantly better performance in congested environments with many connected devices compared to Wi-Fi 6.
The Gigafast+ Hub is a step up from the Sky Max Hub (Wi-Fi 6) that comes with lower-tier plans, and its dual 10Gb Ethernet ports mean wired connections can actually saturate the full 2.5Gbps line speed — something a standard gigabit Ethernet port physically cannot do.
WiFi Max — Sky's mesh extension system — is included at no extra cost on all Gigafast+ plans. This gives you up to three Plume-powered WiFi Pods for whole-home coverage, a guaranteed minimum wireless speed of 25Mbps in every room, and cloud-managed parental controls and security via the My Sky app.
EE's 1.6Gbps plan comes with the Smart Hub 7 Pro, a tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router built specifically for the demands of speeds over 1Gbps. The tri-band design is an important distinction — it adds a third radio compared to the standard dual-band Smart Hub 7 Plus (which is included on EE's lower-tier plans), giving it additional capacity for high-demand environments with dozens of connected devices.
Critically, the WiFi Extender 7 Pro is included as standard with the 1.6Gbps plan — no add-on fee required. This is a Wi-Fi 7 mesh extender that extends the tri-band network into rooms or floors where the main hub's signal weakens. For larger homes, this bundled hardware is a genuine selling point.
EE also offers a suite of optional add-ons — a Keep Connected Promise (a 4G Mini Hub as backup if your fibre line develops a fault), Norton Cyber Security for up to 15 devices, WiFi Controls for parental management, and an EE Guide Home Visit to help you set up — but these come at extra cost depending on which bundle tier you choose.
Both routers are genuine flagship products and either will handle a busy modern home without difficulty. Sky's 10Gb Ethernet ports give it a technical edge for wired connections that can actually use the full 2.5Gbps line speed. EE's tri-band Pro configuration may perform better in extremely dense Wi-Fi environments. On coverage, the two products are well matched: both include their respective extender hardware as standard, so neither has a clear advantage here out of the box.
The 2.5 Gigafast+ product is available exclusively on the CityFibre network, currently reaching around 4.5 million UK homes. It is priced at £70/month on a 24-month contract, with WiFi Max included at no extra cost.
Sky applies annual in-contract price increases. Following a flat £3/month rise in April 2026 for existing customers, the pattern is established: expect your bill to increase each spring, and factor that into your 24-month cost calculation. Sky will contribute up to £200 towards exit fees if you're switching from another provider (£300 when switching to Sky TV and Broadband together).
Post-contract, prices step up to the standard rate — currently around £75/month — so it's worth setting a reminder before your minimum term ends.
EE offers the 1.6Gbps tier across two bundle tiers. The Premium plan at approximately £61–£67/month includes the Smart Hub 7 Pro, WiFi Extender 7 Pro, and standard Core features. The Ultimate plan at approximately £76/month adds the Keep Connected Promise, advanced security, parental controls, and an EE Guide Home Visit.
EE's in-contract price rises are baked in: for customers joining from August 2025 onwards, prices increase by £4/month on 31 March each year. On a 24-month contract, that means a £4 rise before the term ends. EE does not cap this to CPI — it's a fixed £4 annual increase, which is notably more predictable than an index-linked model, but still a material cost movement.
There's also a note on hardware return: EE's extenders are loaned, not owned — if you end your service, you'll need to return the WiFi Extender 7 Pro within 60 days or face a £85 non-return charge.
This is arguably the most important question for many readers.
EE Full Fibre 1.6Gbps is available wherever Openreach has completed its FTTP rollout — around 18 million UK homes as of 2026. If you can get Openreach full fibre, you can get the 1.6Gbps tier from EE.
Sky Full Fibre 2.5 Gigafast+ is exclusively available on the CityFibre network — currently around 4.5 million homes. Sky's top speed on the Openreach network is 900Mbps (Full Fibre Gigafast), so if CityFibre hasn't reached your street, the 2.5Gbps product simply isn't an option regardless of your interest in it. Sky's postcode checker will tell you which network serves your address and which speeds are available.
In short: EE's 1.6Gbps is dramatically more widely available — reaching around four times as many homes. Sky's 2.5Gbps is the faster product, but it's a niche offer by footprint. Check your postcode before this comparison goes any further.
Speed and hardware matter, but so does what happens when something goes wrong.
Sky scored 82% in Ofcom's 2025 customer satisfaction survey — above BT (79%) and TalkTalk — and has a low formal complaints rate of around 6 per 100,000 customers, one of the best in the market. The Sky Broadband Guarantee allows you to exit penalty-free if they can't resolve a persistent issue within 30 days.
EE's picture is more mixed. Ofcom's latest data placed EE among the more complained-about providers for fixed broadband, alongside TalkTalk and Vodafone. However, Trustpilot ratings as of April 2026 sit at 4.2 out of 5, and many reviewers specifically praise connection reliability. EE's Keep Connected Promise — the 4G Mini Hub backup — is a standout differentiator for anyone whose work depends on being online, though it's only included in the paid add-on tiers rather than the base plan.
Geoff Pestell, CEO of FibreCompare, gave his verdict:
"Both of these products are excellent, and I want to be honest with you: for the overwhelming majority of households, neither 2.5Gbps nor 1.6Gbps will feel noticeably different in practice. Your devices, your Wi-Fi, and your usage patterns will all hit their ceiling long before the line speed does. What actually separates these two products for most buyers is the package around the raw speed. EE's 1.6Gbps deal is more widely available, includes its Wi-Fi 7 extender in the box as standard, and comes in at a lower price point — that's a genuinely compelling bundle. Sky's 2.5Gbps product has the edge if you need the symmetrical upload speeds — creators, heavy remote workers, and power users who regularly push large files will feel that difference — and the CityFibre version with WiFi Max included is a clean, well-rounded deal.
My practical recommendation: if EE 1.6Gbps is available at your address and you don't have a specific use case that demands symmetrical gigabit uploads, take it. The hardware is excellent, the extender is included, and the price is right. If you're in a CityFibre area and Sky's 2.5Gbps is on the table, that's worth serious consideration — especially if you're bundling with Sky TV. Whatever you do, check both at your postcode before committing, because availability varies significantly and there may be promotional pricing live that changes the calculation entirely."
Choose Sky Full Fibre 2.5 Gigafast+ if:
Choose EE Full Fibre 1.6Gbps if:
For most households, EE's 1.6Gbps product is the more practical and more widely available choice — especially at the current pricing levels. Sky's 2.5Gbps offering is genuinely impressive and the right call for power users or those in CityFibre areas, but it carries a higher price and narrower availability.
Either way, both products represent a generational step forward from the FTTC connections millions of UK homes are still running on today.
Check which of these deals is available at your postcode using the FibreCompare comparison tool. Prices and availability correct at time of publication — June 2026.
Tags: Sky Broadband, EE Broadband, Full Fibre, Gigafast, 2.5Gbps, 1.6Gbps, Ultrafast Broadband, Broadband Comparison, Wi-Fi 7, Openreach, CityFibre, Broadband Review 2026
