Sky Gigafast broadband review
What is Sky Gigafast?
With lightening speeds of 900Mbps, Gigafast is 80% faster than the next-best Sky broadband package. It has a guarantee of 600Mbps and you’ll get a month’s subscription back if your internet drops below this for three or more consecutive days. Perfect for WiFi hungry homes, Sky Broadband Gigafast can connect to more than 120 devices at the same time.
How much does Sky Gigafast cost?
Your basic Gigafast package will currently set you back £42 per month and requires an 18-months contract. So, it isn’t cheap. Although compared to deals from other providers with that speed, it’s not actually a bad deal.
How does Sky Gigafast compare with its rivals?
Most other broadband providers also offer gigabit speeds too. The table below gives you an idea on where Sky Gigafast is in comparison with its same-speed competition, it’s around middle of the market. However, you can get even better value if you then bundle broadband with a TV package.
Sky Gigafast and Sky TV
Just like any Sky product, there are loads of extras you can choose to add onto your service too. The best value of these bundle deals is the Sky Gigafast Broadband + Sky TV deal, which gives you Sky Signature (the core TV package which includes 300 channels and Sky Box Sets) for £53 per month.
Phone line included
Unlike other full fibre providers – BT, Plusnet, TalkTalk – Sky includes a home phone line with pay-as-you-go calls in its Gigafast package. Calls on this plan cost 25p per minute with a 25p connection charge.
Impressive router
Sky Gigafast comes with the very capable Sky Broadband Hub. This router features smart channel selection, four gigabit ethernet ports and can connect up to 64 devices at once.
There is an add-on option to upgrade your router to the Max Hub. Sky Max Hub is a dual-band WiFi 6 router, which means it will provide faster speeds to any WiFi 6 enabled devices like Sky Stream or Sky Glass. This is an extra £7.50 a month at the time of writing
Can anyone get Gigafast?
It all depends on where you live. Sky Gigafast is delivered by the new full fibre network which, according to Ofcom, is currently available to about 60% of UK homes. Sky says that more than 11 million properties have access to Gigafast at the moment, with future plans to push that up to 25 million. So, can you get it? Find out with our postcode finder.
If you can’t get Gigafast yet, you’ll probably be able to get the next-best available technology, ‘partial fibre’. 97% of UK premises currently have this connection available to them, its connection can give you speeds of between 30Mbps and 80Mbps. This means you’ll be looking at packages like ‘Superfast 80’, which cost around £28 a month and gives you speeds of 61Mbps.
Do I actually need Gigafast?
Will you really be using over 120 digital devices at the same time and taking full advantage of the speed capacity that gigabit broadband gives? In reality, few households really need more than 100Mbps let alone 1,000Mbps. However, don’t let this put you off.
Gigabit connections are only slightly more expensive and prices are falling. For those in larger households they offer peace of mind that no one is going to be caught short, especially if you have any avid gamers attached to the WiFi. As digital devices get more advanced, so does the bandwidth requirements, so opting for Gigabit capabilities is future-proofing your home.