Sky Launches Two Ultrafast Broadband Packages

Sky has launched two ultrafast—full fibre or G.fast—broadband deals, with top speeds up to five times faster than those currently offered by the ISP.

Sky Ultrafast 1 will boast average speeds of 145 Mbps downstream and 27 Mbps upstream. It will cost £39 a month on an 18 month contract. It will come with a guaranteed download speed of 100 Mbps. If speeds fall below that guaranteed minimum for three consecutive days, as measured by Sky’s proprietary speed checker, customers will be able to exit their contract free of charge.

Sky Ultrafast 2 will offer average speeds of 285 Mbps downstream and 45 Mbps upstream. It will cost £49 a month, on an 18 month contract. Guaranteed speeds on this package are 150 Mbps.

Existing Sky broadband customers will also need to pay a £34.95 fee to upgrade to the ultrafast speeds.

Unfortunately, these packages are only available to the approximately 10% of UK properties connected to ultrafast broadband, either Openreach’s full fibre or G.fast networks.

Reportedly, customers in G.fast areas will be able to take advantage of Sky’s packages shortly, while those living in FTTP areas can expect a rollout before the end of the year.

Sky is claiming that ultimately two million households will be able to subscribe to Ultrafast 1 and 1.2 million will be able to access Ultrafast 2.

Kathryn Imrie, Director of Broadband at Sky, said: “Fast and reliable broadband is an essential part of the family household today, and it’s only going to get more important in future. We want our customers to be able to do even more online, on more devices, without seeing their connection lag or drop. As a Sky Broadband Ultrafast customer, you will be able to seamlessly watch an HD movie, while your partner surfs the web and your kids are gaming in their bedroom.”

Sky uses Openreach infrastructure, so these packages won’t connect any more customers to G.fast and full fibre speeds. But it will offer customers in those areas more choice of provider and encourage upgrading to ultrafast speeds.