Sky Broadband UK Finally Offers Sky Q Hub Router to Existing Customers

Sky (Sky Broadband) has today officially confirmed to ISPreview.co.uk that any existing customer who wish to buy the new Sky Q Hub broadband router can do so by paying a one-off fee, which means that you don’t have to take out a Sky Q TV bundle in order to get it.

We first learnt about this earlier in the week after one of our sources informed us that Sky had started to supply the new router to non-Sky Q subscribers from last Friday. Apparently existing Sky Broadband customers can add the router for a fee of £59 (plus £6.95 for delivery).

On top of that we understand that new Sky Broadband customers can also now choose the Sky Q Hub as part of their package / order, albeit for a reduced fee of £20 (otherwise you’ll still get the old Sky Hub [SR102] router for free).

Existing customers have been asking for the option to take the Sky Q Hub with Sky Broadband since Sky Q was first launched earlier this year. One of the main reasons for that is because the existing Sky Hub (SR102) only supports 802.11n WiFi over the 2.4GHz band, which is woefully behind the competition, while the new Sky Q Hub supports 802.11ac and adds the 5GHz band.

However the new Sky Q Hub is still far from perfect, not least because for some unknown reason they only gave it 2 x Gigabit LAN ports instead of the standard four.

Sky Q Hub Specs

Physical connections
• 2x 10/100/1000 Mb/s Ethernet RJ45 port
• 1x DSL port
• Mains (Mains input 230V)

Connectivity
• Supports and automatically detects ADSL2+ and is backward compatible with ADSL
• Supports and automatically detects VDSL2 and be backward compatible with VDSL to support Sky Fibre
• Works dual band on 2.4GHz and 5GHz concurrently
– 2.4GHz 801.11n is 2×2 MIMO – Back compatible with 802.11 b/g
– 5GHz 801.11ac is 3×3 MIMO – Back compatible with 802.11n
• Supports Powerline AV1.1 – only compatible with other Sky devices
• IPv6 support

Security
• Support WPA/WPA2 with WPA-PSK/AES and TKIP security
• Support WPA2/AES

Power consumption / Power saving features
• “Network Standby” mode which uses less than 12W of power within twenty minutes of no use

Size
• Dimensions 211mm x 141mm x 34mm
• Weight 0.45kg

Sky tells us that their customers can buy the new hub either over the phone or online (the option to select the Sky Q Hub comes at the bottom of the personalise your selection page when purchasing online). Existing customers just need to login and go to My Sky > Customise Your Package and then at the bottom they can select the Sky Q Hub, which is oddly listed as £99 but this drops to £59 when you add it.