ISP Sky Broadband UK Set for Imminent Openreach FTTP Launch

After a long wait our sources inform us that Sky Broadband (Comcast) are imminently due to add support for Openreach’s (BT) national Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to their range of both “superfast” and “ultrafast” packages, which looks increasingly likely to go live later this month (provided some issues can be ironed out first).

At this point readers may recall that Sky Broadband officially launched a new range of ultrafast packages last year (here and here), although at the time we noted that those were only based off the hybrid fibre G.fast technology. Back then our sources indicated that their “full fibre” (FTTP) based variants had been delayed to early 2020.

According to sources, one of the main reasons why it’s taken Sky so long to introduce FTTP is because they’ve yet to finalise their safeguarding plans for customers who need a reliable landline phone, which obviously works differently on FTTP where an IP-based voice service (e.g. VoIP) is required. Were it not for this then Sky’s FTTP may well have gone live last month. Officially Sky would only tell ISPreview.co.uk that they now intend to go live with FTTP “as soon as possible.”

We should remind readers that the new Sky Broadband Hub (aka – Sky Q Hub 2 or SR203/204) router includes two phone ports for VoIP (note: the SR203 version is for ADSL/VDSL2 lines, while SR204 only works on G.fast). We assume the SR204 will also be used with their FTTP products, although Sky has yet to confirm that.

According to our sources Sky’s FTTP based packages will also offer higher average advertised speeds than their current FTTC and G.fast based plans, which is to be expected given that full fibre lines don’t suffer from the same performance caveats as copper. At the time of writing we don’t yet know the pricing for these but the assumption is that they will be similar, or the same as, Sky’s current tiers.

Sky’s Planned FTTP Packages
Superfast – 80Mbps (c.20Mbps upload)
Ultrafast 1 – 150Mbps (c.30Mbps upload)
Ultrafast 2 – 285Mbps (c.50Mbps upload)

Just in case anybody asks. At this time there’s no concrete information to confirm whether or when Sky will introduce a 550Mbps or 1Gbps package to match the expected launch of Openreach’s new consumer tiers on 23rd March 2020 (here). But for the time being we’ve assumed that they won’t roll this out until later.

Separate to all this, perhaps, is the interesting question of Sky’s expected launch of the new Disney+ channel and content (BT TV are also due to get this), as well as their long awaited plans to introduce a dish-less Sky Q service over broadband in the UK (i.e. like NOW TV but much more extensive and with Sky’s full line-up of channels/content). Disney+ is due to go live in March but Sky has yet to set a date of its own.

In theory both may be set to follow soon after the launch of Sky’s FTTP products, possibly in March (Disney+ is due to launch then), although officially Sky are not yet commenting on such plans or any related speculation. We do however note that some new functionality is coming to Sky Q soon, including voice control from inside related apps and a trigger word for Sky Q so that customers don’t even have to use the remote.

Suffice to say that the February to March period this year could be very interesting for Sky. Meanwhile there’s the question of whether Sky Broadband will be able to do a deal in order to take advantage of Virgin Media’s network (here and here) alongside Openreach’s. The outcome of that is expected soon, although it may take longer to actually launch related products (a lot of R&D is needed to adapt to new networks).

UPDATE 1:47pm

One of our sources has confirmed that Sky’s FTTP service will actually ship alongside the SR203 rather than the SR204 router (i.e. the one made for ADSL/VDSL2 lines rather than G.fast). Since the two devices are virtually identical, from the perspective of an FTTP service, then this is not a significant difference.