Sky UK’s Business ISP Sky Connect Launches FTTP Broadband

Sky’s (Sky Broadband) UK ISP sibling for small businesses, Sky Connect, has today launched their first Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband packages. Sky claims they’re the only business ISP to offer ‘Speed Flex’, a dedicated account manager, 4G back-up and internet security as standard on all their ultrafast Full Fibre packages.

Sky Connect appears to be offering a choice of three FTTP packages – Advantage (£24.95 +vat a month for 24 months, then £39), Ultrafast Pro (£34.95 a month for 24 months, then £55) and Ultrafast Max (£95 a month for 24 months) – which offer combinations of various features (see below). New customers will also need to pay £12 for postage (router) and setup fees from £79 (£99 for a new line install).

The Advantage plan comes with a default average advertised speed of 76Mbps (19Mbps upload), while both Ultrafast Pro and Ultrafast Max plans come with 150Mbps (28Mbps upload). But both of the latter two packages also have the ability to boost their top download speeds up to 300Mbps – 500Mbps via ‘Speed Flex‘. We’ll explain the extra features below.

Sky Connect’s Extra Features

• Speed Flex – Giving small businesses control to flex their speeds whilst in-contract as their business needs develop. Speeds can be boosted up to 500Mb and back down again, as and when required.
• UK-based dedicated account managers – Supporting customers during every step of their FTTP journey, from purchase to installation.
• 30-day money-back guarantee, should businesses not get the speeds they need. Enabling them to switch with confidence.
• Price guarantee – Promising no package price rises for customers during the initial term contract.
• 4G back-up and security – Keeping businesses on their feet in case of a broadband outage and offering protection from online threats.
• No premium pricing – All FTTP packages have the same monthly contract price as Sky Connect’s current Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC / VDSL2) packages.
• Flexible & fair contracts – 12, 24 and 36-month contract terms available, at no impact to the package rate, alongside a no-hassle cancellation policy.
• Unlimited phone calls, through Sky Connect’s digital phone service included as standard with all broadband packages, with 24 inclusive features to ensure our customers never miss an important business call.

We should point out that the Advantage plan does NOT get Speed Flex or 4G back-up and all of these packages are based off Openreach’s FTTP network, which currently covers over 6 million UK premises and rising.

Kevin O’Toole, MD of Sky Connect, said:

“In today’s recovering economy, small businesses cannot afford to suffer from broadband disruption or connectivity issues. The implications of the disruption are huge. Our new capability will support small businesses reliant on a flexible broadband connection, offering UK-based dedicated account managers who will be on hand to support business customers with their FTTP installation via their preferred communication channels.

We are thrilled to offer our customers this new capability to deliver reliable and consistent speeds straight to a business’s door.”

The Speed Flex feature is certainly not something we’ve seen on other Openreach based FTTP providers, but the small print makes clear that there is a cost impact to this, and it’s thus not as dynamic as it may sound in the marketing spin – “Speed Flex: 1 extra monthly charge: £10 for 300/47Mbps or £15 for 500/60 Mbps Add-On. 2 may be removed after 30-days + £10 admin fee.“