Sky Broadband UK Start Selling 900Mbps Gigafast Plan Again
Good news. UK ISP Sky Broadband has finally returned to selling their top tier 900Mbps (90Mbps upload) “Gigafast” package – based off Openreach’s national FTTP network – to new customers, apparently after carrying out unspecified work to “upgrade and optimise” the service. The package was removed from sale last November 2022.
The top tier package, which only launched in April 2022 (here), was previously being sold at £51 per month for the first 18-months of service (£60 thereafter), before it was suddenly removed toward the end of last year (here). At the time, there seemed to be some confusion among Sky’s support staff about the reason for its withdrawal, although our own sources suggested that the issue may be network / capacity related.
Some customers also speculated that Sky’s latest Hub router might be to blame, since it has sometimes struggled to deliver the top speed. At the time, Sky simply told ISPreview.co.uk that “providing a fast and reliable service is our number one priority. We are currently optimising our network and have temporarily paused new sales of Sky Broadband Gigafast while we do this. Existing Sky Broadband Gigafast customers are not impacted.”
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The package is now available again to order, although it still appears to be shipped alongside the same Sky Broadband Hub router (SR200 series) as before and is currently being priced at just £54.50 per month for 18 months (£60 thereafter), including free setup.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Been on it since launch last year. Its nowhere near 900mb and never has been. Not surprised they took it off sale, false advertising.
I just did a test, got 933mb down 111.5mb up. (Using own equipment, besides ONT).
As usual though these things likely depend on various factors e.g. location, area usage, etc.
“As usual though these things likely depend on various factors e.g. location, area usage, etc.”
No on FTTP they don’t – even a 128 split PON can deliver full speed to all using freq switching etc
@haha you are correct re the PON, but it’s very likely that there will be some contention on Sky’s backhaul. Probably the same backhaul as used for their ADSL and VDSL products.
“No on FTTP they don’t – even a 128 split PON can deliver full speed to all using freq switching etc”
You what? What have you been smoking today?
GPON doesn’t use frequency switching. It relies on everyone’s downstream and everyone’s upstream being in the exact same frequency as each other.
GPON also only provides 2.4Gb/s down and on Openreach that’s split between 32 properties.
That’s not enough to give 3 customers full gigabit speed at all times nevermind your claim of 128.
Fortunately people don’t use all their available bandwidth all at the same time and the PON part of the link is very unlikely to be the bottleneck.
Go and learn how the technology works before making silly comments.
“@haha you are correct re the PON”
No, he’s not correct. Far from it.
No FTTP network provider in the UK uses tuneable optics. PONs can and, rarely, do congest.
‘but it’s very likely that there will be some contention on Sky’s backhaul. Probably the same backhaul as used for their ADSL and VDSL products.’
Absolutely, but as long as the backhaul never actually fills the contention doesn’t matter.
Visible contention is all that is important. Backhaul is very heavily contented most of the time but statistics and law of averages take care of things.
Hopefully not another customer that expects all wireless devices, regardless of the tech they use, to have full speed everywhere in their home…
Every ISP have own Guaranteed speed. Mine offers minimum 875Mbps download and 120Mbps upload. This speed available only beside ONT.
Over WiFi speeds vary. My WiFi network transmit up to 1.2 Gbps, but I have some device capable to achieve just 833Mbps, one laptop can achieve just 433Mbps (to use full speed need connect to LAN network or upgrade WiFi card).
I’ve been on it since launch. Apart from a small blip for a month or so where it was never reaching a over 700mbps I have been seeing consistently around 930-940 down and 105-110 up.
Also. I don’t use skys router. I have a pair of AMPLIFI Aliens using an Ethernet backhual between them. The master AMPLIFI connects directly to the FTTP ONT using PPOE.
I think often when people complain about speeds they are using the supplied router. In most cases ISP routers are inadequate, in Skys case it’s not fit for purpose.
“The master AMPLIFI connects directly to the FTTP ONT using PPOE”
Then it can’t be Sky GigaFast. Sky don’t use PPPoE.
Sky’s backhaul network has ALWAYS been cheap and nasty and highly contended. You get what you pay for. Go with BT if you actually want to see the speed you pay for all the time.
@anon – just looked and my mistake it’s DHCP Option 61 I use.
The router is pants. Plus you need to be on WiFi 6 or WiFi 6e device and router to be able to get it wirelessly otherwise you need a cable
I get a good 850Mb / 110Mb. However to do that: a) I must be connected via ethernet and b) and Sky Q or minis must NOT be connected via ethernet. If I connect any of the Sky Qs via ethernet then it maxes at 400Mb. The sky router is seriously flawed.
Still uses Brokenreach network so not interested. ALTNETS all the way here, usually cheaper and faster upstream…..
Some of us would love to have FTTP from Openreach rather than nobody…
We get the point. The endless repetition on pretty loosely related stories is getting tiresome.
True, if you can only get Brokenreach FTTP then it’s better than FTTC/ADSL, I agree.
I’d be gutted personally though as it’s toy product compared to grown up offerings from most of the ALTNETS with its limited upstream and more expensive prices in most cases 🙂
You know nothing about what you’re talking about. Stop embarrassing yourself.
You are talking to people who actually work or worked for these companies.
I promise you most of the Altnets have a lot of negatives compared to Openreach FTTP. It’s not just about speed, resilience is really important too.
If you think a BT Group owned company doesn’t know how to build a fibre network and builds a “toy network” I don’t know what to say to you. That’s a bit of a cringy thing for you to say.
This is nice to see – I wanted to upgrade my brother but he can only get 500 on Sky so he was about to switch to BT to get 900 – but he will be happy with this as long as it does the 115 upload
£51 seems like a lot and an 18 month contract when I got 1/1gbit symmetric for £30 from Vodafone
Not only Vodafone offers dedicated broadband service 1Gbps/1Gbps. Most providers offer even 10Gbps/10Gbps. But these packages mostly focused on business instead to residential.
Currently on an FTTC connection with Sky, using their SR203 hub. I am expecting FTTP (via Openreach) to become available at my property in the coming weeks & will upgrade my Sky broadband to FTTP. I would be willing to pay the premium price for the 900mb service if Sky included the new WiFi6 hub that they are now providing to Sky Connect (business) customers.
Anyone think that there is any chance that Sky will offer the WiFi6 router to residential customers anytime soon (maybe just those taking 900mb) to start with? Keen to jump to FTTP as soon as it becomes available to me, but would prefer not to sign up to 500mb for 18 months & have to stick with the SR203 (knowing my luck, I would sign up for 18 months & they would then start providing the WiFI 6 router a few days later!).
It wont make its way to residential customers but do expect a new revision of the SR203 with Wifi6 and more congestion to VMO2.
There was an interesting router in development thanks to Comcast but don’t count on that releasing soon thx to senior management holding innovation back :/
@Waiting for FTTP
The Sky SR203 router is extremely poor on a 150 service so cant imagine what it’ll be like on a 900 service.
Hardly any will opt for a 900meg package anyway . Totally over the top for what anyone actually need’s still
Some people actully have large households and different needs
Also 900 package only way to get 100 upload via Openrach `
I have an SR203 v4 and get 900Mbps via ethernet. However the hub only provides around 600Mbps at best via WiFi (if standing right next to the hub.
Just ordered YouFibre 1gb symmetrical for 29 pcm!…. can’t wait.
£54.99 is a lot when you can get the same speed from BT for £40.99 or £46.00 after the price increase. I would have considered moving from BT I’m in the 14-day off period, but I’m not willing to pay more for the same thing.
What’s annoying is that Openreach do wholesale cuts to pricing but the ISP’s double that cost for “support” and profit and you don’t see them going down to the customer unless a new customer offer where the speed gets bumped occasionally.
Meanwhile, the incredible Netomnia via youfibre.com ‘£1 for first three months’ for 1gig down and 1gig up then £29 for rest of contract with no mid-contract price increases using XGS-PON and static IP’s available if required. Lovely Jubbly. Other ALTNETS offering similar good offers.
I am in the process of leaving sky to go to Fibrus. Getting 1gb and 300 upload for 44.99 with no midterm increases. They dont use openreach
Fibrus still not available in most areas. I’m next week awaiting FTTP installation (TalkTalk over Openreach network). Guaranteed speed 875Mbps down and 120Mbps up. £42 per month. Unfortunately their eero 6 pro devices are very limited and are not suitable for use in semi-detached house due lack of simple WiFi channel adjustment. So prefer to use my old Asus equipment – can control all network settings and WiFi signal (mesh) way better than eero 6 pro.
You might have a hard time receiving 120Mb/s upstream on a product capped at 115Mb/s.
My gigabit Talktalk package states between 109-111Mb/s upstream.
I worked for Sky for a long time. This is and always was a multi-layered issue. The router specs were always behind the competition. Literally the bare minimum of what they could get away with (the price they used to charge for replacements was outrageous, taking those payments disgusted me). I remember the huge song and dance they made about the supposedly cutting-edge tech they had licensed for the Sky Q router; in practice it was utterly mediocre, the wifi boosters were crap, and they ended up disabling the powerline networking.
Backhaul congestion was a perennial problem and would usually take months, sometimes over a year for upgrade work to take place when a problem area was identified. Note that this means when the volume of complaints became too high to ignore, not that they proactively identified impending problems.
I’m on Sky 500mbps FTTP just now (I got a discount code from a former colleague), and I usually get close to full speed over Ethernet, but it can drop to half that at peak times. The wifi performance is… sufficient. I live in a small new build with paper thin walls. I get about 450mbps right next to the router. At the other end of the house (mere metes away) it’s down to about 250.
I wonder what Sky have done to restore confidence in selling this product again. I won’t be upgrading.
Sky’s poor backhaul has been an issue since they started selling broadband. Remember when they wouldn’t sell more than 40Mbps on FTTC? That was due to their backhaul being crap.
I used to be an Openreach engineer and we’d constantly get called out on jobs that Sky’s call centre had forced into the system due to their customer having slow throughput. They had no evidence the fault was due to Openreach’s network, and 99% of the time it was due to their contended core network or crap wifi from their router. No other ISP did this, no one.
Yeah, that sounds about right. I worked as a tech specialist in repeat/escalated calls team for a bit, and I dealt with many, many, many throughput cases. There was a weird issue when the FTTC product was first being rolled out causing low throughput, which required several months of investigation between Sky and Openreach. The details are hazy now but I believe it was some sort of config mismatch on the kit in the fibre cabs. The most frustrating problem with FTTC was we had no control whatsoever over the line profiles. An engineer visit had to be booked to reset it every time DLM kicked in and capped the speed, which if you had a crappy line like mine at the time, was every month or so.
I think the way Openreach manage the FTTC lines is the right way to do it. I wouldn’t want the ISPs to just reset DLM whenever they feel like it.
I too wonder what Sky have done since withdrawing the Gigafast product, and if they have plans to release a Wi-Fi 6 router given BT announcing their new hub
I’ve been on the Gigafast product from initial launch and it’s never been an issue for me, hardwired definitely gets 900+ mbps, my Wi-Fi devices mostly running on 2×2 80MHz get around 400-600mbps depending what’s going off. I did notice that by hardwiring all my Q Minis, turning the hotspot off and then using the white booster I got more consistency for my Wi-Fi.
A friend who works for Sky is testing a White Wi-Fi 6 hub (looks like the existing Hub 4, just in white) and my iPhone 14 on 160MHz gets 800mbps+ at their house.
I was on Sky’s 900mbit service for a while – only unusual thing I saw was that the uploads never exceeded 70mbit up until a couple months when they finally started trended up closer to 100mbit.
No idea if that was a change at the Sky side or was a reflection of something more local in my network
All of these comments about “I can get an alt net cheaper!” make me laugh.
Most alt nets I’ve seen deploying in the area only provide a service via cgNAT and have little resilience. You pay for what you get.
(Note – I’m on BT Fiber900 with a minimum speed guarantee of 700)
Quality of altnets varies for sure as far as network goes. Seeing one attaching a single 1G backhaul to a Mikrotik CCR2004 covering a number of PONs was an eye-opener.
Some are great. Some aren’t.
Misinformation. Most ALTNETS let you have the option of static IP and some are looking at ipv6, soe got it.
Little resilience. You having a laugh aren’t you? Netominia as one example of an ALTNET go back the BT exchange where there is power backup there for kit – so it’s resilient as BT to the exchange. After that it has been built with pretty much similar to what you’d get with BT. In fact the dark fibre for the core bit for some ALTNETs is likely to be BT anyway.
ooh you are BT 900, whoopee. What about your upstream is it 900 too? and can you pay for 10GBPS like I can on Netomnia? Not that I need it.
Wrong… You fibre offer 1gb symmetrical plus static ip (extra £5). Currently all in for £34.99 per month… much better than bt/or offerings
You forgot it’s just £1 for first 3 months too 😉
Quality varies.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/01/isp-grain-name-next-8-uk-towns-and-cities-for-1gbps-broadband.html
I don’t see much resilience there. I see a router and OLT in a cabinet with a single 1G backhaul. Unless there’s stuff missing and that CCR is there for management, which seems unlikely given the DAC links to the OLT, management ports are usually straight RJ-45, that is single homed and hugely contented.
Netomnia are done properly. Resilient backhaul to hub exchanges once properly commissioned with links to two different POPs, OLTs in Openreach handover exchange.
Comments about Netomnia are correct. They do it properly.
But those rack positions inside BT exchanges that Netomnia go for do cost good money, and it seems a lot of other Altnets prefer not to do that and just use cabinets in the street with a 1Gb or 10Gb fibre to them. As has been mentioned there’s no resilience that way.
The Netomnia racks will be engine backed in the event of a power cut and may even have UPS protection also. All good stuff and is the right way to do it.
I think half the recent comments on this website are from the same person, he even comments about his own comments using different names.
Mr Coventry take a bow
A wild assumption there to comfort yourself. Obviously don’t like anyone with different views to yourself. You’d be fine in certain countries.
anonymous obsessed with altnets is the troll formerly known as carpetburn. Been at it for years.
Coventry is ‘haha’. He’s stuck with it a while now.
These guys are living the dream
They think they are so right, but are so wrong. Yet it’s not them trolling…. apparently….
Just checked my Sky account.
They still only offer the 500mb package, and I still can’t upgrade without phoning them.
At which point, they’ll no doubt tell me I can’t have the 500 package either.
The Gigafast option is back on Skys website now.