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FTTP - Which Provider and Equipment

sebalg

Member
Hi everyone,

I'm in need of some advice. FTTP has finally become available in my area, and I'm torn between Sky and Vodafone.

I'm looking at the 900mbs packages. Sky is offering it for £44/month, while Vodafone is £46/month. The main difference seems to be the provided router. Sky wants me to use my existing Broadband Hub 4.2 which is a WiFi5 router, whereas Vodafone will provide a new Ultra Hub WiFi6E router and a WiFi6E booster.

I've been a long-time Sky customer and have been happy with their broadband.

Also in the house I have Sky Q with a couple of mini's, I have seen posts about compatibility with Sky’s WiFi6 max hub so I am not sure if this is why Sky won’t provide a new router or if they just don’t want to.

Wired devices will be PS5, PC. Wireless will be 3 TVs, laptop, about 6 apple devices plus a load of cameras, echo etc.

I'm wondering:

  • Is FTTP generally reliable no matter who the provider is?
  • Are there any significant differences between Sky and Vodafone's FTTP services beyond the router?
  • Has anyone had experience with either provider's FTTP service and can share their thoughts?
  • Is it worth upgrading to a WIFI6 router and booster, or is my existing WIFI5 router sufficient?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
 
There's also Plusnet for £40pm. But only until 8 Aug!
I heard Vodafone customer service is mediocre. But generally FTTP is reliable. I had no dropouts for months.
 
There's also Plusnet for £40pm. But only until 8 Aug!
I heard Vodafone customer service is mediocre. But generally FTTP is reliable. I had no dropouts for months.
Thank you for your reply - I did actually see Plusnet for £40. I believe the Plusnet router is also dual band Wifi5, which means a max speed of about 420mbs on wireless devices.
Not sure of the real life experiences with this but on paper it seems like a big bottleneck when using 900mbs internet connection.
 
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I prefer to keep the router and WiFi access point separate. Firstly, I can ignore their WiFi solution when selecting my next provider. Secondly, I've placed the AP centrally in the property to improve the reach.
 
I prefer to keep the router and WiFi access point separate. Firstly, I can ignore their WiFi solution when selecting my next provider. Secondly, I've placed the AP centrally in the property to improve the reach.
Going down the own hardware route can be beneficial but only if you really know what you want and why. Whilst most ISPs use PPPoE, Sky is a bit oldball among it's networking peers in the UK and uses DHCP Option 61 as their WAN Auth protocol and needs to be considered if doing own hardware with Sky.

For most consumers the set and forget of an ISP provided router is easy provided it gives the necessary WiFi coverage and is good enough for their purposes.
 
I've had both of these as providers, and im now on Vodafone. The router they provide is nice, as long as you don't plan to go over 1Gbps speed. It will be much better than the one sky will give. As for which one is a better network, I never really had any significant problem with either of them. And on a customer service level, they're both outsourced overseas and both terrible. But vodafone live chat seems quite understanding and quick to resolve things. Sky? horrible.

I don't know which package you're looking at, but Vodafone gave me a 4G backup with 100GB of 4G data in the event that it stops working, plus they give you a WiFi 6E booster box as well.

I'm not using either of those things, but it's a nice extra you won't get with Sky. Also the 4G SIM works fine in a phone lol. I put mine in my daughter's phone. Free 100GB data SIM (well, included in the cost I suppose). I don't use the supplied router because I ordered 1.6Gbps and the LAN ports on the router are only 1Gbps (boo). So I just hook my own router up to the openreach ONT and away you go. Vodafone router sitting in it's box. Have to figure out what to do with the 6E booster thing if I can do anything with it at all.

If it were me, and i've had both of those as an ISP, I'd pick whichever was offering the cheapest deal at the time as they're both on equal footing IMHO and I'm not bothered about supplied equipment. However if you do care about supplied equipment, vodafone kit is better. Hands down.
 
I've had both of these as providers, and im now on Vodafone. The router they provide is nice, as long as you don't plan to go over 1Gbps speed. It will be much better than the one sky will give. As for which one is a better network, I never really had any significant problem with either of them. And on a customer service level, they're both outsourced overseas and both terrible. But vodafone live chat seems quite understanding and quick to resolve things. Sky? horrible.

I don't know which package you're looking at, but Vodafone gave me a 4G backup with 100GB of 4G data in the event that it stops working, plus they give you a WiFi 6E booster box as well.

I'm not using either of those things, but it's a nice extra you won't get with Sky. Also the 4G SIM works fine in a phone lol. I put mine in my daughter's phone. Free 100GB data SIM (well, included in the cost I suppose). I don't use the supplied router because I ordered 1.6Gbps and the LAN ports on the router are only 1Gbps (boo). So I just hook my own router up to the openreach ONT and away you go. Vodafone router sitting in it's box. Have to figure out what to do with the 6E booster thing if I can do anything with it at all.

If it were me, and i've had both of those as an ISP, I'd pick whichever was offering the cheapest deal at the time as they're both on equal footing IMHO and I'm not bothered about supplied equipment. However if you do care about supplied equipment, vodafone kit is better. Hands down.
Thank you for your reply
 
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WiFi6 or 6E would be worth considering *if your devices also support it* and you want any chance of getting most or all of that 900Mbps over wifi. This is more likely to be the case for a newish laptop or Apple device.

Like someone else has said, ISP routers are perfectly fine for most people and some of the popular DIY options come with their own bugs and issues.

Sky Q seems to have problems with a lot of ISP routers and third party wifi devices (which seems to include Sky's own new router lol) - perhaps this is why they're pushing you to take their wifi5 unit which is fully integrated into the Q system.
 
WiFi6 or 6E would be worth considering *if your devices also support it* and you want any chance of getting most or all of that 900Mbps over wifi. This is more likely to be the case for a newish laptop or Apple device.

Like someone else has said, ISP routers are perfectly fine for most people and some of the popular DIY options come with their own bugs and issues.

Sky Q seems to have problems with a lot of ISP routers and third party wifi devices (which seems to include Sky's own new router lol) - perhaps this is why they're pushing you to take their wifi5 unit which is fully integrated into the Q system.
I think you might be right. Sky did confirm the new max router doesn't work with the sky q. I am nervous about getting the vodafone router or even a 3rd party mesh system and that not working well with the sky q.

I think I am stuck with Sky until I can convince my other half that she doesn't have to record everything. Saying that it was hard enough trying to convince her that we didn't need a video record when sky + came out.
 
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