Sky Broadband review: The UK’s fastest headline speeds, but mediocre overall

When you think of Sky, you probably first think of satellite TV. But those days are fading – Sky is increasingly delivering its television services over broadband now, not via a dish screwed to the side of your house. And so that makes the broadband part even more important than it was before.

Nobody can accuse Sky of slouching when it comes to broadband. Its deal with the CityFibre network means that in certain areas it can offer download speeds of an astonishing 5Gbits/sec, albeit for a hefty £80/mth. To put that into context, that speed should allow you to download an episode of The Traitors from BBC iPlayer in just over a second, assuming perfect network conditions. That is almost worth murdering someone for…

Sky will, naturally, let you bundle TV deals in with your broadband at the point of order, and there’s some decent value to be had here. But when it comes to our 2026 survey of broadband customers, Sky doesn’t really trouble the scorers. It’s a largely middling-to-average performance, with customers neither desperately unhappy with their Sky broadband, nor climbing to the rooftops to sing about it.

However, if the notion of the UK’s fastest headline broadband speed is too tempting to ignore, or you have other reasons to flirt with Sky, let’s take a deep dive into the tariffs on offer.

Packages and pricing

Superfast

The Superfast tariff is Sky’s sole offering for customers not yet within reach of a full-fibre network. That’s not a criticism: other providers such as EE and BT have three different tariffs with very little difference between them except price.

The £25 per month fee for this up-to-73Mbits/sec-service (note: many customers will see much slower speeds than this) is reasonable value, although still a shade more expensive than Plusnet’s fee for the same speeds, and Plusnet did much better in our 2026 broadband customer survey.

Full Fibre 75, 100, 150, 300, 500 and 900 (Openreach)

Below, you’ll see separate tariff tables for Openreach and CityFibre. These are the two full-fibre networks that Sky has deals with and, like Vodafone, Sky has different prices and speeds depending on which network you’re within reach of.

If you’re not within CityFibre’s relatively small footprint, you’ll be offered Openreach prices and speeds, which sadly aren’t as cheap or as fast. However, Sky’s Openreach deals aren’t as cheap as those from rivals such as Vodafone and Plusnet, so it’s worth looking elsewhere before jumping in.

There are some downright oddities in Sky’s pricing, too. Full Fibre 100 costs £38 per month at time of writing, but the five times as fast Full Fibre 500 is £8 per month cheaper. Check the prices of all tariffs carefully, as they frequently change with random offers such as this.

In addition to telephone and TV bundles, Sky will also offer you its WiFi Max option at the point of ordering, which guarantees Wi-Fi coverage in every room (via extenders) and lets you set limits on kids’ internet time, among other things. It’s priced at £4 per month, which is much more reasonable than BT Broadband’s £10 per month equivalent.

Full Fibre 75, 100, 150, 300, 500, Gigafast, 2.5 Gigafast+ and 5 Gigafast+ (CityFibre)

The big advantage of being in a CityFibre area is speed: not only do you unlock those amazingly fast 5Gbits/sec and 2.5Gbits/sec tiers, but you get the same upload speed as you do download, which is great for anyone working from home.

Prices are generally cheaper in CityFibre areas too, although there are exceptions. The Full Fibre 500 is £38 per month on CityFibre, but only £30 on Openreach. Yet, the Gigafast connection on CityFibre is only £31 per month. Another example of Sky’s wildly erratic pricing.

You’ll have to pay a hefty monthly fee if you want the 2.5Gbits/sec or 5Gbits/sec lines, but you do get the bonus of Wi-Fi 7 equipment supplied with these ultrafast lines, which should help you get as much as that speed as possible on your devices – provided they too are Wi-Fi 7 enabled, of course.

Coverage

Having teased you with those blisteringly fast CityFibre speeds, it’s only fair to warn you that they’re far from nationwide. CityFibre passes around 4m premises in the UK, so the lucky ones are in a distinct minority.

Openreach’s full-fibre network now reaches around 63% of the country and is a decent consolation prize. The rest will have to make do with the much slower fibre-to-the-cabinet for the time being.

Performance and customer satisfaction

Taken in isolation, Sky’s scores in our annual broadband survey (updated 2026) look reasonably impressive. Almost eight out of ten customers (79%) are happy with the value on offer, 77% are satisfied with customer service, and 86% are happy with their speed. Yet none of those scores are good enough to lift Sky from the bottom half of the table in any of those categories.

Reliability scores are less impressive. Only 53% are happy with the number of service dropouts they receive, compared to 80% on Plusnet. That’s the second worst score of any provider, just a shade above BT.

Sky customers look reasonably favourably on the equipment supplied by the broadband provider. Only Vodafone scored more highly in this category, but it’s a fairly humdrum set of scores overall.

Sky Broadband review: Verdict

Those startling headline speeds can’t mask the fact that Sky customers have a fairly mixed view of their provider. If you’re looking for a broadband/TV bundle, Sky is worth considering, but there are cheaper, faster and more reliable providers out there.

Survey methodology

Our survey, conducted in September 2025, targeted a representative sample of 1,544 UK residents aged 18 and over.  

Across 14 questions, our survey captured data on  8 broadband providers. To ensure the integrity of our analysis, we applied a minimum sample size of 50 respondents, which qualified 7 of these for analysis. 

Analysis Brands:BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Plusnet, TalkTalk, EE, Zen Internet

Eligibile brands: BT, Sky, Virgin Media, Vodafone, Plusnet, TalkTalk, EE

Written By

Barry Collins

Barry Collins has been a technology writer, editor and broadcaster for more than 25 years. He was assistant editor of The Sunday Times’ technology section, editor of PC Pro and has written for more than a dozen different publications and websites over the years. He’s made regular TV and radio appearances as a technology pundit, including on BBC Newsnight, ITV News and Sky News. Now a senior contributor at Forbes.com, he also presents and produces tech-related podcasts.  

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