Sky has launched a new Full Fibre package with average download speeds of 1.6Gbps and uploads of 120Mbps. It runs over Openreach’s network rather than CityFibre, making it available to around 79% of UK homes. You will still need to check your address, but this is a dramatically larger audience than Sky’s faster packages have previously reached.
It has been a long time coming. EE launched the first 1.6Gbps package over Openreach in October 2023 and has enjoyed this widely available speed tier largely to itself ever since. Sky could offer 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps broadband, but only through CityFibre, which currently reaches around 14% of UK homes.
Sky’s 1.6Gbps package costs £38 a month at the time of writing and comes with a 24-month contract. It is initially available to new Sky Broadband customers, including households already taking another Sky service. Prices can change during the contract. In a slightly odd piece of timing, Sky’s temporary CityFibre offer currently makes 2.5Gbps cheaper at £32, but that promotion is due to end on 30 September.
Image credit: Sky
Sky’s new Full Fibre 1.6Gbps package comes with its capable Gigafast+ router, previously only offered with its narrowly available 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps CityFibre packages
Sky’s best router reaches far more homes
The real prize is the Gigafast+ Hub. Until now, Sky reserved this for its 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps CityFibre packages. It supports tri-band WiFi 7 and has one 10Gbps socket for the incoming connection and another for a wired device or network. That means the router can actually pass more than 1Gbps to compatible equipment, rather than placing an immediate bottleneck in front of the new package.
Your devices still need to keep up. A computer requires a network connection faster than 1Gbps to use the full speed, while only newer phones and laptops support WiFi 7. The 120Mbps upload speed is also much slower than the symmetrical uploads available with Sky’s 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps CityFibre packages, where uploads are as fast as downloads.
Most households don’t need 1.6Gbps. Sky’s 900Mbps package costs £29 a month at the time of writing and is already enough for an extremely busy home. The extra speed is most useful when several people are downloading huge files at once, or when you want the Gigafast+ Hub without living in a CityFibre area. For everybody else, it is more future-proofing than necessity.
