The best broadband deals are not only fast and affordable, but also reliable. An important part of a reliable internet connection is that it maintains consistent speeds throughout the day and throughout your home. It is no good having a fast download speed in your kitchen if you cannot connect at all in your living room. Sky is attempting to allay these fears with its Broadband Boost product. It gives you a guaranteed speed in every room of your home, daily checks on your line speed, free engineer support and extra mobile data to back up your broadband. In this article we take a closer look at Sky Broadband Boost – available to Sky Q customers – to see how it could help your household and if it is worth the extra cost.
What is Sky Broadband Boost and how much does it cost?
Sky Broadband Boost is a speed guarantee add-on that customers can subscribe to alongside their Sky Broadband package. It does not actually make your broadband speed faster, despite what the name suggests. Subscribers get daily speed checks from Sky, free engineer visits and bonus mobile data, plus a guaranteed speed in every room.
Sky Broadband Boost is now only available for customers with Sky Q and one of Sky's faster broadband deals; Superfast 35, Superfast, Ultrafast, Ultrafast Plus or Gigafast. It will cost an extra £5 per month and requires you to sign up for a minimum of 18 months.
You can find out more about the pros and cons of Sky Broadband in our ‘Sky Broadband Review’.
What is included with the Sky Broadband Boost?
There are four main features to Sky's Broadband Boost:
Wi-Fi Guarantee
You will get your money back on your boost subscription if your download speed drops below 3Mbps in any room of your house. When you sign up for Sky Broadband Boost, you will be sent the latest Sky router (unless you already have one) to improve your Wi-Fi signal. Sky will then assess the rest of your home broadband setup to see what more you need to reach 3Mbps in every room. If it is not possible, you will be refunded one month’s broadband subscription including Sky Broadband Boost payments and you can cancel Sky Broadband Boost without paying any early termination charges. Keep in mind that “every room” does not include unfurnished lofts and exterior annexes or garages.
Daily checks on your line
From at least 28 days after your activation date, Sky will start running daily background checks on your line to try and find any potential issues that could affect your broadband speed or reliability.
The tests will be carried out between 12am and 5am and if an engineer is required, customers will be contacted by text. Customers will also be notified if any faults are found and any fixes are applied.
Free engineer visits
Sky Broadband Boost customers will not need to pay the usual £15 charge for an evening or weekend engineer visit.
Bonus backup mobile data
Sky Mobile customers will have 2GB of data added to their Sky Piggybank automatically for any unplanned broadband outage that lasts more than 30 minutes between the hours of 7am and 11pm. This bonus data payment is capped at three in a month or 18 in 18 months.
Is Sky Broadband Boost worth it?
This depends on your individual circumstances, but the majority of Sky Broadband customers will likely find that they do not need the added features. It can be tempting to sign up for add ons, especially when you are offered a discounted rate, or they are presented to you as a solution to broadband issues, but Sky Broadband Boost does not quite fit the bill.
The main draw of the Sky Broadband Boost is the Wi-Fi guarantee. Customers that have historically struggled to connect to the internet in certain rooms, or want to make sure they are getting value for money, are likely to be tempted by the idea. However, Sky is only offering a guarantee of 3Mbps, which is much slower than what Sky customers should be expecting. You can find out more about broadband speeds in our article ‘What broadband speed do I need?’, but 3Mbps is slow whatever your internet needs. You may find your money is better spent on multiple Wi-Fi extenders to make sure your line reaches every corner of your home
In addition, Sky Broadband customers with a fibre package are already protected by two speed guarantees as standard. The Sky Wall to Wall Wi-Fi Guarantee means all fibre customers can claim a refund on their monthly bill once per 18 month contract if their speed drops below 3Mbps in any room. Sky Broadband is also signed up to Ofcom’s ‘Broadband Speeds Code of Practice’, so all customers will receive a minimum guaranteed speed. If you are not getting this minimum speed, you should be able to cancel for free. You can find out how to cancel Sky Broadband if it is too slow by reading our article ‘How to cancel Sky Broadband’.
Any claims through the Wi-Fi guarantee will only be valid if you are using Sky’s own router and Wi-Fi boosters. This could mean you need to replace existing boosters and stop using ones you have spent money on – an extra cost that seems unnecessary.
Sky Broadband Boost customers will benefit from the latest router, but many recent Sky Broadband customers will already have it. If you do not, Sky may send you one for free if you ring up to complain about your broadband signal not reaching every room in your home.
The Sky Broadband Boost bonus of free evening and weekend engineer visits could be useful, but there are a lot of other times you can get a free visit. The extra cost of an evening or weekend visit is £15, which equates to three months of Sky Broadband Boost. This suggests that free engineer visits do not add much value for money.
The Sky Broadband Boost mobile data backup seems like a good idea in theory, as you can get data to compensate for a broadband outage or slowdown, if you are a Sky Mobile customer. However, in order to benefit from the free mobile data condition you will need to have an outage lasting longer than 30 minutes. This can be more than enough to ruin an important meeting or an evening streaming a TV series, so you may be better off looking for a new internet supplier if this is a frequent occurrence, rather than paying for another Sky service or relying on your mobile data. We explain how easy switching can be in our article ‘How to switch broadband provider’.
How to get Sky Broadband Boost
If you decide Sky broadband Boost is the right option for your household, adding it to an existing eligible package is very easy. Customers with Sky Broadband Superfast, Superfast 35, Ultrafast, Ultrafast Plus or Gigafast can add Sky Broadband Boost by visiting Sky’s website or calling 0333 759 3543. The upgrade will come with a 18-month minimum contract.
If you have Sky Broadband Essential Plus, you will need to upgrade your package in order to add on Sky Broadband Boost.
To find out what we think are the best and worst parts of a Sky Broadband deal, read our ‘Sky Broadband review 2022’.
How much is Sky Broadband Boost?
Sky Broadband Boost will set you back an additional £5 a month, though Sky may throw it in for free or at a discounted rate if you are renegotiating your package. Read our article ‘How to haggle to get a better broadband deal’ to find out more about talking your way to a cheaper deal.
Will the Sky Broadband Boost price increase in 2023?
Sky Broadband prices will rise in 2023 and Sky Broadband Boost is unlikely to be left out of any increase. If the price does go up, you should be notified in advance by Sky and you can cancel without penalty by calling customer services.
