Sky Business broadband review: For the customers

Sky is earning itself a decent reputation for customer service. In the latest Ofcom survey of broadband providers, Sky had the fewest complaints of any major broadband provider, and in our survey it won a Highly Commended award for customer service, with more than 9/10 customers satisfied. Only Vodafone was able to top Sky for customer service in our poll.

Sadly, the good news largely ends there. It was the worst of the four major business broadband providers in terms of value and speed. And it only fared a little better for reliability, finishing just above Virgin Media.

That said, objectively, none of Sky’s scores was poor – though value for money was definitely the company’s weakest aspect – with just over three-quarters of its customers still declaring themselves satisfied.

However, speed is also a concern, with almost one in ten customers declaring themselves dissatisfied, the highest of any of the providers in our survey by a distance.

Is there any reason to go for Sky Business broadband when rivals score better? Let’s dig deeper into the company’s offering to see if there’s anything to tempt potential customers.

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Sky Business broadband review: Essential

Essential is the company’s entry-level business offering, with fibre-to-the-cabinet speeds of up to 76Mbits/sec on the downlink. This tier doesn’t include 4G backup, which means you’ve got nothing to fall back on if the fixed-line connection develops a fault. However, it does include a digital phone line, albeit with only 12 of the possible 22 voice features Sky offers.

All of Sky’s packages come with the Sky Business Hub router. This is a Wi-Fi 6 device so you won’t benefit from the ultrafast 6GHz band offered by Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7 routers, but that should still be fine for most home offices and small businesses. It also includes a guest Wi-Fi facility, so you don’t have to dish out the main password when you have visitors to the office, which can be a security risk.

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Sky Business broadband review: Pro

The Pro package supplies speeds up to 76Mbits/sec for those in FTTC areas, or 150Mbits/sec for those on full-fibre. This is the first of the Sky packages where full-fibre customers can further upgrade the speed to 300, 500 or 900Mbits/sec for an additional charge, as part of the company’s “Speed Flex”. However, you’re looking at an extra £20/mth for the fastest 900Mbits/sec boost.

Faster speeds aren’t the only extra benefit of moving up to Pro. 4G backup is included here – via a dongle that plugs into the back of the router – as are more digital phone line features. It’s also worth noting you get unlimited UK calls on the digital phone lines, which could be handy if a lot of your business is telephone-based.

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Sky Business broadband review: Plus

Plus is the most expensive package Sky offers, with 500Mbit/sec as the base download speed, and the option to “Speed Flex” up to 900Mbits/sec.

Plus also gives you an additional digital phone, with the full battery of features, including the ability to redirect calls to specific employees, a do-not-disturb setting and the option to pick up calls on other extensions.

Sky Business broadband review: Coverage

Sky Business is reliant on the Openreach network for its fixed-line broadband, which means around ten million premises – mainly in major towns and cities – will be within reach of the full-fibre network required to get those top download speeds.

Most will still be reliant on fibre-to-the-cabinet, and Openreach offers 96% UK coverage for that technology, so the vast majority of potential customers should fall within the Sky Business footprint.

As for the 4G coverage, that’s provided by O2. There’s a coverage checker on O2’s website if you want to see if your area is covered by 4G, although no coverage map is 100% reliable and it’s best to check using a phone that’s connected to that network, if possible.

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Sky Business broadband review: Performance and customer satisfaction

Sky Business customer service is one of the best in the business, at least according to our survey. 90.8% of Sky Business broadband customers reported that they were satisfied with the service, with more than a third of customers declaring themselves very satisfied.

Performance is more patchy. Although 85.7% of customers said they were happy with reliability, a sizable rump of 6.1% said they were dissatisfied, with only Virgin Media posting a worse score.

Also, despite its prices being broadly comparable to its rivals, customers seemed less satisfied with the value for money they were receiving, with only 76.5% saying they were satisfied. However, to put this in context, the category winner Vodafone scored 81.3% satisfaction, so Sky’s not exactly lagging miles behind the rest of the field. However, fewer Sky Business customers said they would recommend the company than any of the others, with just under three-quarters saying they would be likely to endorse the company.

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Sky Business broadband review: Verdict

Sky clearly has its customer service in order, and we like the simplicity of its three packages – not bamboozling customers with tons of different tariffs. However, there’s clearly some work to be done on the core basics – speed and reliability – if Sky Business wants to trouble the award winners.

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