topic Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem in Broadband

Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:09:14 GMT

I’m using a 1000 Mbps fiber internet connection but I can’t get full speed over Wi-Fi. The maximum link speed I see is 500 Mbps.

From my checks, the connection is running on 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5). My router is a Skyworth SR203, which apparently does not support Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) or 160 MHz channel width.

Because of this, even though I have a 1000 Mbps plan, I only get around 500 Mbps over Wi-Fi. I pay for 1000 Mbps but only get a maximum of 500 Mbps due to insufficient Wi-Fi provision.

I contacted customer support in March 2026 regarding this issue. I was informed that a Wi-Fi 6 modem was not yet available, but would be introduced in April 2026, and that I should get in touch once it had been launched. However, I have been unable to reach anyone at SKY to resolve this issue, and no one has responded to my complaint. A Wi-Fi 6 modem should be provided in line with my package.

I have effectively been overpaying for months because a Wi-Fi 6 compatible modem has not been provided. This is unacceptable. I will never use SKY internet again and will not recommend it to anyone.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Me134 — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:34:02 GMT

@Gokh wrote:
I’m using a 1000 Mbps fiber internet connection but I can’t get full speed over Wi-Fi. The maximum link speed I see is 500 Mbps.
From my checks, the connection is running on 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5). My router is a Skyworth SR203, which apparently does not support Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) or 160 MHz channel width.
Because of this, even though I have a 1000 Mbps plan, I only get around 500 Mbps over Wi-Fi. I pay for 1000 Mbps but only get a maximum of 500 Mbps due to insufficient Wi-Fi provision.
I contacted customer support in March 2026 regarding this issue. I was informed that a Wi-Fi 6 modem was not yet available, but would be introduced in April 2026, and that I should get in touch once it had been launched. However, I have been unable to reach anyone at SKY to resolve this issue, and no one has responded to my complaint. A Wi-Fi 6 modem should be provided in line with my package.

I have effectively been overpaying for months because a Wi-Fi 6 compatible modem has not been provided. This is unacceptable. I will never use SKY internet again and will not recommend it to anyone.

No company guarantees wifi speed due to the variables involved but that said, they've had the wifi 6 capable SR213 available for about 3 years now.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Me134 — Tue, 05 May 2026 19:37:12 GMT

I should add that the SR213 (Sky Max Hub) is not renowned for the best wifi performance, I'd suggest researching a 3rd party mesh system and turn off the SR203 internal wifi.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

TimmyBGood — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:13:28 GMT

@Gokh wrote:

I contacted customer support in March 2026 regarding this issue. I was informed that a Wi-Fi 6 modem was not yet available, but would be introduced in April 2026, and that I should get in touch once it had been launched

I've no idea why they would tell you that: the WiFi 6 Max Hub was launched in July 2023

https://www.skygroup.sky/article/Sky-Broadband-releases-its-most-powerful-WiFi-yet

It's always been available to Sky Broadband subscribers currently using an SR203 who add the WiFi Max subscription supplement to their account.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

TimmyBGood — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:16:32 GMT

@Gokh wrote:

A Wi-Fi 6 modem should be provided in line with my package.

WiFi 6 has nothing to do with a 'modem': in this context that's the device converting optical to electrical (ethernet) signalling.

The SR203 is quite capable of delivering gigabit broadband: what you are referring to are wireless speeds, and that's different.

@Gokh wrote:

Because of this, even though I have a 1000 Mbps plan, I only get around 500 Mbps over Wi-Fi. I pay for 1000 Mbps but only get a maximum of 500 Mbps due to insufficient Wi-Fi provision.

I'm afraid that's a fundamental misunderstanding, and no ISP guarantees anything like the same wireless speed as their faster FTTP connections can deliver over cabling.

For example, EE has a compensation threshold of 100Mbs wireless speed for users of its 1.8Gbs broadband, WiFi 7 'Pro' Hub and matching WiFi 7 booster hardware.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:20:44 GMT

I 100% agree that they don’t guarantee the speed. However, they said they don’t have a modem that supports Wi-Fi 6 and have never provided one with my package. That’s the main problem. If they had provided a Wi-Fi 6 modem for a 1000 Mbps plan, I wouldn’t have made a complaint. The appropriate equipment should have been provided for the relevant package.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

TimmyBGood — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:59:53 GMT

@Gokh wrote:

The appropriate equipment should have been provided for the relevant package.

New customers get the Max Hub. Existing customers who already have a Sky Broadband Hub keep that unless they add the WiFi Max subscription supplement.

That's just how Sky have chosen to do it.

Incidentally a WiFi 6 router is unlikely to deliver anything like gigabit wireless speed to an individual client device in real world conditions.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:01:22 GMT

No matter what, the proper equipment should always be provided with the package. If you do not provide the correct equipment for the package you sell, you should not sell that package. You do not guarantee the speed, but you should guarantee that you provide appropriate equipment for the relevant package, especially to new customers.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

TimmyBGood — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:35:04 GMT

@Gokh

The SR203 is compatible with gigabit broadband because it has a gigabit ethernet chipset, and so Sky says it is 'appropriate'.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:28:21 GMT

A Wi-Fi 6 modem is required for 1 Gbps internet. Please check the Wi-Fi standards. My modem only supports Wi-Fi 5.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

TimmyBGood — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:43:42 GMT

@Gokh

WiFi 6 is a wireless standard (clue's in the name ; ) and it says nothing about broadband.

The 'modem' for gigabit FTTP is the Optical Network Terminal, and that device doesn't have any WiFi at all.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:40:14 GMT

From a technical perspective, a Wi-Fi 6 modem is required for 1000 Mbps speeds. It’s like fitting LPG to a petrol car. In theory, it prevents you from getting full performance from the system.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

TimmyBGood — Tue, 05 May 2026 21:55:21 GMT

@Gokh wrote:

From a technical perspective, a Wi-Fi 6 modem is required for 1000 Mbps speeds.

You are missing the distinction between broadband and WiFi

Gigabit broadband is absolutely deliverable over gigabit ethernet: every ISP does that.

Gigabit WiFi might be possible with WiFi 7 source and client devices (and is almost entirely pointless for all practical purposes)

Modems are wired devices without any 802.11 rating

Your contract with Sky is for gigabit broadband, and broadband is what's delivered as far as the router.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Wed, 06 May 2026 06:21:54 GMT

You’re right about the distinction between broadband and Wi-Fi — I’m aware that my ISP delivers gigabit over Ethernet to the router, and that part is working as expected.

However, in practice the ISP-provided router (Sky SR203) is the only device I’ve been given to actually use the connection, and it only supports 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) with a maximum link rate of 866 Mbps (80 MHz, 2x2).

So while gigabit broadband is technically delivered to the router, the supplied hardware effectively limits real-world wireless usage to around 500–600 Mbps.

I understand that Wi-Fi isn’t guaranteed to match wired speeds, but providing a Wi-Fi 5 router with a gigabit package creates a clear bottleneck on the user side — especially when more modern Wi-Fi 6 hardware is widely available.

I’m not expecting full gigabit over Wi-Fi under all conditions, but I would expect hardware that can at least get closer to saturating the connection in typical use.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Chrisee — Wed, 06 May 2026 06:31:49 GMT

@Gokh whatever you choose to believe Sky simply doesn't agree and as far as I know neither does their regulator Ofcom. Sky will supply a SR213 WiFi hub if you buy their WiFi Max add-in but be warned while the hub offers WiFi6 for whatever worth the extender pods are only WiFi5 devices. In my experience the older SR203 you have will deliver around 650Mb/s in the area near by while the SR213 will hit 900Mb/s to a WiFi6 device but move two rooms away and the speeds are the same. Indeed in my home the SR203 had slightly better coverage two floors away so go figure. Actually both hubs are a bit meh to be honest and I have used both but choose to use my own WiFi kit to get stable WiFi coverage through the out my home as stability is actially more important than bandwidth..

By the way the Sky hubs are not "modems", that function is served by the ONT unit, the hubs are WiFi routers a totally different device. Your "gigabit" service is actually a shared connection where up to 30 lines sharing your distribution point share a 2.48Gb/s downstream link. That works because very few users ever use the bandwidth they buy for extended periods. Before you say Sky are crooks those specifications are set by Openreach and apply to every ISP selling full fibre using their lines..

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Wed, 06 May 2026 06:48:32 GMT

I understand your point about real-world Wi-Fi performance and I agree that coverage and stability can vary depending on the environment.

However, where I place the router in my home is my own decision and responsibility — not something that should justify the limitations of the hardware provided by the ISP.

I’m a new customer on the Sky Ultra Max package, and my expectation is that the equipment supplied should be reasonably capable of utilizing the service I’m paying for. The current Sky SR203 router (Wi-Fi 5 / 802.11ac) effectively limits wireless performance well below what modern devices and standards can achieve.

I’m not expecting perfect gigabit speeds over Wi-Fi in every room, but there is a clear difference between normal signal degradation and being capped by older-generation hardware. A Wi-Fi 6-capable router would at least allow higher throughput under optimal conditions, which is not possible with the SR203.

Also, I’m aware that the ONT handles the modem function and that the connection is shared infrastructure — that’s not really the issue here. My point is purely about the capability of the supplied router relative to the service tier.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

TimmyBGood — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:23:57 GMT

@Gokh wrote:

I’m a new customer on the Sky Ultra Max package, and my expectation is that the equipment supplied should be reasonably capable of utilizing the service I’m paying for.

If you were a new customer to Sky Broadband then you should have received a Max Hub. If you previously had a Sky Broadband product then Sky policy is that you keep the previous Hub (as long as it's an SR203) if you don't add the WiFi Max subscription supplement.

This may well not be a particularly good policy on their part, but it's what they do.

On the other hand, multiple posts to this forum suggest that the Max Hub actually performs poorer for WiFi than the Broadband Hub in some properties.

Edit: if you took up gigabit FTTP right when it first became available then it's possible the Max Hub was only going to WiFi Max subscribers. I believe there was a period before it became the default for new customers.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:25:34 GMT

I am actually a new customer on the Sky Ultra Max package, which is why I’m questioning this in the first place. Based on that, I would have expected to receive the newer Max Hub rather than the older SR203.

I understand that policies can vary, but from a user perspective it doesn’t make much sense to supply a Wi-Fi 5 router with a gigabit-tier product, especially when modern devices are capable of much higher throughput over Wi-Fi.

Also, while I appreciate that real-world performance can differ depending on the property, that doesn’t really change the underlying limitation: the SR203 is still capped at 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), whereas a newer hub would at least allow higher potential speeds under optimal conditions.

At the end of the day, I’m just trying to make sure I’m actually able to make reasonable use of the service I’m paying for.

My modem is also right next to my computer.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Me134 — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:30:54 GMT

@Gokh wrote:
I am actually a new customer on the Sky Ultra Max package, which is why I’m questioning this in the first place. Based on that, I would have expected to receive the newer Max Hub rather than the older SR203.

I understand that policies can vary, but from a user perspective it doesn’t make much sense to supply a Wi-Fi 5 router with a gigabit-tier product, especially when modern devices are capable of much higher throughput over Wi-Fi.

Also, while I appreciate that real-world performance can differ depending on the property, that doesn’t really change the underlying limitation: the SR203 is still capped at 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5), whereas a newer hub would at least allow higher potential speeds under optimal conditions.

At the end of the day, I’m just trying to make sure I’m actually able to make reasonable use of the service I’m paying for.
My modem is also right next to my computer.

New Sky BB customer or new to the faster package? Did you already have the SR203?

I presume you mean the router is right next to your computer as the 'modem' is the ONT. If you need full speed to the computer then hardwiring is always best.

Real world performance is also affected by the device.

Re: Overpaying for months – SKY still not providing Wi-Fi 6 modem

Gokh — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:34:43 GMT

I’m a new Sky Broadband customer, and the SR203 was supplied to me as part of the installation — it’s not something I already had.

Yes, I’m aware the ONT handles the modem function, and I’m referring to the router being placed right next to my computer.

I agree that Ethernet is the best way to achieve full gigabit speeds, and that client devices also impact performance. However, that’s not really the point I’m raising.

My concern is that the supplied router (Sky SR203) is limited to Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), which effectively caps wireless performance well below what the service tier is capable of — regardless of placement or general Wi-Fi variability.

Even accounting for device limitations, starting from a higher-capability router (e.g. Wi-Fi 6) would provide a better baseline and allow modern devices to make more effective use of the connection.