Low speeds/ minimum speed guarantee

[Dutchieuk71]

Moved into our bungalow in march 2025 and Sky were only supplier. As this is still supplied by copper cable the minimum speed guarantee is set at something like 35mbps. For nearly a year there has been issue and an engineer visit last week couldn't help either. They've supplied WiFi extenders but even 3 meters away from the router they struggle to pick up the signal. They've told me that the sky pucks need a minimum bandwidth to stream TV . But given my minimum guarantee is the same as the minimum that's needed I feel somewhat mislead? Why supply 2 pucks, sky glass if the incoming bandwidth is nowhere near enough to run it? They've supplied me with 2 WiFi extenders but even a wired connection between the extender and the TV fails at least 5x a day . Unsure where I stand , engineer mentioned open reach will "hopefully" supply this area full fibre by the end of 2026 but I can't carry on like this....any idea anyone?

[JimM1]

@Dutchieuk71 Watch how you set the sky stream up, see the link below, HD will be about as good as you get! Pucks are nothing to do with the speed as such, they are to help get wireless wifi all over the home, but if they are too far from the Max Hub then you will not good speeds anyway that is the same for the TV Position relative to any the Max or Pod.

https://www.sky.com/help/articles/broadband-speeds-explained

[Chrisee]

@Dutchieuk71 there are several issues in your post. The speed a partial fibre line can deliver to the router is limited by the length and condition of the copper phone line. As you appear to have an Openreach line you are free to buy your broadband for any one of the many ISPs who use Openreach so Sky are not your only choice. However any broadband service using your phone line will deliver the same speeds. Until full fibre iscrun tomyour road you have linited choice but mobile broadband is a possible alternative.

Sky guarantee speeds to the hub not too the device. Sky Stream pucks require from under 10 to 30Mb/s to stream TV. The lower speed for HD quality the highest for live sports in UHD. So potentially 2 pucks can both be used at once depending on what you are watching. However even if you have a full fibre service running at 1Gb/s you can still hit issues as the pucks need those speeds delivered by a stable network connection.

WiFi can provide that but a lot depends on the layout of your homecand how it is built. Bungalows are often built with solid brick internal walls. You should not need a WiFi booster within 3m of a hub unless there is a solid wall or two in the way. Boosters need a strong connection to the hub to work.  Typically placing the booster roughly halfway between the hub and where the booster is required say in a hall can work but some properties are extremly difficukt to network. There is a useful network test you can run from the puck in the Netflix app's Get Help menu which shows the speed the puck can access.

Where WiFi is difficult there are alternatives.  One of which is running ethernet cables. However that isntvalways praxtical in the past I have used an alternative technology called Powerline networking which uses a pair of adapters which use the mains wiring to carry the data. These need not be expensive or difficult to set up.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Dutchieuk71 wrote:
 Unsure where I stand , engineer mentioned open reach will "hopefully" supply this area full fibre by the end of 2026 

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That's a reference to the target date for the end of the current phase of the national FTTP rollout, which is intended to get 85% of properties within reach of a gigabit service.

It's unclear why you thought Sky would be the only ISP: they don't have a monopoly anywhere.  As @Chrisee indicates, FTTC speed is almost entirely a product of copper line distance from the local fibre cabinet.

 

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@Dutchieuk71 wrote:
Why supply 2 pucks, sky glass if the incoming bandwidth is nowhere near enough to run it? 

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If a customer chooses to go ahead with an order despite limited bandwidth availability then that's their decision.

[Chrisee]

@Dutchieuk71 you can check what Openreach have planned for your address here https://www.openreach.com/fibre-checker