Pondering Switch from BT FTTP 900 to Sky Gigafast - Should I?

[interbear]

Hi all,

Currently paying BT £92 per month for fibre broadband to home 900MB with Halo 3. Far too much and with contract due to expire soon I've narrowed it down to either Sky Gigafast with WifiMax or Zen. Sky is better pricing.

Anyone done similar. Anything to watch out for? Or is this a move you'd recommend?

[TimmyBGood]

@interbear 

Sky would use exactly the same fibre circuit.

I would observe that the BT Smart Hub 2 with black disks is a more mature WiFi system than Sky Max, and that Sky doesn't offer failover to cellular data.

[interbear]

Thanks. You are correct, Sky don't offer failover to mobile but I don't really need that as I already have a mobile router for travel that has a data SIM. In the event of failure I can use that.

Hardware wise, to be fair to BT their Smart Hub 2 (we also have 1 disc upstairs) has been rock solid in the few years I've had it. Important as I work from home on a permanent basis. However, I think it's overpriced, £92 is ridiculous for a broadband service. My assumption is that as Sky use the same Openreach FTTP network then the gigafast service should be broadly similar IF (and this is a big IF hence my question here) the Sky Wifi Max router and a pod upstairs are decent enough.

[mormegil]

I have the max hub and WiFi down stairs is 

 

Compared to 

 upstairs I will sometime get 650 on my gaming pc upstairs via wireless if it's the only device in use, i could get better but get moaned at if I try to put the hub in a better position lol

it all depends on you own house and how good the wireless signal is through out your  house which is the unknown factor

however there are other posts advising on third party routers that can over come that allowing you to get a better price

[Chrisee]

@interbear I agree with @mormegil  thst performance of the Wifi Max package heavily depens on the layout and construction of your home. The system uses a closed 5GHz signal for backhaul between the extenders and the hub which didn't work thst well for me due to the layout of my home.  I use a lower tech Deco system for wifi with the Sky hub 6 as stability is far more important to me than outright speed.

The other factor you may want to consider is that Sky dont as far as I know supply an extender with the Hub even if you buy Wifi Max.  The extenders have to be requested after go live when one can be posted out but if one is not sufficent you have to wait for an engineer to come out to authorise up to another two.. 

[interbear]

Those WiFi Max speeds would be fine for me. It's a relatively modern house without solid walls so coverage has never been an issue with BT, I'd hope the Sky experience would be similar.

I do have one major concern. Willpower :-). I've only just cancelled and sent back Sky Q TV equipment after more than 20 years as a Sky TV customer. Mounting prices and different viewing habits (more streaming) being the reason for this. I do wonder if I'd manage to resist if Sky were to offer a heavily discounted bundle of Gigafast and Sky Stream. 

[Chrisee]

@interbear you will relieved to know your will power won't be tested by these posts Sky cant pick up your details from a forum post to make you an offer you can't refuse. 😀

[interbear]

@Chrisee so as predicted I have been persuaded to jump back into Sky with a bundled offer for Sky Gigafast / WifiMax and Sky Stream for less th an I was paying BT just for broadband. Happy enough with the deal, just hope the Gigafast performs well enough. Thanks for the advice. 

[TimmyBGood]

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@interbear wrote:

Happy enough with the deal, just hope the Gigafast performs well enough.  

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Probably worth calibrating expectation by recognising that almost nothing actually requires more than a tiny fraction of gigabit speed delivered to an individual client device: a Stream puck uses 30Mbs at most, for example, and what it needs most of all is stability.