Sky Fibre types

[Phil+Smith]

Can someone please help me understand the different types of fibre and routers available from SKY.

Two years ago I upgraded to full fibre 150 (FTTP) and was surprised that the router supplied was the same black one as I had previously. The WiFi performance of this router is poor and today I called SKY to ask for a white SKY WiFi Max router, which I understand has far superior WiFi to the black one.

I found it very difficult to understand the offshore agent I spoke with, but she appeared to be suggesting that my version of fibre is incompatible with the white router because my fibre is "Superfast one".

She then offered to upgrade me to "full fibre 500", which would be compatible with the white router, at no extra cost, but it would mean agreeing to a 2 year contract.

Can anyone explain why my fibre is incompatible with the white router, and give an opinion on the WiFi performance of the white router.

Thanks in advance.

[jamesn123]

Hi @Phil+Smith 

Its not so much incompatible, more so Sky just dont provide it for that tier of speed. The black hub (Sky Broadband Hub) has WiFi 5 which is capable of real world speeds of around 700mbps, therefore it is still seen as an appropriate router for the 150mbps speed tier. 

To get the Sky Max hub you need to upgrade to 500mbps or higher OR add the WiFi max addon to your package. 

[Phil+Smith]

Hi James, thanks for your reply.

The black router might be capable of 700 mbps, but in my home the signal strength is very poor outside the room where the router is situated, leading to speeds of <5 mbps on occasions, on speed tests. SKY claim that the white hub has 8 times the WiFi capability of the black one.

Are you saying that upgrading to 500 mbps will get me the SKY Max hub at no extra cost because I'm pretty certain that the call centre staff said it's a £4 add on regardless of the package chosen.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Phil+Smith wrote:

 I'm pretty certain that the call centre staff said it's a £4 add on regardless of the package chosen.

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I suspect that's technically a (reduced) price for the WiFi Max subscription supplement rather than the Maclx Hub itself.

[JimM1]

@Phil+Smith And there is NO way that the Sky Max is 8 times more than the Sky Broadband Hub, that is the most stupid comment ever made if it came out off someone in the Sky Customer Service dept they cannot say that about a sky Hub, but Fibre service types they can compare a FF100 to a FF900....

[Phil+Smith]

@JimM1 

That's what it says on the SKY help Web page:-

"Our fastest WiFi Guarantee – up to 8x faster than our standard"

[JimM1]

@Phil+Smith Go for it, the up to from what to what is just not explained, so from 1 to 9 they have it covered!

With WiFi Max, we’ll guarantee you get:

• 10Mb/s in every room or money back if you have Sky Broadband Superfast 35, Superfast, Full Fibre 75 or Full Fibre 100.
• 25Mb/s in every room or money back if you have Sky Broadband Ultrafast, Full Fibre 150, Full Fibre 300, Ultrafast Plus, Full Fibre 500, Gigafast, Full Fibre Gigafast or Full Fibre 2.5 Gigafast+ or Full Fibre 5 Gigafast+.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Phil+Smith wrote:

@JimM1 

That's what it says on the SKY help Web page:-

"Our fastest WiFi Guarantee – up to 8x faster than our standard"

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The 'standard' being referred to is 3Mbs : that's the 'WiFi Guarantee' element of 'Broadband Boost' with an SR203 Hub and one or more SE210 boosters.

8x3 = 24

The 'Enhanced Wall to Wall WiFi Guarantee' part of the WiFi Max subscription supplement 'guarantees' 25Mbs with a Max Hub and one or more booster pods on suitably fast FTTP.

[Chrisee]

@Phil+Smith be careful for what you wish for do not confuse top speed with range. Having used both the black Broadband Hub 4 and the white Sky Max hub 6 I can tell you the range is very similar, while in the area near the hub 6 unit will deliver higher speeds its range is very similar with speeds falling as the signal has to pass through walls. In certain set ups the Hub 6 can have significantly less coverage than a hub 4 set up.

The hub 6 in the WiFi Max package can come with up to 3 pod extenders to get the 25Mb/s guaranteed speed in every room. These units communicate with the main hub using a closed 5GHz band signal which is great in suitable properties with partition walls however in traditionally built homes far less so.The older Hub 4 uses both the 5GHz and 2.4GHz band to communicate with its boosters which while offering a "guarantee" of 3Mb/s in practice can be faster in older properties as the lower frequency band has lower attenuation when passing through solid objects.

In addition if you have Sky Q tv boxes which act as wifi extenders with the Hub 4 they lose that ability if a hub 6 is used. If your home is wifi unfriendly there are far better third party solutions to get reliable speeds. In my home the WiFi Max system of a Hub 6 and two pods was slower than the cheap third party system it replaced on two of tge three levels so I rejected the product. The cost of WiFi Max was £10 a month so even if I had had to buy a new system a three unit system costs around £100 it would have paid for itself in underacyear at £4 obviously it takes longer.

The difference in speed guarantee has nothing to do with greater range it is simply a marketing device which if you read the terms and conditions has very limited worth as the money you get back is simply the monthly premium of £4 you psy.

[Phil+Smith]

Thank you all for your very useful comments and help.

I didn't actually believe that the white hub would be 8 times faster than the maximum speed of the black hub, but even 25 mbps minimum would be more than acceptable.

My home is a large old one with thick brick walls do maybe the white hub would be the wrong choice, even with the pods. If that was the case, can I send it back and reuse the black hub? Currently I am using a cheap TP link range extender with limited success.

[JimM1]

@Phil+Smith If you are finding that the wireless wifi is not good at pushing it's way through the home and  it does happen the higher up the spec you go. The old SR204 and a single SE210 just about did the job for me in a 4 bed, 50's built solid brick with careful placement, did not get it all few dead spot's and never speedy, now on wifi 6 and my Asus mesh takes 4 units but i am 100% fully covered on wireless wifi.

When the unit's struggle and you may wish to consider this, i also use to supplement is Powerline WiFi, they are NOT speed demons and never will be but they do get the job done!

[jamesn123]

@Phil+Smith 

If you live in a large old home, any of Sky's solutions are likely to struggle. I would look into 3rd party mesh systems to try and get decent coverage & speed.

[Phil+Smith]

Thank you everyone, I might have to look at third party mesh. Do Sky Max pods also use mesh?

[TimmyBGood]

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@Phil+Smith wrote:

Do Sky Max pods also use mesh?

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Yes, but that requires Sky to loan more than one of them ; )

[jamesn123]

@Phil+Smith 

All of Sky's booster technology is a form of 'mesh' its just 3rd party ones tend to be better in terms of performance as they are not built to as much of a budget.