Broadband Guide

Sky fibre optic broadband

Updated: Tuesday 1 May, 2012

By Helen Thomas

Sky's fibre optic broadband connection was launched in April 2012.

Sky (www.Sky.com) is the UK's fastest-growing home broadband and phone provider. Its broadband network - which delivers Sky's ADSL broadband connections - covers over 70% of the UK, and the provider has plans to extend its network to 88% of the UK by June 2013.

Sky’s fibre optic broadband connection

In April 2012, Sky launched two superfast broadband connections. Sky Fibre Unlimited, which gives customers speeds of up to 38Mb, and Sky Fibre Unlimited Pro, which delivers connection speeds of up to 76Mb. One of Sky's key selling points, and where it differs from superfast rivals like Virgin Media and BT Infinity, is that it offers "truly unlimited" downloads, with no usage caps and no traffic management at peak times.

Initially its fibre broadband connection will be available to around 30% of UK homes, growing over time in line with BT's fibre roll-out programme - whose fibre network Sky is using. Sky Fibre Unlimited Pro will initially only be available to new customers and existing ones not on Sky Broadband Unlimited or Sky Fibre Unlimited.

Find out whether Sky's fibre broadband connection is available in your area by using the Broadbandchoices.co.uk postcode checker.

Multi-channel digital TV with superfast broadband

If Sky fibre is not yet available in your area, consumers wanting both Sky TV channels and a fibre optic broadband connection can still have their multi-channel-digital-TV-with-superfast-broadband-connection cake, and eat it.

Virgin Media (www.Virginmedia.com) offers a selection of Sky channels as standard with its various TV packages, and customers can also get Sky Movies and Sky Sports through add-on subscriptions, so you can get a range of Sky channels to compliment your Virgin Media channels and also enjoy the provider's mega-fast "up to" 100Mb broadband.

£830million broadband strategy

To date, the strength of Sky’s brand, its increasing broadband coverage and the benefits of its bundles have meant Sky has shown no signs of a customer exodus as people go in search of faster connection speeds, in fact, Sky‘s broadband customer base is still growing, and the development of its fibre product now gives consumers an additional option in the superfast broadband market.

The future of broadband

Purpose designed for the mega-fast transfer of data, with fibre optic, connection speeds do not decline through distance from the telephone exchange or with a lower quality line in the same way they can with traditional copper wire. As such, providers consider fibre optic broadband cables to be “futureproof”.

This means average connection speeds are much closer to the “up to” speeds offered by providers, bringing a range of benefits:

• Delay-free streaming of music, TV and video
• An entire family can be online at the same time and suffer no drop in speed
• Fast and consistent connections mean large files or even high-definition films can be downloaded in minutes.