Sky Broadband Superfast 35: Is it any good?

Dan Howdle | May 2nd, 2023

Sky Broadband Superfast 35 is an upper entry-level package that delivers an average speed of 36Mbps, which is sufficient smaller households, and for streaming your favourite TV shows and most other online activities. It is available to over 96% of UK households.

Key features

Here’s a quick rundown of what you get with Sky Broadband Superfast 35.

Price	£40 per month
Download speed	36Mbps
Upload speed	9Mbps
Broadband	Fibre to the cabinet (FTTC)
Home Phone	Line rental included
Parental controls	Broadband Shield, Broadband Buddy
Router	Sky Broadband Hub
Packages available	Broadband & phone, Broadband & phone & TV
Contract length	24 months

Who is Sky Broadband Superfast for?

Sky Broadband Superfast is one of the cheapest and most widely available Sky Broadband packages. It offers adequate speeds for everything from browsing the internet to streaming your favourite TV shows, from checking your e-mails to videoconferencing, though it should be considered a package aimed at smaller households. Those households with many users and many devices should consider faster speeds.

• Small or medium households with up to 1 to 3 occupants – If you have just one or two people living in your home and only a few devices connected at once, Sky Broadband 35 might be the right package for you
• Gamers – If you're a gamer, you'll need a stable and fast connection. Sky Superfast 35 should provide enough download and upload speeds to play online games. However, if you need to download larger games, you may need to be a bit more patient
• Users with one or two streaming devices – If you have Netflix or another streaming service, you'll need a decent internet connection to watch your favorite shows and movies. Sky Superfast 35 should work well if you're only streaming on one or two devices at the same time
• Cloud storage users – If you use cloud storage services like iCloud, Dropbox or OneDrive, you'll want a stable and fast internet connection to ensure that your files are easily accessible when you need them. Sky Superfast 35 should be sufficient for this purpose

How does Sky Superfast 35 compare?

Sky Broadband Superfast is one of the lower speed packages offered by Sky Fibre. It's faster than only the Sky Superfast 35, which has an average speed of 35Mbps. The Sky Superfast 35 is available through FTTC. FTTC uses fast fibre cable up to the cabinet on the street, followed by a slower copper cable up to your property. With FTTC, the speed may vary slightly depending on the distance to the cabinet, and those who live far away from the cabinet may receive slower speeds.

Sky offers a range of package speeds all the way up to 900Mbps, but the fastest speeds are exclusive to FTTP connections. Even though many packages are in the same price ballpark, the fastest packages are only available to UK households where FTTC is available. That means that availability, rather than speed, is the main factor in deciding which package to choose the faster you wish to go.

Let’s take a quick look at how Superfast 35 compares to the other Sky broadband packages:

What is included with Sky Superfast 35?

Not unlike its competitors, Sky offers unlimited downloads and uploads with no caps or data restrictions.

Sky broadband packages come with the Sky Broadband Hub router as standard. With its eight wifi antennae (more than most competitors), the Hub provides rich wireless coverage throughout your home and low latency.

Sky Broadband Hub Router Specifications

• Current gen WiFi – The Sky Broadband Hub uses the ubiquitous wireless standard WiFi 5 (802.11ac) introduced in 2013
• VDSL2/ADSL 2+ – VDSL2 means the hub can be connected by super-fast fibre optic cable to your home (once it becomes available), while ADSL2+ means you can also connect via a phone line
• Smart channel selection – The Smart Hub automatically connects your devices to the fastest wifi channel and frequency available
• Smart scan – The router continually checks your network connection as well as its own performance and automatically reboots if there's a problem
• Dual band – Like most modern routers, the Sky Broadband Hub uses one 2.4GHz band and one 5GHz band
• Four Gigabit ethernet ports – The Sky Broadband Hub has four gigabit Ethernet ports, so you can wire directly four different devices, or many more if you have add a splitter
• Eight antennae – Thanks to its eight in-built antennae, the Sky Broadband Hub can provide strong WiFi coverage throughout your home.
• Reduced latency when Gaming – The Sky Broadband Hub supports 4x4 MIMo (four antennas for four simultaneous data streams), which means that wireless devices can communicate simultaneously with the router without having to wait so often for each other, therefore greatly improving latency.
• Internet calls – Sky Broadband Hub has a VOIP handset socket to allow the connection of an internet phone handset
• Support for many devices – Up to 64 devices can be connected

Extras

Sky Broadband Superfast 35 includes several additional features to enhance your internet experience. As with all Sky packages, you'll get access to Sky Broadband Shield, a tool that provides protection against harmful websites and enables parental controls, including Safe Search.

The package also includes free line rental, so you won't have to pay any extra fees to use your phone line for calls. However, if you need to make calls regularly, you can opt for one of Sky's phone packages, which include Evenings & Weekends, Anytime, and International options for a monthly fee.

For an additional £5 per month, you can add Sky's Broadband Boost to your package. This includes the WiFi Guarantee, which ensures you have wifi coverage in every room of your home with at least 3Mbps. If the guarantee is not met, Sky will either send an engineer to help you set up the hub in the ideal location or provide you with a Sky WiFi booster to extend the wifi signal.

Along with the WiFi Guarantee, the Boost package also offers daily checks of your broadband line, engineer visits at no extra cost, and an additional 2GB of mobile data if you're a Sky Mobile customer and experience a significant unplanned broadband outage. Lastly, you'll receive the Sky Broadband Buddy app, which enables you to limit the time family members spend on various mobile apps and provides parental controls even when they're away from home.

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What we think

Sky is widely regarded as a top-tier provider with a reputation for excellent customer service and a range of impressive TV packages. The Superfast 35 package provides a strong and reliable service that should be more than sufficient for most small households.

In terms of pricing, Superfast 35 is similarly priced to Virgin Media's 132Mbps M125 package, and only slightly cheaper than Sky's own 150Mbps 'Ultrafast' package. However, it's important to note that Sky Broadband is generally considered to be a premium provider, with higher costs that are reflected in the quality of their equipment and services. With a great router, excellent customer and technical support, and competitively priced TV packages, we would highly recommend Sky Broadband Superfast 35 to anyone looking for a reliable and high-quality broadband service, albeit for small households.