Sky launches full fibre FTTP broadband services

Sky retail store
(Image credit: Sky)

Sky has officially launched ultrafast broadband services powered by fibre to the premise (FTTP) infrastructure, promising subscribers a faster, more reliable connection.

There are currently more than three million homes and businesses connected to Openreach’s FTTP network, which is set to reach four million by March 2021 and 15 million by the middle of the decade.

Sky will use the full fibre network to deliver its ‘superfast’ and ‘ultrafast’ broadband services where available, promising average download speeds of 145Mbps and average upload rates of 27Mbps.

Sky fibre broadband

 In particular, it hopes the latter package will appeal to the rising numbers of home workers during lockdown.

“Launching FTTP, the UK’s most advanced broadband technology, reflects Sky’s commitment to innovation and providing customers with the fastest and most reliable broadband possible”, said Aman Bhatti, Director of Propositions, Sky Broadband. “This means, with Sky Broadband Ultrafast, we can offer our customers average speeds that are 12x faster than standard enabling customers to download, stream, browse, work from home and game freely.”

Sky has been unofficially offering FTTP services to existing customers for a short time already. Last week, BT confirmed all of its major wholesale customers were now selling FTTP and that Openreach was adding 40,000 new premises a week.

There have been suggestions in the past that Sky was looking to diversify its supplier base. It was one of the founders of a joint-venture in York before it sold its stake to TalkTalk, but reports last year claimed there had been investigatory talks about using Virgin Media’s infrastructure.

Steve McCaskill is TechRadar Pro's resident mobile industry expert, covering all aspects of the UK and global news, from operators to service providers and everything in between. He is a former editor of Silicon UK and journalist with over a decade's experience in the technology industry, writing about technology, in particular, telecoms, mobile and sports tech, sports, video games and media.