Sky has switched on its fastest residential broadband product to date: a Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps tier that reaches nearly four out of five UK homes — 79 per cent — through the Openreach network, priced from £38 a month.

The launch, announced on 29 September 2026, puts Sky's top consumer speed at more than 20 times the throughput of its standard broadband product. Coverage of the 1.6 Gbps tier effectively matches the reach of full fibre on Openreach's network, which has passed the large majority of UK premises following a multi-year, privately funded rollout.

At launch the product is available only to new Sky Broadband customers, including existing Sky TV, mobile and smart home subscribers, subject to availability at their address. Existing Sky Broadband customers cannot buy the tier yet; Sky says they will be able to upgrade at a later date, though the company has not set a timeline for that migration.

Hardware and Wi-Fi 7

Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps ships with Sky's Gigafast+ hub, a tri-band router built on Wi-Fi 7. Sky claims the device delivers speeds twice as fast as Wi-Fi 6-based hardware, with lower latency and reduced lag. Those figures are vendor claims rather than independent test results, and real-world throughput will depend on home layout, device support and how many Wi-Fi 7-capable gadgets a household actually owns.

The pitch targets homes running many devices at once — 4K streaming, gaming, video calls and remote work in parallel. That is a fair description of traffic growth in UK households, but it also reflects a commercial reality: with full fibre availability now near-universal among the major networks, operators are competing on headline speed and in-home experience rather than coverage alone.

Pricing position

The £38 entry price places Sky's top tier in direct competition with comparable gigabit-plus products from rivals reselling Openreach capacity. BT, Vodafone and TalkTalk all sell speeds in the 1 Gbps to 1.6 Gbps range on the same wholesale network, and altnet operators such as CityFibre-backed ISPs and Virgin Media O2's cable platform offer similar or higher headline rates. Sky's differentiation rests on bundling — TV, mobile and smart home customers get access at launch — and the Wi-Fi 7 hub, rather than on raw availability.

Regulatory backdrop

The launch comes as the UK approaches the government's full-fibre coverage targets, with Openreach's build now reaching around four in five premises and continuing. Ofcom's framework keeps Openreach's wholesale products available to rivals like Sky at regulated terms, which is precisely what makes a nationwide 1.6 Gbps launch possible without Sky building its own network. Sky's ability to sell one speed tier across 79 per cent of the country is a direct product of that wholesale regime.

Ben Case, Managing Director of Connectivity at Sky, framed the launch as part of a longer-term broadband strategy. "We're proud to offer Full Fibre 1.6 Gbps to millions of households, marking another important milestone in Sky Broadband's commitment to delivering faster, future-ready broadband designed for increasingly connected homes," he said in the announcement.

What to watch

Two open questions will shape the product's trajectory: when existing Sky Broadband customers gain upgrade access, and whether Wi-Fi 7 performance in real homes justifies the premium positioning. With Openreach continuing to expand its full-fibre footprint, the 79 per cent coverage figure underpinning this launch should keep rising in the months ahead.