Sky vs EE/BT (900MB) - which one?

Does anyone have Sky 900MB Fibre connection?

Recently Full Fibre has been made available to me, and I'm debating with either EE or Sky. I wanted EE 1.6 Gbps but I can't have TV with that so that I resorted to 900MB with TV. But EE has less channels than Sky and with Sky most packages are rolling contracts which means you can cancel at any time (for e.g. TNT Sports).

Now I'm gravitating towards Sky with the Entertainment Package, Sky Sports, TNT Sports, 4K pack which will get me Sky Sports UHD whereas with EE you can only get Sky Sports channel via NOWTV which sucks in quality.

EE 900Mb + full package is coming up to £115.99 no upfront
Sky 900Mb + full package is coming up to £125 + £20 upfront (but the addons are rolling which means you can cancel it anytime, for e.g. TNT and Sky Sports can be cancelled when there is no football games on and also the 4K addon)

But the only concern I have is the download speed of Sky. I know they both use OpenReach network, but has anyone seen issues with Sky as opposed to EE/BT?

Sky guaranteed speed is 600Mb - https://i.imgur.com/8ucKIqP.png
EE Guaranteed speed is 700Mb - https://i.imgur.com/HdYoRNP.png

What would you recommend? Are they both the same? Should I go with whichever will save me more money?

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

EE 900Mb + full package is coming up to £115.99
Sky 900Mb + full package is coming up to £125

I really can't believe people are stupid enough to pay these prices per month

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

EE 900Mb + full package is coming up to £115.99
Sky 900Mb + full package is coming up to £125

I really can't believe people are stupid enough to pay these prices per month

During Football games it will cost that much, when football is off, it will be just the price of the broadband which is around £60 (for Sky only)

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

What would you recommend? Are they both the same? Should I go with whichever will save me more money?

From the Broadband point of view, they are essentially the same. Both use the Openreach 1000/115 service. The service providers have their own backhaul networks, but both are well managed, and they provide similar services (dynamic IPv4+IPv6). Possibly EE will include 4G/5G failover, I don't know if it's included in the package you're looking at.

However, it sounds like you're more interested in the content than the broadband, so I think you should make your decision based on the content packages - the content that you want, at a price you're happy to pay - given that both will be fine broadband.

If you want to save a bit more money then you could consider 500M or 300M, which would be plenty for that content.

The other approach would be to buy a broadband package from any supplier (gigabit is in the £43-£55 price range) and build your own content on top from the likes of Netflix, Now, AppleTV etc - but if you have specific sports requirements that may not work.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

What would you recommend? Are they both the same? Should I go with whichever will save me more money?

The other approach would be to buy a broadband package from any supplier (gigabit is in the £43-£55 price range) and build your own content on top from the likes of Netflix, Now, AppleTV etc - but if you have specific sports requirements that may not work.

Good point and it was something i was going to do some quick napkin maths but the sky website crashed for me last night but its something RiDER07 should look into

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

What would you recommend? Are they both the same? Should I go with whichever will save me more money?

From the Broadband point of view, they are essentially the same. Both use the Openreach 1000/115 service. The service providers have their own backhaul networks, but both are well managed, and they provide similar services (dynamic IPv4+IPv6). Possibly EE will include 4G/5G failover, I don't know if it's included in the package you're looking at.

However, it sounds like you're more interested in the content than the broadband, so I think you should make your decision based on the content packages - the content that you want, at a price you're happy to pay - given that both will be fine broadband.

If you want to save a bit more money then you could consider 500M or 300M, which would be plenty for that content.

The other approach would be to buy a broadband package from any supplier (gigabit is in the £43-£55 price range) and build your own content on top from the likes of Netflix, Now, AppleTV etc - but if you have specific sports requirements that may not work.

One difference I just found is that with EE, you can plug your 3rd party router directly into the ONT and enter PPOE username and password and you are good to go. With Sky it's DHCP Option 61 which my 3rd party router doesn't have. Do you know if Sky router has a bridge mode/modem mode where I can then use my 3rd party router?
FYI: I use the Omada hardware, router is ER707-M2.

About your second point of buying the broadband and build up my content on top of that. Do you mean going to the website, ordering the broadband then adding addons to it? And see how much in total it comes to? Or some other ways?

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

One difference I just found is that with EE, you can plug your 3rd party router directly into the ONT and enter PPOE username and password and you are good to go. With Sky it's DHCP Option 61 which my 3rd party router doesn't have. Do you know if Sky router has a bridge mode/modem mode where I can then use my 3rd party router?

There would be no point in Sky offering a bridge/modem mode, because it would simply pass the ethernet frames through, and your router would still have to do DHCP with the same settings.

However, upgrading to a more capable router is not a big outlay, compared to the monthly sums you're talking about.

You could also consider a router plus separate wifi access points (ideally cabled back to the router) for much better wifi speed and coverage.

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

About your second point of buying the broadband and build up my content on top of that. Do you mean going to the website, ordering the broadband then adding addons to it? And see how much in total it comes to? Or some other ways?

No, I mean buying plain FTTP broadband from any provider you like, and then buying separate "over the top" services which run over the Internet.

That is, you subscribe directly to Netflix, Now TV, AppleTV, Amazon Prime, DisneyPlus, ad-free itvX ... whichever combination has the content you want. Generally you're talking £6-£12 per month per service.

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

With Sky it's DHCP Option 61 which my 3rd party router doesn't have.

Most of Sky's customers can connect with nothing more than DHCP-V6 Prefix delegation (PD).
If your router supports this turn it on and see if it authenticates.

Less than 20% of their customers need to use DHCP Option 61.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

One difference I just found is that with EE, you can plug your 3rd party router directly into the ONT and enter PPOE username and password and you are good to go. With Sky it's DHCP Option 61 which my 3rd party router doesn't have. Do you know if Sky router has a bridge mode/modem mode where I can then use my 3rd party router?

There would be no point in Sky offering a bridge/modem mode, because it would simply pass the ethernet frames through, and your router would still have to do DHCP with the same settings.

However, upgrading to a more capable router is not a big outlay, compared to the monthly sums you're talking about.

You could also consider a router plus separate wifi access points (ideally cabled back to the router) for much better wifi speed and coverage.

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

About your second point of buying the broadband and build up my content on top of that. Do you mean going to the website, ordering the broadband then adding addons to it? And see how much in total it comes to? Or some other ways?

No, I mean buying plain FTTP broadband from any provider you like, and then buying separate "over the top" services which run over the Internet.

That is, you subscribe directly to Netflix, Now TV, AppleTV, Amazon Prime, DisneyPlus, ad-free itvX ... whichever combination has the content you want. Generally you're talking £6-£12 per month per service.

Yes I have an enterprise grade router which will handle of the DHCP stuff. I just want to connect my own router directly to the ONT and my router will manager DHCP, firewall, etc. This is my current config - https://i.imgur.com/uD0geP9.png
So when it comes to coverage, my whole house is wired with Wireless Access Points via Ethernet cable, so I've got that covered.

And your second point, I don't need those services, all I need is the Sports channels, so I guess in the long run it will be much cheaper with SKY than EE, even though I will have a double NAT issue with Sky router and my own.

Thanks for your response.

Edited by RiDER07 (Thu 28-Mar-24 10:39:03)

In reply to a post by j0hn83:

In reply to a post by RiDER07:

With Sky it's DHCP Option 61 which my 3rd party router doesn't have.

Most of Sky's customers can connect with nothing more than DHCP-V6 Prefix delegation (PD).
If your router supports this turn it on and see if it authenticates.

Less than 20% of their customers need to use DHCP Option 61.

This is my router's Internet settings, https://i.imgur.com/MddqBUG.png

Would this ^ suffice? Or would I need to add Prefix Delegation Size and other options?

I was in the exact same position as you, but I was totting up between Sky and BT.

900/100
Sky Sports
TNT Sports

Thats what I cared about and I was with Virgin prior paying for NowTV and Discovery Plus separately at well over 100 quid for all that.

In short I went with BT and ive been very happy, the one and only downside for me is that I dont get Sky Sports UHD. I did think about this for a while but the only way I could get close to BT pricing with Sky was to use Sky Stream, getting the Sky Q box so I could properly record shows/sport was way way too expensive with the sport I wanted. Now at 1080p im okay with, I want UHD but on a decent TV 1080p still looks the part.

But the Sky Stream box isnt a proper PVR and I believe 'recorded' programs come from on demand apps still and you have to pay extra to skip ads.....

On the other hand with BT when you sign up for a TV Package such as 'Big Sport' you get a proper box with a HDD in it. With BT is via NOW which means you can use this app pretty much anywhere else away from your main TV also and you also get access to Discovery Plus....so I wasnt getting limited to just the box, I'm not saying you are I just mean to say it was a factor. I would be paying BT one set fee for both these services now locked for 24 months and not now and discovery separately completely at their mercy for pricing.

Also what put me off Sky was the technical bit, DHCPv6 PD, so I use an ER-X as my router and did with Virgin (Virgin just being DHCP with their router in Modem mode) and although it was clearly there as supported I was seeing alot of people get mixed results, throw in the variable of Option 6 for some users as well I didnt want to have too much downtime whilst I figured it out.

BT and EE just use PPPOE and everyone has the same username and password, very easy to setup in a minute.

Other things to consider, if you are using Sky Satellite and you are having a dish this is not a concern....BT/EE use multicast to punt the live TV to you, if your TV box is in IP only so you are not using an ariel at all you will need to configure your router to forward the multicast packets via a proxy. Again its kind of straight forward to setup. I simplified this for me, I setup a second LAN just for the BT TV on eth4 on my router and told the WAN port to send all Multicast packets to that one interface. If you are using the ariel to get freeview that will be fine but Now and TNT will be coming via Multicast.

Actually if you are getting Sky Stream they just use unicast as far as I know so all you need to do is give their Stream box an internet connection and away you go.

I have a young daughter and every now and then I cannot watch the football when it airs, this is usually the super sunday game at 1630, its just an awkward time so its great to be able to record the entire event and watch a little later in the evening in peace. Infact that United epic the other weekend was during her 3rd birthday party but I managed to get through the event without anyone ruining the score

BT are often doing good deals with sport....

My Package went like this:

900/100 = £41.99 (24 Months)
Big Sport = £35 (24 Months) - Comes with Freeview and TV Recordable Box
UHD Addon = £6 (Rolling)

I also signed up for Black Friday deal which gave me 3 months free of Broadband.

Admittedly I caught it at the right time and no I cant cancel sport during the closed season but whats that these days.....6 weeks....

My personal feelings about Sky from my past subscriptions is that their pricing isnt great long term, Virgin are the same so Im glad to be off them, I think that Sky introduced the Sky Stream stuff to be more competative with all these ISP's now offering some kinda TV.

Anyway, I hope this is useful, seems we both want fast internet and sport, ive had no performance issues at all, its 900 all day every day all the time and 110 up as well, the latency is 10ms in online gaming...your millage may vary.

If you do go for BT or EE ive posted my config below incase it helps:

ER-X Config