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Having witnessed some fairly poor value broadband offers during our year in Australia, it is nice to note the positive impact that competition has had in the UK when it comes to buying in broadband services.

This week, I have installed broadband in two similar properties using one of the major players in each houshold – BT and Sky. Here, I compare the two, which is the best broadband product, and which represents the best value for money. I hope I help some or any of you come to a decision!

I’ll briefly outline what is offered by each broadband supplier, starting, in no particular order, with Sky Broadband:

Sky Broadband

With such a huge number of active customers, and being a large media based corporation, it is perhaps unsurprising that Sky have entered the broadband market, and that they offer some heavy discounts to Sky customers.

I set up Sky broadband at my parents house over the telephone, as they are existing Sky TV customers.

Setting up the broadband over the phone was extremely simple – and there is no upfront cost involved either. However, their £5 per month deal was not available in our area, though there was no explanation as to why this is. In any case, this is slightly cheaper than BT Total Broadband.

BT Total Broadband

BT, being the main line providers in the UK, were obviously ahead of the game somewhat when it came to broadband supply.

One of the original players, but are they the best?

In our new house, we needed a phone line, and broadband, so I thought it would be as well to get both through BT, despite their cost being slightly (a couple of pounds a month) more than several of the competition. I figured it would be easier, and quicker to get it all through one supplier – also, with Sky, you still have to wait for BT to ‘activate’ your broadband supply, I reckoned, with Christmas fast approaching, that this would be done faster by BT themselves.

We telephoned on a Friday afternoon, and after a pleasant conversation with the sensible telephone operator, had our new phoneline and BT Total broadband set up.

Relatively effortless!

Comparisons – Sky Vs BT Total Broadband

So how do the two compare?

The Price

Sky is a little cheaper than BT Total Broadband, however, it must be recognised that one still needs a BT line to have Sky broadband, so you’ll be paying BT for, at the very least, some line rental.

The Equipment

Both providers offer wireless modems with their top-of-the-line broadband services, which is best? Both Sky and BT sent out their machines (Sky Wireless Broadband (Netgear) Router and BT sent their Home Hub) within a couple of days – before the ‘activation date’.

Sky’s wireless router does have fairly limited range – in fact, we got a stronger signal from my parent’s neighbour’s BT Home Hub than the Sky Wireless Router, despite the fact I was sitting next to the Sky box! This is rather galling when you live in a big house, with thick walls, as the signal becomes useless more than one room away – if you’re looking for any sort of range, I’d consider a different router.

The Speed

With both properties, we are about seventy thousand miles away from the phone exchange, so the best we had on offer is about 500 MBPS with either supplier – though this is still many times faster than dial-up and any faster speeds would be irrelevant for our (browsing and emailing) needs.

The Set Up

Setting up the Sky Broadband was really easy (so user friendly that it became a pain to have to go through the whole process more than once) totally idiot proof here!

BT is just as easy to set up following their CD instructions. However, it was activated much faster than the Sky package was (date given was this Thursday (6 days after ordering) but it is active already, whereas Sky took 10 days) so we were online much faster with BT Total Broadband. Unfortunately, one minornegative with BT Total Broadband is the amount of additional software it installed (Help, extra browsers I don’t need, BT’s new Digital Vault (which I also don’t need)) – I appreciate that they want to capitalise more on all their broadband customers, but really, they should give the option to refuse unnecessary software.

Sky’s activation took ten days, BTs took six (and was actually activated in just three).

The Winner?

Both Sky and BT Total Broadband offer very good customer service, quick dispatch of equipment, which is very easy to set up and use.

However, for me, BT Total Broadband just edges this battle for the faster set-up speed and superior equipment (in the Home Hub, which has far more wireless range).

Sky’s broadband package is slightly cheaper than BT’s, though, so you can get some good deals through them (providing you have a BT phone line anyway) – particularly if you want to have Sky TV too – click here for details from Sky.

BT Total Broadband can be ordered online by clicking here.
Or, if you run a small or medium sized business:

View BT Business Broadband offers by clicking here.

I’ll also be doing a review of the other options available, as I am installing a number of connections, and have been in touch with most of the major broadband providers – watch this space!