Sky Cell evaluate: Nonetheless a winner

Sky Cell dominated final 12 months’s Cell Community Awards, selecting up wins in each awards class, together with the Finest Total Cell Community award. This 12 months it hasn’t been so fortunate, with cost-conscious, no-frills digital networks taking dwelling a lot of the prizes, however within the wake of this 12 months’s Cell Community Awards survey Sky nonetheless achieved the Finest Buyer Service award, and comes Extremely Recommended total, with a second Extremely Recommended for its 5G providers.

This places Sky Cell on prime of the checklist of extra established networks, so it’s nonetheless very a lot a power to be reckoned with.

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Sky Cell evaluate: What do you get?

Whereas some cell networks offer you a loopy number of choices, Sky Cell likes to maintain issues easy. For the time being, it gives SIM-only plans starting from limitless calls, limitless texts and 2GB of knowledge for £6/mth, to £30/mth for 50GB of knowledge. It’s slightly disappointing that there are not any 100GB plus or limitless knowledge choices at this worth stage, however that doesn’t imply Sky is in need of high-value plans. On the time of writing, you may have 25GB of knowledge with an additional 25GB free for simply £15/mth.

What’s extra, Sky Cell has some tempting additional options, significantly in case you’re a Sky TV subscriber. All plans embrace a “Piggybank” rollover function, the place any unused month-to-month knowledge allowance is saved away to be used as much as three years later. You may change from one plan to a different month to month by means of the MySky app, and you may stream video from the Sky Go, Sky Retailer and Sky Information apps with out consuming into your allowance.

In case you’re searching for a brand new handset, Sky has its personal method of doing issues. You should buy on a 24-month or 36-month contract, then swap to a brand new telephone and contract after 12 or 24 months respectively with no additional early improve cost. This plan covers solely the telephone, and you purchase an information plan on prime, with these coming in on the identical worth because the equal SIM-only deal or much less.

Sky will also be good worth in case you’re shopping for a brand new telephone, however it’s important to get your head round how the funds break down. Purchase an iPhone 14 on the 36-month contract and also you’ll pay £28/mth for the primary 24 months, then £24/mth for the remaining 12. On prime of that, it’s essential to pay from £6/mth for essentially the most fundamental 2GB plan. That takes the full value over three years to an affordable £1,176, however with a 50GB plan that may rise to over £2,000. That’s greater than you’d pay for a similar telephone with 100GB plus an additional 12 months of 100GB on, say, iD Cell, so it pays to examine and store round.

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Sky Cell evaluate: Customer support

Sky didn’t maintain on to most of its Finest Cell Community awards this 12 months, however it did retain the award for customer support. Right here, 45% of the customers we surveyed stated they have been very glad with the service they obtained, whereas an additional 43% stated they have been pretty glad. Solely 4% weren’t very glad or in no way glad. Whereas Tesco Cell had barely extra very glad customers, Sky was nonetheless the standout winner total. A powerful 85% of Sky prospects would suggest the community to a pal.

Ofcom’s newest analysis additionally has some good issues to say about Sky. Whereas it offers no total buyer satisfaction rating, Ofcom notes that Sky has fewer prospects with a motive to complain than common, and that Sky will get fewer complaints per 100,000 customers than another main community bar EE and Tesco Cell.

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Sky Cell evaluate: Protection, reliability and velocity

Sky doesn’t function its personal community. As an alternative, like Tesco Cell and Giffgaff, it operates as a digital community working on Virgin Media O2. Virgin Media O2’s 4G community covers round 99% of the UK inhabitants, and it’s solely in some extra distant coastal and rural areas that you simply’ll wrestle to get a sign.

O2 has been enjoying catch-up on connection speeds for the previous couple of years, and RootMetrics’ newest spherical of velocity exams nonetheless places it firmly within the fourth and closing place of the UK’s main networks. The place the third-placed community, Vodafone, has a median UK obtain velocity of 23.8Mbits/sec, Virgin Media O2’s is 16.4Mbits/sec. Nevertheless, O2 fares higher in Northern Eire, significantly on calls and textual content efficiency, and its 5G attain and speeds have improved considerably since final 12 months, with availability in 15 of the 16 cities the place RootMetrics exams and speeds of over 100Mbits/sec in most of them.

That’s mirrored in each our survey and our Cell Community Awards: Sky had extra glad or very glad 5G prospects than another community (57%) excluding EE (64%), so it comes away with a Extremely Recommended award within the 5G class.

All in all, you’re in all probability not going to get the quickest accessible connection from Sky Cell, however there doesn’t appear to be something improper with its reliability. 91% of customers stated their Sky connection was principally or all the time quick sufficient for internet searching, whereas 67% stated the identical about audio streaming. Elsewhere, 49% of customers advised us it was principally quick sufficient for video streaming and an additional 12% stated it was all the time quick sufficient. Solely Smarty and Voxi had a stronger reliability report.

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Sky Cell evaluate: Roaming

Sky Cell now not contains EU roaming freed from cost. As an alternative, you want the £2 Roaming Passport Plus add-on, which lets you use your present calls, knowledge and textual content allowance throughout the EU, together with another well-liked locations, together with Australia, Canada, the US, New Zealand and Hong Kong. In any other case, you’re often taking a look at a cost of 96p to £2.16 per minute for calls, 42p per textual content and knowledge at £2.16 per MB, although some locations can be dearer. Worldwide roaming with Sky Cell isn’t low cost.

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Sky Cell evaluate: Different providers and spending caps

With Sky Cell, you may stream content material from the Sky Go, Sky Information, Sky+, Sky Youngsters, Sky Retailer, Sky Sports activities and Sky Sports activities Field Workplace apps with out utilizing your allowance, offering you’ve gotten 50MB of knowledge remaining in it. In case you’re quick, you may raid your Piggybank. You may also enroll a number of relations underneath one account, then share unused knowledge out of your Piggybank round. That can assist you handle prices, Sky additionally helps spending caps, and you may set a unique cap for every Sky SIM.

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Sky Cell evaluate: Verdict

Sky Cell won’t have repeated final 12 months’s unimaginable awards success, however it’s nonetheless a winner of a community, with some nice SIM-only offers and helpful options, and wonderful suggestions on its buyer providers, reliability and efficiency in our survey. Have a look elsewhere for max speeds or the very best offers on a brand new telephone, however Sky is all the time price placing in your shortlist, and that goes double in case you’re already a TV subscriber.