Sky Mobile review 2018: will their network leave you 'believing in better'?

Coverage: if you missed it, Sky Mobile uses the O2 network

They don’t make a huge song and dance about it but Sky Mobile runs on O2’s reliable UK network for signal.You’ll get identical coverage to being on O2 direct with but with Sky’s unique added mobile benefits.

In terms of general UK population, 97% live in an area where you can get 4G Sky Mobile signal. For 3G, it’s slightly higher at 98%. O2 have invested millions in their network and Sky Mobile customers gain from that.

These are the second best coverage statistics, following the UK’s biggest network EE. So you’ll rarely struggle to make calls or get online on Sky Mobile.

It’s still definitely worth checking their specific coverage near you though.

Useful link: Check your local Sky Mobile coverage using their official network map

Speeds: are slow results why Sky are shy about using O2?

Sky Mobile customers might get to benefit from the expansion work O2 have put into bringing 4G to more places but we do expect O2's typical 4G speeds to be slower than the most of the competition.

O2 customers can expect 4G downloads at around 16 Mbps and we don't believe there is a difference between being on Sky Mobile or O2 directly.

Though these speeds aren't fastest available in the UK, they are faster than many copper-based home broadband speeds, which will let you load internet pages in less than a second and watch videos without buffering.

They’re just not going to support hard-core gaming or downloading huge files as fast, so we can only give Sky Mobile an average rating in this category.

Useful link: What Sky Mobile customers are saying about 4G speeds

Call quality: there may be better options than Sky Mobile

Call us old fashioned but it’s still important that your phone works well on a mobile network for making phone calls, even if the majority of what we now do on them is internet based.

We’ve looked at the reports of P3 network analytics who specialise in running tests across the UK into how quickly calls connect with each major provider and the sound quality once you’re talking.

They give Sky Mobile's host network O2 a 'satisfactory' rating in their voice category (EE got 'very good', Vodafone and Three both got 'good'). They don't test providers like Sky who don't have their own network.

This means you shouldn't expect bad call quality on Sky Mobile, it's just that calls may connect more quickly and give you clearer sound on other mobile networks.

Useful link: Read full test report by P3 on each network's call quality

Free WiFi hotspots: Sky Mobile are one of the better choices

Sky point out to their new mobile customers that they can access Sky Wifi (The Cloud) hotspots free of charge as a Sky Mobile customer.

We’d point out that this service is actually free for anybody who isn’t a Sky Mobile customer too, but it’s still useful. Using their hotspots saves on your mobile data when you’re out and about.

It’s unlimited and there are thousands of hotspots located in busy public areas like shopping malls, cafes, restaurants, pubs and public transport hubs (read our guide to free WiFi to see how Sky compare).

One of our criticisms of Sky Mobile is that you can’t get a huge amount of mobile data in their plans so anything that saves yours is a welcome bonus.

Useful link: How to get free Sky WiFi access on Sky Mobile

Tethering: it's included with Sky Mobile's plans

In all our reviews, we look at whether a mobile provider lets you use your plan for tethering. And if they do, whether there are any sneaky terms and conditions or restrictions.

Tethering is when you use your phone's mobile data to create a small WiFi hotspot around you, which you can connect other devices to. Most modern phones let you do it but not all networks allow it.

Sky Mobile's terms and conditions contain nothing preventing your from using your SIM or phone creating a hotspot, including abroad.

The devices you connect via tethering may use more data than your regular phone does, so it's worth checking Sky's extra charges here in case you go over your limit. Or pick a bigger data plan in the first place.

Useful link: See costs for going over your data limit on Sky

WiFi calling: there isn’t any on Sky Mobile, not even an app

Sometimes you’ll find yourself somewhere that mobile signal can’t get, even if a provider has the best coverage: underground or in a building with thick walls.

WiFi calling is a feature that solves this on some networks.We list and compare the UK networks with WiFi calling in our article here but Sky Mobile aren’t on there.

WiFi calling works by letting your phone connect to WiFi instead of conventional mobile signal to make and receive calls. It’s a handy feature but it’s up to you whether you think it’s a deal breaker or not.

Particularly when there are so many apps that do a similar job now like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facetime, Skype and Viber (plus more). Download one of these and you effectively have WiFi calling.

Useful link: Read our guide to the best WiFi calling networks

Data rollover: Sky let you keep unused data the longest

Only a few mobile networks let you keep data you haven’t used (read our data rollover guide here). And we say Sky are very nearly the best: only SMARTY who discount your future bills beat Sky in our view.

Sky's scheme is called 'Roll' and it adds any data you haven't used up at the end of the month to what Sky call your Piggybank. It’s basically like a savings account for mobile data.

You can store unused data there for up to 3 years (on other networks it’s only a month). And if you find one month you do use up all your data, you simply make a withdrawal from your Piggybank and carry on.

It's an excellent system because we all know our data usage varies month-to-month. It beats similar schemes because you get to keep data for much longer, and you can share it with other people on your account.

Useful link: Read Sky's full guide to how data rollover works

Customer rewards: discounts and perks if you Sky TV

There are two ways that Sky go about rewarding their existing customers when they take a mobile deal:

Firstly through discounts on the plans themselves: if you have Sky TV you’ll get unlimited calls and texts with your plan at no extra cost, where non-customers would have to pay £10 extra a month.

We’re fairly unimpressed with this as a ‘real’ discount. Plans where non-customers pay the extra tenner are far from competitive vs the competition, so aren’t really a genuine option to compare against.

The second way is through their scheme which lets you watch recordings from your home Sky+ box on your mobile via their Sync feature (see full details here).

We do worry that this is a sure-fire way to burn through the precious little data you can get on Sky Mobile. As some video streaming services can use around 1GB per hour.

Useful link: See all Sky Mobile benefits in one place

Roaming: free within the EU and some worldwide passes

When it comes to roaming, Sky Mobile are pretty much the same as every other network in the UK. They offer free EU roaming as standard in these 30 countries using your plan’s inclusive minutes, texts and data.

This is actually now a legal requirement of all UK networks, so isn’t actually anything special. You can read our guide to the best mobile networks for roaming here, where we compare each provider inclusive deals.

Where Sky Mobile do go one step further than some other providers is by offering 10 further countries outside the EU where you can use the data from your regular plan for a fixed daily charge (see latest costs here).

This is welcome because the data roaming charges on Sky Mobile outside the EU are really quite horrendously high. Even with a pass it’s worth noting, you’ll still pay for minutes and texts separately as you use them.

Useful link: See all Sky Mobile roaming costs and charges

Shared / family plans: share leftover data on Sky Mobile

On Sky Mobile, you can manage up to 5 plans on one single account. So that’s useful if you have one billpayer in a family, who wants to be responsible for other members’ phone deals.

Doing this really only has one benefit currently. And that’s being able to share unused data held in your Piggybank between other users on your account (this gets Sky an entry in our guide to shared-data plans).

It’s handy if you have someone who often gets through their data and another who regularly has some spare: the first person avoids wasting data already paid for and the second avoids charges for going over their limits.

Other than that, there are no generous discounts for extra plans like we see with BT Mobile’s Family SIMs.

Useful link: How sharing unused data works

Entertainment subscriptions: Sky Mobile don’t include any

It’s funny for a brand who has so much TV content available to them that you don’t get any free or exclusive streaming services when you join Sky Mobile.

There is the ability to Sync your home Sky+ TV box with your mobile but no free subscriptions to entertainment providers like we’re seeing on some of the other leading UK mobile networks:

EE for instance give their pay monthly customers 6 months of free Apple Music on top of at least 3 months BT Sport App access. BT Mobile offer BT Sport App access on selected plans.

And Vodafone offer a choice of a NOW TV, Sky Sports Mobile TV or Spotify Premium with their top-whack mobile bundles.

This is definitely an area that Sky could improve on with their mobile offering.

Free streaming / social media data schemes: nothing innovative from Sky Mobile yet

Our reviews hold every mobile network to the same standard in and look for the features they do and don’t have. It's up to you if these are all of interest to you of course.

Four networks now offer either free social media or unlimited streaming data to their pay monthly customers.

Three’s impressive Go Binge scheme lets you stream Netflix, Apple Music and these services without using data. While EE are offering 6 months of free data for streaming Apple Music.

For unlimited social media, Vodafone’s new VOXI network’s plans all come endless data for using the most popular social media apps and Virgin Mobile have a similar but more-limited scheme for messaging apps.

Sky Mobile don’t offer any such scheme, so lag behind in this category compared to their competitors.

Useful link: Our guide to networks offering free data

Spending caps: you can’t set your own limit on Sky Mobile

With any mobile network provider, if you use more minutes, texts or data than are included in your monthly plan, you’ll be charged extra on top of your regular bill (here’s how much you’ll pay on Sky Mobile).

This can be a worry if you’ve taken out a plan that only just covers what you need or if you’ve taken a deal out and given it to someone else like a son or daughter and you’re not in control of what they use.

Other networks like Tesco Mobile (who also use O2), iD Mobile (use Three) and Plusnet Mobile (use EE) offer what are generally known as ‘capped contracts’. Sky Mobile do not.

These let you set a limit of how much above the regular cost of the plan you’re happy to pay each month from as little as £2 extra. This gives peace of mind to the bill payer so it’s a shame Sky Mobile don’t offer it.

Useful link: We rate Tesco as having the best capped contracts

✔ Key facts about Sky Mobile's SIM only plans

✔ Sky Mobile’s deals are based on finance: that's good and bad

When you take a smartphone from Sky Mobile, you’re essentially signing up to a loan to pay for the cost of the phone. You can choose to spread that cost over 24 months (Swap 12) or 30 months (Swap 24).

Paying over 30 months gives you a lower monthly cost but Sky do increase the overall cost of the phone if you choose this. Paying over 24 months costs more per month but gets you a cheaper overall handset price.

Being a loan, the requirements to get accepted for a Sky Mobile smartphone deal will be more strict than a regular mobile contract. If you’ve been declined for a contract before, we wouldn’t recommend trying Sky.

That said, this type of phone contract does have the advantage of letting you pay off your phone early to upgrade to a new one or leave altogether (though you have to stay for at least 12 months). More below.

Useful link: How a Sky Mobile credit agreement works from Sky's help guide

✔ Phone contracts: upgrade early with Swap 12 and 24

Above, you can see that Sky’s mobile contracts are based on finance and that one advantage of this is being able to upgrade early. ‘Swap 12’ offers a way to upgrade after 12 months and ‘Swap 24’ after 24 months.

What happens is that Sky offer to buy back your phone off you. In theory, the price they pay you is equal to the amount left on your loan. This clears the loan and leaves you free to upgrade to a new phone.

For us, this system has too many risks and potential disadvantages ever to bother using:

Firstly, by the 12th or 24th month, you’ll have paid for most of your phone. So why would you give it back to Sky just to sign up to a new agreement where you’ll be paying for another phone again from scratch?

Secondly, if you’ve not looked after the device, you won’t get paid the full amount, so won’t clear your loan. You’ll then have money left to pay for a phone you don’t even own any more.

Thirdly, you might be able to get more for your phone by selling to another 2nd hand retailer or privately.

Useful link: Read more to see if Swap is right for you at Sky.com

Pay As You Go: Sky Mobile don't offer it at all

You may have read something about Sky Mobile offering what they call "Pay As You Use". This shouldn't be confused with regular Pay As You Go (paying for mobile deals up front).

Pay As You Use (PAYU) is just one of the two ways Sky sells their pay monthly deals:

First you select how much data you want each month. Next you choose to pay for your minutes and texts at 10p per minute or text (PAYG) or pay £10 a month for unlimited mins and texts (free for Sky TV customers).

If you're looking for the type of SIM only or phone deal where you top up with credit, then everything you use comes out of that, we'd recommend Three's 321 plan.

It offers leading rates of 3p per minute, 2p per text and 1p per MB data. Order a free SIM card below.

Useful link: Three's 3p 2p 1p Pay As You Go SIM card

Mobile broadband: Sky don't offer it

Sky Mobile don't offer any of the following mobile broadband products: data-only SIMs, mobile WiFi devices / dongles. It's just not their speciality.

We'll update this section if they do launch mobile broadband.