Moving from a Sky Hub to Sky Q Hub - Costs?

[Dos_Box]

I'm currently working on options to get my folks internet connection a bit more up to date.

Currently they have a basic Sky package which is only delivering 4 Mbps (on an 'Up to' 17 Mbps connection)!! And this is then delivered via the basic Sky Hub and the speed is, to be frank, shocking.

Sky, you should be ashamed of yourselves for even giving this 'basic' router as an option. It's like you scraped together all of the left over components of the mid range home routers from 10 years ago and went 'Ah well, no one will notice if we offer this to them now!'

 

Anyhoo, the local cabinet is fibre enabled and I can get Sky to upgrade to a 40-50 Mbps connection for pennies, but I do want this home router sorted out as the single band 'n' is simply appalling in terms of range and speed.

To this end, I'm looking at getting them their Q hub as at least it employs technologies from this decade.

My question is this (before I phone them on Monday). Have any of you upgraded from the basic hub to a Q hub and if any costs were involved what were they?

 

Ta

[ZeroHour]

You cant get the Sky Q hub without paying for Sky Q which is a bit crazy expensive. When you order fibre you should get a new router.

[angrycomputingteacher]

Do they currently have TV with Sky? If so you might be able to upgrade your package.

[JonThompson]

The Sky fibre router is better than the basic but is still pants. I believe you can now get the username and password from them and use your own router.

[Arthur]

You can't get the Sky Q hub without paying for Sky Q which is a bit crazy expensive.

I hope @Dos_Box's parents don't watch sport, movies or want Sky Q in more than one room! That would cost at least £122.90 per month (which is insane)!!! :eek:

 

Based on the following article the cheapest option would be £76.40 per month (£32.40 per month for Sky Fibre Unlimited inc. line rental + £44.00 per month for the entry-level Sky Q bundle). There's also a £50 installation fee on top of that for existing Sky customers.

 

www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/sky-q-price

 

Sky Q Bundle – £44 a month with a £99 setup fee

This is your entry-level Sky Q bundle, and the one that relates to Sky's initial pricing announcement. However, it actually lacks many of the headline features Sky introduced back in November.

 

After a £99 set-up fee for new Sky Q Bundle subscribers (existing customers pay £50), you'll have £44 per month to pay. There's no hardware fee attached to this (or the Silver Bundle for that matter), as you're not actually buying the Sky Q Box that comes with the package. You're merely renting them from Sky.

 

For this you get a 1TB Sky Q Hub (the same capacity as the existing Sky+ HD box) that enables Sky TV in one room – so none of the multi-room-enabling Sky Q Mini boxes mentioned above. You also only get to stream Sky content to a single tablet.

 

You also get to record three programmes whilst watching a fourth live. You get all of the regular Sky channels with the notable exceptions of the Sky Sports and Sky Movies packages, which will cost extra.

 

Sky Q Silver Bundle – £56 a month with a £99 setup fee

Sky's premium bundle is the one that really represents the full Sky Q experience, as spelled out at launch.

 

Here, there's a £99 set-up fee if you're renting a Sky Q Silver box plus a Sky Q Mini box, and a £149 set-up fee if you're just after the Sky Q Silver box on its own. Whichever you choose, new customers must then pay £56 per month.

 

For this you get an upgraded Sky Q Hub with 2TB of storage (double that of the regular bundle), and the ability to record four programmes and watch a fifth live (one more than the regular bundle).

 

Perhaps the biggest addition here, though, is the Sky Q Silver Hub's ability to push content to two additional rooms through the Sky Q Mini boxes. You get one Sky Q Mini box in the package, but you have to pay extra if you want to add more. Sky doesn't say how much the extra boxes will cost.

 

This Silver box is also the only one of the two that supports 4K, so if you want to be watching UHD content when it hits later in the year then this is the one for.

 

The Silver bundle enables you to stream content to two tablets rather than one, and once again you get the full set of 300-odd Sky channels, minus Sky Sports and Sky Movies.

 

Extra channels – Adding Sky Sports and Sky Movies

In order to receive Sky Movies and Sky Sports on either Sky Q Bundle, you'll need to pay an extra £1 per month for Sky Movies, and £20.50 per month for Sky Sports.

 

Alternatively, you can bundle both together for £34.50 per month – a £3 saving. Bargain.

 

Are there hidden costs?

If you're a new user looking to jump in with Sky Q, you may not have twigged that there's a significant potential extra cost to consider, hidden away in the blurb.

 

Put simply, if you want to get Sky Q at the above costs you'll also need to either pay for Sky Movies and/or Sky Sports, or be a Sky Broadband customer. Otherwise, there'll be a massive premium to pay.

 

If you're with any other broadband provider and you don't want to pay for those extra channels, the £99 installation fee for the Sky Q Bundle becomes £249. Similarly, the £149 installation fee for the Sky Q Silver box on its own becomes £299.

 

The biggest increase is for the top Sky Q Silver Bundle, which includes a single Sky Q Mini box with the Sky Q Silver box. The normal price for this is £99, but if you don't meet any of the aforementioned requirements, you'll have to pay £299. Ouch.

 

Don't forget the broadband

As we've just discussed, a lot of people are going to want to bundle in Sky Broadband with their Sky Q package to keep installation costs down. Sky Broadband customers also get first dibs on Sky Q.

 

So what about those Sky Broadband costs themselves? Right now Sky is running a deal that sees its standard Sky Broadband package available for free for 12 months. It's usually £10 per month. It's not really free, of course: you have to pay £17.40 per month for line rental.

 

For this you get no download limits and a 17Mbps connection. It's worth noting here that Netflix, one of the front-runners in the 4K content field, specifies a minimum of a 25Mbps connection for its own 4K content, so if you're keen to get into the whole 4K ecosystem, this probably isn't the broadband package for you.

 

With that in mind, you'll probably need to bump up your package to Sky Fibre. The entry-level package currently costs £5 per month (it's usually £10), which will get you speeds of 38Mbps and a 25GB data limit. For unlimited data at those speeds, you'll need the current top tier at £10 per month (usually £20).

 

Regardless, you need to factor in an extra £20 to £30 per month on top of the aforementioned costs when totting up your Sky Q package.

Edited July 23, 2016 by Arthur

[rich_tech]

My parents are similar on plus net, their on fibre now with them, but it wasn't the fix it was touted to be as it took them from 2mb to 15mb (awful BT line routing aside there), they had a woeful Technicolor N class router given to them with this plus net fibre which I want to replace with something more decent for them as its pretty much fit for the bin.

 

Looked at Sky Q for them, but its the same as all other sky tech, its in its infancy so they charge the earth for it moreso on this product it seems (I had sky+ when it first come out and that had a £10 a month charge just to be able to record on the account), give it a year and it may drop in price, though I wouldn't hold your breath there.

[Dos_Box]

Cheers everyone. They are existing subscribers and Sky have offered a decent upgrade package (an extra £5 per month for 12 months then £10 after that) for the Sky Fibre package.

They have a chunky subscription as it is so the extra won't be an issue.