Virgin Media vs Sky Broadband
Virgin Media is one of the best communications and entertainment companies and also the largest residential broadband provider in the United Kingdom. This company provides various services such as broadband, TV, phone, mobile and bundles. Virgin Media provides unlimited broadband along with calls package and line rentals.
Sky is yet another company that offers various services such as Sky Movies, Sky Sports, Sky Atlantic, Sky News, and Sky Arts apart from Sky broadband. Sky also offers HD content with its HD Ready feature. Sky offers the best TV package compared to Virgin Media. Although Sky has not offered a full fledged fibre optic cable broadband service for its customers, a trial for the same has already been announced.
Comparison of Virgin Media and Sky broadband
- Types
- Virgin Media
- Sky
- Speed
- Up to 100Mb
- Up to 20Mb
- Usage limit
- Unlimited
- Unlimited
- Upload speed
- 5Mb
- 1.3Mb
Broadband packages from Virgin Media
Virgin Media offers various packages apart from 10Mb, 30Mb, 50Mb and 100Mb broadband packages. Amongst these, 10Mb can be used for home use while 30Mb broadband package can be used for both home and business purposes accordingly.
10Mb broadband package can be used for home use and comes with the following features:
- Speed upto 9.68Mb
- Downloads – unlimited
- Free wireless router
- Free photo prints per month- 10
- File backup- automatic
- Space of 5GB for online storage
- Email account with up to 10 addresses
Other packages such as up to 30Mb, up to 50Mb and up to 100Mb can be used for business purposes.
30Mb broadband package comes with the following features:
- Speed of 30.62Mb
- Downloads – unlimited
- Free wireless modem router
- Free photo prints per month- 50
- Space of 10GB for online storage
- Email account with up to 10 addresses
50Mb broadband package comes with the following features:
- Speed of 49.32Mb
- Downloads – unlimited
- Online storage- unlimited
- Free wireless modem router
- Free photo prints per month- 100
- Own email account with 10 addresses
100Mb broadband package comes with the following features:
- Speed up to 100Mb
- Downloads – unlimited
- Online storage- unlimited
- Free wireless modem router and USB adapter
- Free photo prints per month- 100
- Own email account with 10 addresses
Broadband packages from Sky
Sky offers broadband along with TV packages for its customers and these packages can be used for both home and business accordingly.
Broadband package for business use is given below:
Broadband only
- Unlimited Sky broadband – Download speed: up to 20Mb
- Talk and line rental – Evening and weekend UK calls inclusive
- Sky wireless ‘N’ router
Broadband package for home use are given below:
Broadband & TV starter
- Sky broadband – Download speed- up to 20Mb
- TV – about 40 entertainment channels including Sky Atlantic, Sky1 and Sky Living
- Sky Talk- evening and weekend UK landline calls
- Sky Line Rental
- Sky wireless ‘N’ router
- Standard setup and free Sky+Box
Unlimited with TV
- Unlimited Sky broadband- with download speed of upto 20Mb
- TV extra – about 90 entertainment channels including Sky Living, Sky1, History, Discovery and Sky Atlantic
- Sky Talk- evening and weekend UK landline calls
- Sky wireless ‘N’ router
- Standard setup and free Sky+Box
Unlimited movies
- Unlimited Sky broadband- with download speed of up to 20Mb
- TV- Sky movies- about 12 movie channels
- Sky Talk- evening and weekend UK landline calls
- Sky Line Rental
- Sky wireless ‘N’ router
- Standard setup and free Sky+Box
Broadband packages such as Broadband only, unlimited with TV and Unlimited movies offer unlimited monthly usage. These packages can be used for both home and business use.
Comparison of various packages offered by Virgin Media & Sky
Virgin Media and Sky offer broadband and entertainment packages that can be used both for business and home use. The following tables compare the packages provided by these two broadband providers.
- Package Type
- Virgin Media
- Sky
- Home package
-
Upto 10Mb broadband (Size L)
- Downloads – unlimited
- Free wireless router
- Free photo prints per month- 10
- File backup- automatic
- Space of 5GB for online storage
- Email account with up to 10 addresses
Upto 30Mb broadband(Size XL)
- Downloads – unlimited
- Free wireless modem router
- Free photo prints per month- 50
- Space of 10GB for online storage
- Email account with up to 10 addresses
(May be used for home or business use accordingly)
-
Up to 20Mb broadband (Without Sky TV)
- Half price for six months
- Wireless router
- Unlimited usage
Sky Broadband Unlimited (Who already have Sky TV)
- Free for three months
- Exclusively for existing TV customers
- Download speeds: Up to 20Mb
- Monthly usage- Unlimited
- McAfee trial version- free for 12 months
Sky Broadband Everyday Lite (Join with Sky TV)
- Free for Sky TV customers
- Download speeds: Up to 20Mb
- Monthly usage: 2GB
- Evening and weekend calls inclusive
- McAfee trial version- free for 3 months
- Business package
-
Upto 50Mb broadband (Size XXL)
- Downloads – unlimited
- Online storage- unlimited
- Free wireless modem router
- Free photo prints per month- 100
- Own email account with 10 addresses
Upto 100Mb broadband (Size 100)
- Downloads – unlimited
- Online storage- unlimited
- Free wireless modem router and USB adapter
- Free photo prints per month- 100
- Own email account with 10 addresses
-
Broadband only package
- Unlimited Sky broadband – Download speed: up to 20Mb
- Talk and line rental – Evening and weekend UK calls inclusive
- Sky wireless ‘N’ router
- Entertainment package
-
M+ package
- Offers about 65 channels
- Comes with TiVo Box and free activation
- Free installation
L package
- Offers about 100 channels
- Comes with TiVo Box and free activation
- Free installation
XL Package
- Offers about 160 channels
- Comes with TiVo Box and free activation
- Free installation
-
Sky Entertainment package
- About 40 TV channels that includes Sky 1, Sky Atlantic, SyFy, Sky Living, FX, Sky Arts, Comedy Central and Watch.
Sky Entertainment Extra
- Comes with additional of about 51 channels along with Sky Entertainment package
Comparison of network coverage in Virgin Media and Sky broadband
Virgin Media provides the best broadband service in the UK with download speed of up to 100Mb and upload speed of up to 5Mb. Virgin Media covers nearly 85% of its network in the UK. Sky on the other hand provides download speed of up to 20Mbps and upload speed of 1.3Mb. Sky covers nearly 70% of its network in the UK. The following tables give a comparison of the speed and network coverage of Virgin Media and Sky broadband. Following the table is the graphical representation.
- Providers
- Speed
- Network coverage in UK (%)
- Virgin Media
- Download speed : Up to 100Mb
Upload speed : Up to 5Mb - 85
- Sky
- Download speed : Up to 20Mbps
Upload speed : 1.3Mb - 70
Speed and coverage of Virgin Media & Sky
Fibre optic broadband of Virgin Media
Virgin Media gives its customers the fastest broadband service with its fibre optic cables that are made up of glass and carries information with the speed equivalent to that of light. Few other types of fibre optic cables are made up of plastic material but transfer data with lower speeds compared to that of the cables that is made up of glass. Broadband speed provided by Virgin Media is twice as fast as BT and Sky and can provide the whole family to go online at the same time and avail the highest speed. Videos, films and TV shows can be easily streamed rather than buffering. Downloading of music and video files is now faster than before. Virgin Media currently offers various broadband packages which include 10Mb, 30Mb, 50Mb and 100Mb.
Sky has also announced about the introduction of fibre optic broadband cable lines early this year, which put together will bring about a drastic change in the field of communication.
Verdict
From the above description it can be concluded that Virgin Media serves better than Sky broadband as the former is already providing high speed fibre optic broadband service to its customers while the latter has recently announced about its trial in the UK. Although Sky offers numerous broadband and entertainment packages, broadband speed provided by Sky is much lower than that of Virgin Media. However, there is high possibility for tight competition between two rivals when Sky starts providing fibre optic broadband service to the UK.
