Sky Mobile Review and Network Coverage

Coverage

Sky Mobile Network Coverage

Network Type	Coverage by population
4G	99%
3G	99%
2G	99%

Sky Mobile has widespread 2G and 3G coverage. It’s 4G coverage is similarly comprehensive, but is a little behind EE and Three at around 99% indoors, which means you can get 4G in most locations.

Use Sky’s coverage checker above to find out more about Sky 4G coverage in your area, including signal strengths and details on both indoor and outdoor coverage.

4G Network Coverage Comparison

Network	4G coverage by population
EE	> 99%
Vodafone	99%
Sky Mobile (O2 Network)	99%
Three	99.8%

As you can see in the table above, Sky Mobile (through O2) currently has around 99% UK population coverage with 4G, which puts it in line with Vodafone, but likely behind EE, Three and any MVNOs powered by them.

4G from O2 and by extension Sky Mobile is now available in well over 16,000 UK towns, cities and villages.

The major towns and cities include but are not limited to: Antrim, Bradford, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bridgend, Brighton, Burnley, Castleford, Coleraine, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Leigh, Liverpool, Livingston, Manchester, Newcastle, Sheffield, London, Macclesfield, Newtownabbey, Nottingham, Nuneaton, Pontypool, Poole, Portsmouth, Reading, St Albans, Sittingbourne, Southampton and Tamworth.

5G coverage

Sky Mobile also offers a 5G service. It uses O2 for coverage, meaning its 5G is available in the same locations. At the time of writing that means 150 towns and cities, specifically:

Aberdeen, Ambleside, Ashford, Aughton, Aylesbury, Banstead, Basildon, Basingstoke, Beaconsfield, Bedford, Belfast, Bilston, Birkenhead, Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Blaydon, Bolton, Bournemouth, Bradford, Bradley Stoke, Bridge of Don, Brighton, Bristol, Brombourgh, Bury St Edmunds, Byfleet, Cambridge, Cardiff, Chadwell St Mary, Chatham, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Chesterfield, Chipstead, Clacton-on-Sea, Colchester, Coventry, Darlington, Dartford, Derby, Dewsbury, Dinas Powis, Doncaster, Dudley, Dundee, Dunstable, Durham, Dyce, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Egham, Epsom, Esher, Eton and Windsor, Falmer, Gateshead, Gatton Bottom, Gillingham, Glasgow, Gloucester, Gravesend, Grays, Great Yarmouth, Halifax, Harlington, Harlow, Hastings, Hebburn, Hemel Hempstead, Hextable, High Wycombe, Hove, How Wood, Huddersfield, Hull, Inverness, Ipswich, Iver Heath, Jarrow, Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln, Lisburn, Liverpool, Llandudno, London, Longford, Loughborough, Lowestoft, Luton, Maidstone, Manchester, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Monifieth, Morley, Musselburgh, Newcastle Upon Tyne, New Denham, Newbury, Newtownabbey, North Shields, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, Nuneaton, Orpington, Oxford, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Potters Bar, Rainham, Reading, Redhill, Rochdale, Rotherham, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Rugby, Salford, Sheffield, Shepperton Green, Slough, Solihull, Southampton, South Shields, Southend-On-Sea, Staines, Stanraer, Stevenage, Stockport, Stockton, Stoke-on-Trent, Strathclyde, Sunbury, Sunderland, Swansea, Swindon, Thundersley, Tynemouth, Wakefield, Warrington, Washington, Watford, Wavetree, West Bromwich, Weybridge, Whickham, Whitley Bay, Wolverhampton, Worthing, and York.

Below you can see where to expect Sky Mobile 5G next, along with a list of the key places that have it now.

Sky Mobile 5G Coverage Rollout

Major locations with 5G	5G from later in 2021
Aberdeen	Guildford
Belfast
Birmingham
Bradford
Brighton
Bristol
Cambridge
Cardiff
Coventry
Derby
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Hull
Leeds
Leicester
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Milton Keynes
Newcastle
Norwich
Nottingham
Sheffield
Swansea
York

Of course you’ll also need a 5G phone, but a number of these are available on Sky Mobile too.

Network Speeds and Frequencies

Opensignal – Mobile Network Experience, October 2020, and April 2020

Network	4G download/upload speeds	4G latency (ms)
EE	36.4/9.1Mbps	36.0ms
Three	22.2/8.0Mbps	48.3ms
Vodafone	22.4/8.5Mbps	39.0ms
O2 (Sky Mobile)	18.2/6.2Mbps	38.1ms

Sky Mobile uses standard 4G, which is roughly 5 times faster than a typical 3G network. In an October 2020 Opensignal report (above), O2’s average 4G download speed was found to be 18.2Mbps and its average upload speed was 6.2Mbps – that’s relevant because Sky Mobile uses O2’s infrastructure, so its speeds are likely to be similar.

In this case, that’s not a great thing, as that’s slower than the average 4G download speed of any major rival. Its average latency (from an earlier April 2020 report) is slightly better though at 38.1ms. That’s the measure of how long it takes the network to respond to a request and for that it beats Three and Vodafone, but still loses out to EE.

We’re also largely reliant on studies of O2 for 5G data. On that front, O2 apparently has average 5G download speeds of 115.7Mbps according to a September 2020 report from Point Topic, so Sky Mobile’s speeds may well be similar.

Sky Mobile Network Frequencies

Frequency	Frequency Band	Network
800MHz	Band 20	4G
900MHz	Band 8	2G & 3G
1800MHz	Band 3	2G & 4G
2100MHz	Band 1	3G & 4G
2300MHz	Band 40	4G
3400MHz	Band 42	5G

The 800MHz band is a good band to have access to, as it's long range, so it can travel a long way between base stations, making it suited to rural environments.

And it’s also good at penetrating walls and buildings, making it great for built up areas as well, and ensuring strong coverage both indoors and out.

The 2300MHz band meanwhile is shorter range, but works well in busy areas. The 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands are a middle ground.

Sky through O2 also has access to the 3400MHz band, which is the highest frequency of any it uses and is ideal for 5G.

You can find in depth details of the various bands in our 4G frequencies guide.

Planned improvements

Sky Mobile is largely reliant on O2 for improvements, since it uses that network’s infrastructure and spectrum.

The good news there is that O2 is building new infrastructure and improving its 4G coverage all the time. The big focus going forward though is likely to be on improving 5G coverage.

Traffic management

Sky Mobile’s traffic management policy reads: “We will manage the network in order to give you the service we have agreed to. For example, we may automatically direct traffic onto different parts of the network such as 3G, 4G or WiFi.”

The network adds that if your use of ‘unlimited’ or roaming services exceeds “that reasonably expected of a reasonable person” the network may temporarily suspend your services or charge you, but you’ll be notified before any charges are made. This sort of fair use policy is unlikely to affect most users.

Plans

SIM Only Deals

	12 Month Contract 2 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£6.00 a month View Deal
	12 Month Contract 6 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£8.00 a month View Deal
	12 Month Contract 10 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£10.00 a month View Deal
	12 Month Contract 20 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£12.00 a month View Deal
	12 Month Contract 50 GB data Unlimited mins Unlimited texts	£25.00 a month View Deal
View All Sky Mobile Sim Only Deals

Sky Mobile currently offers just a small number of Pay Monthly and SIM Only plans, detailed below. All plans come with 4G and 5G at no extra cost. All plans also allow you to roll over any unused data from one month to the next. There’s no limit to how much you can roll over, and you can store it for up to 3 years.

Sky Mobile Pay Monthly Plans

	Mobile Phones	SIM Only
Plans Available	✔	✔
Max Data	60GB	60GB
Contract lengths	24 or 12 months	12 months
Tethering	✔	✔
VoLTE	✔*	✔*
WiFi Calling	✔*	✔*
Data Rollover	✔	✔
Spending Caps	✔	✔
	View deals	View deals

* Select handsets only currently

Sky Mobile’s Pay Monthly and SIM Only plans come with a choice of 2GB, 6GB, 10GB, 20GB, 50GB or 60GB of data. Those data costs come in at £6, £8, £10, £12, £25, and £30 respectively each month. Pay Monthly plans also come with the option of a 100MB plan which at the time of writing is free, but has a usual price of £5 per month.

Of course, on a Pay Monthly plan you'll pay more on top of that for your phone.

All plans also come with free unlimited calls and texts. You used to have to pay £10 extra per month for this unless you were a Sky TV customer, but at the time of writing it's available to everyone.

However, Sky TV customers now get a different bonus instead – they can stream an unlimited amount of content from Sky apps that they’re subscribed to without it coming out of their data allowance.

Pay Monthly plans last either 12 or 24 months - though for a 12-month plan you'll pay more each month for the phone component. Sky Mobile’s SIM Only plans last 12 months, but you can switch between them every 30 days if you need more or less data.

Sky Mobile also has tablet plans if you want to get your slate online. These come with the same data allowances as above, but aren’t available SIM Only, so you have to get a new tablet as part of the offering.

Data rollover is the clear highlight of Sky Mobile’s plans, while limited choices and middling data limits are a drawback.

Tethering

Sky Mobile allows you to use as much of your data as you want for tethering, meaning you can use your mobile data to get other devices online.

The only limitation is your overall data allowance, but as that tops out at 60GB at the time of writing it’s not the best network for tethering, though nor is it awful.

WiFi Calling

WiFi Calling means using a Wi-Fi network rather than your mobile network to call and text, but it typically still works with your normal number and dialler, so you can seamlessly switch between Wi-Fi and mobile networks and stay in touch where there’s no normal signal.

Sky Mobile offers this but currently only on the iPhone 6 or later, or a selection of Android phones, such as the Samsung Galaxy S20 range, the Galaxy S10, Galaxy S10 Plus, Galaxy S10e, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy Note 10 Plus, Sony Xperia 1, Sony Xperia 5, Huawei P30 and Huawei P30 Pro. You can find the full and up to date list here.

VoLTE

VoLTE stands for Voice over LTE and is sometimes called 4G Calling. It refers to the ability to make calls over 4G, which is beneficial because it means you can stay in touch when there’s only a 4G signal, and can also lead to better voice quality.

This is available on Sky Mobile, but at the time of writing only for a selection of Samsung phones, making it rather restrictive. The full list of compatible devices can be found here.

Pay As You Go

Sky Mobile doesn’t currently offer any Pay As You Go services.

Roaming Destinations

Sky Mobile lets you use your full allowance of minutes, texts and data at no extra cost in over 30 EU and EEA countries.

Outside the EU you can pay £6 per 24 hours to roam in Australia, Canada, Christmas Islands, Cocos Islands, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Qatar, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and the USA.

Customer Service

An Ofcom service quality report covering 2019 found that 11 of every 100,000 Sky Mobile customers complained about the company to Ofcom, which is a middling figure relative to other networks. The average call waiting time to get through to Sky Mobile meanwhile was found to be 2 minutes and 6 seconds, which is slightly longer than the average across all the tested networks.

Conclusion

Sky Mobile is clearly best for Sky TV customers, since you can stream without using your data allowance when using its apps.

However, it’s worth considering even if you get your entertainment elsewhere, as being able to roll over an unlimited amount of data is a big selling point that few networks can match.

Being able to change your plan every month also makes Sky Mobile very flexible, and the costs are reasonable. However a lack of plans, middling data limits and no inclusive roaming beyond Europe holds it back, as does being on O2, as that network currently can’t match the speed of rivals.

Overall then it’s not one of the very best networks, especially if you’re not a Sky customer already, but it’s certainly suited to some users.