How Sky Wifi works
Are you a Sky pay TV customer, have you been offered to join the Sky Wifi Internet service and, before doing anything, would you really like to understand what it is? You have heard very well about the connection offered by Sky, are you thinking of activating it and would you therefore like a complete overview of the offers available? If that is the way it is, then you are in the right place.
In the following bars of this guide, in fact, I will take care to explain how Sky Wifi works by clarifying some of the fundamental aspects of the service provided by the big pay TV: type of connection, speed, costs and conditions and characteristics of the modem provided.
If you are actually interested in learning more, do not waste any more time and continue reading this guide: I am sure that, at the end of it, you will be perfectly able to decide whether or not the Sky Internet service is for you. That said, there is nothing left for me to do but wish you a good read.
Index
- How Sky Wifi works: preliminary information
- Characteristics of the service
- Network coverage
- Sky Wifi offers
- How Sky Wifi Hub works
How Sky Wifi works: preliminary information
Before listing the Internet offers currently available in the Sky Wifi price list, let me give you some indication of the main features of the service.
Characteristics of the service
At the time of writing, Sky Wifi offers its customers two types of connection: FTTH, that is the connection via fiber optic cable to the home, with a maximum speed of 1 Gbps in download and 300 Mbps in upload; and FTTC, i.e. the connection via fiber optic cable to the proximity cabinet and with copper cable from the latter to the home, with a maximum speed of 200 Mbps in download and 20 Mbps in upload.
The Sky Wifi network is based on the physical connections of Open Fiber, as regards FTTH connectivity, or on those of Fastweb, for FTTC connectivity. Clearly, the availability of one or the other technology varies according to your area of residence, as well as the maximum speed of the connection is subject to additional parameters (distance from the cabinet, user density, quality of the domestic copper system ( for FTTC) and so on).
As you will soon discover, it is possible to combine the Sky Wifi Internet offers with a voice option, with pay-as-you-go or unlimited (national and international) calls; the telephony service is provided with a VoIP system, ie via the Internet, by connecting the telephone set directly to the router.
Subscription to Sky Wifi offers with FTTH coverage is subject exclusively to the availability of the service in your area; as regards FTTC connectivity, on the other hand, the operator provides services only in the event of migration from another operator (an FTTC line must already be active in the home).
Network coverage
To check the network coverage of Sky Wifi, you can use the special Web page, made available by the service provider: therefore, after going to the link indicated a little while ago, enter the city where you want to activate the service inside in the appropriate field, wait for the menu with the search results to appear and select the one most relevant to your area of interest.
Subsequently, repeat the same operations on the address and house number fields and click on the Check button, to find out if the service is available at the specified address and, if so, with which technology.
Sky Wifi offers
Once the key points of the service have been identified, it is time to analyze the Sky Wifi offers available to users. To begin with, Sky makes a clear distinction (mainly in terms of price) between those who are already customers of the pay TV of the same name and those who are not. So to start, let me list the offers dedicated to new customers.
- Sky Wifi: includes unlimited Internet connection in FTTH or FTTC technology and Sky Wifi Hub router on free loan and included in the price. The voice service is on consumption: calls to landlines have a connection fee of € 0.19 and no additional cost; while calls to mobile numbers provide for an amount of € 0.19 as a connection fee and are charged at € 0.19 / minute. The offer includes a one-off activation fee of € 49, which in some promotional periods can be discounted to € 29, or canceled.
- Sky Wifi + Sky TV: adds the Sky Smart package to the Sky Wifi offer, which includes Sky TV contents and Sky HD and Sky Go Plus services and is supplied with Sky Q decoder without dish. The offer includes a one-off activation fee of € 49, which in some promotional periods is completely canceled.
- Sky Wifi + Entertainment plus: adds the Sky Entertainment plus package (Sky TV + Netflix) to the previous offer. Also in this case, the activation cost is € 49, which can be canceled in some promotional periods.
The offers available for those who are already pay-TV customers are, as it is easy to imagine, slightly different.
- Sky Wifi: includes unlimited Internet connection in FTTH or FTTC and Sky Wifi Hub modem, at a cost of € 24.90 / month for 18 months (after € 29.90 / month).
- Sky Wifi Plus: adds unlimited calls to landlines and national mobile phones to the previous package and costs € 24.90 / month for 18 months (after € 34.90 / month).
- Sky Wifi Ultra Plus: adds two Sky Wifi pod mesh devices to the offer (useful for expanding the range of the modem’s Wi-Fi signal) and costs € 27.90 / month for 18 months (after € 37.90 / month).
The Sky Wifi packages dedicated to those who are already Sky customers for pay-TV can be activated independently, by accessing your MySky customer area, or by contacting the operator directly, by phone, chat, email or website, as I have indicated. in my guide on how to contact Sky.
I also point out that the predefined Sky Wifi packages can be further customized, adding, where not already provided, unlimited national calls (5 € / month more), unlimited international calls to zone 1 (5 € / month more) , or the Ultra Wifi package with two Sky Wifi pods (3 € / month more, with a one-time activation cost of 50 €).
How Sky Wifi Hub works
Sky Wifi Hub is the modem included with all Sky Wifi offers, in FTTH or FTTC: it is a router equipped with 8 internal antennas, with dual-band support for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks.
The device in question is equipped with a “smart” configuration system, which allows you to automatically adapt the connection to the various scenarios (providing, for example, more bandwidth to the devices that stream), to automatically select the least congested network channel and to independently “learn” the characteristic habits of each connected device and create profiles based on them.
As for the management, it will be useful to know that the Sky Wifi Hub router can also be configured manually via the Sky Wifi app, available for Android (even for devices not equipped with Play Store ), iOS and iPadOS: it allows you to change quickly name and password of your Wi-Fi network, open router ports, create custom user profiles, set navigation or network usage restrictions, and much, much more.
In order to use the Sky Wifi app, you must have a Sky ID and have previously registered on the manager’s online platform: if you have not yet done so, keeping your Sky customer code at hand, connected to this website, press the Create Sky ID button and enter the required data in the appropriate fields: customer code, social security number, e-mail (twice in a row) and password (twice in a row).
Once this is done, pass the captcha check visible at the bottom of the page and press the Continue button to create the new account: within a few seconds, a message containing an activation link will be delivered to the email address specified above. When this happens, open the email in question and click on the link visible within it, in order to complete the verification of the Sky ID profile.
To download Sky Wifi, connect to the appropriate section of the market in use on your device, using the links I reported to you a little while ago or the integrated search function, then press the Install / Get button and, if required, authenticate by facial recognition, fingerprint or password of the configured account.
Once the download is complete, start the app by pressing the Open button, skip the short configuration tutorial proposed and, after connecting to the Wi-Fi network generated by the Sky Wifi router, log in to the Sky ID associated with the Internet subscription by entering the credentials in the appropriate fields.
Once logged in, use the tabs, menus and buttons on the screen to apply the customizations you prefer: by tapping on the Home tab, you will quickly view the router usage data (active profiles, network usage, Wifi status pod and so on); the Connect tab allows you to change the network settings (Wi-Fi network name and key, door opening, channel, security options, and so on).
Again, from the Profile tab you can create new user profiles, configure them and apply restrictions for parental controls, if necessary; the Other tab, on the other hand, allows you to consult information relating to voice (missed calls, received calls, and so on) and other advanced aspects of the modem.
If you are unable to download the Sky Wifi app, you can take advantage of its online version, available on this page; alternatively, you can access the complete management panel of Sky Wifi Hub, by connecting to 192.168.0.1 via any browser you prefer and entering, upon access, the username admin and the password of the main network key.
For more information about the Sky Wifi Hub and the Sky Wifi app, I recommend that you read the guide available on the Sky website.