Worth checking out if you’re a Sky TV customer

Our survey revealed most Sky Mobile customers are content with the value they’re receiving, with 77 per cent declaring themselves satisfied.

As I stated earlier, the best deals are on offer to customers who already take other Sky products, as on a standalone basis, they aren’t always great value. For example, Sky’s cheapest tariff is only £5 per month for 1GB of data, but Lebara will offer you five times that amount of data for 5p less per month.

You need to do your sums when comparing Sky tariffs, as it often offers discounts for the first six months of a deal. For example, at the time of writing, it’s offering 40GB for £18 a month and 50GB for £20 a month, but the 50GB tariff is half price for the first six months. That means it’s £36 cheaper over the course of the year to plump for the 50GB contract than it is the 40GB. How confusing.

Sky also offers different discount offers on airtime if you’re buying a phone at the same time, so check the deals carefully if you’re in the market for a new mobile.

Speed

Score: 3.5/5

The Sky Mobile customers we surveyed gave the network a 72 per cent satisfaction score when it came to speed. That largely chimes with the experience of other companies that use O2. Giffgaff had a higher speed satisfaction score of 89 per cent, while O2 itself had a score of 73 per cent. Of the three main networks (O2, VodafoneThree and EE), it seems O2 has the most customers satisfied with their speeds.

Reliability

Score: 4/5

Again, there’s little to worry about when it comes to reliability on Sky Mobile. Overall, 83 per cent of Sky Mobile customers were happy with the reliability, with similar scores for Giffgaff (95 per cent) and O2 (84 per cent).

According to Ofcom’s latest figures, the O2 5G network reaches between 70 and 76 per cent of UK premises outdoors, which is some way behind the coverage offered by EE.

Support

Score: 3.5/5

Sky’s a big business, so you would hope its support is up to scratch, but generally, our survey revealed a few problems here. Seven out of ten Sky Mobile customers said they were happy with the ease with which they could contact the support team, while 73 per cent were happy with the quality of that support.

Those scores are better than those recorded by other big beasts, including BT Mobile, Vodafone and EE. However, they’re significantly down on the scores registered by Tesco Mobile.

Roaming

Score: 2.5/5

Roaming is something of a sore point for Sky Mobile customers. For many countries, you can use your contracted allowance of data, minutes and texts when travelling, but you must pay £2 a day for the privilege. Many destinations, such as India, Israel and Saudi Arabia are not included in that deal, meaning you must pay a ridiculous £2.16 per MB of data when you’re travelling. You’d be mad to even switch roaming data on in those countries. Opt for a travel SIM instead.

Little wonder Sky Mobile customers don’t rate the roaming value, with only 56 per cent satisfied.