Do You Need Sky Broadband for Sky Glass?
You don’t need Sky Broadband to use Sky Glass. The television can be used with any internet service provider, including Virgin Media. You can even connect it to a mobile hotspot. You will want to ensure your connection meets the minimum requirement of at least 10Mbps to stream content in High Definition (HD) and 25Mbps for 4K Ultra HD.
Sky Glass can be connected to an active internet line by either Ethernet or Wi-Fi. You’ll have a faster, more reliable connection if you channel straight in to the router using a wire, so if you’re only just receiving the minimum required connection speed you may want to consider running a cable to minimize the drop-off that comes with Wi-Fi.
That being said, we wouldn’t recommend Sky Glass if you’re only just scraping the required bandwidth. Connecting an additional device to the network like a PlayStation 5 will eat into that speed, and could find you in a situation where you can’t watch television because someone has turned on a PlayStation 5 and has loaded up Fortnite.
You’ll want to shoot for at least double the recommended speeds to use Sky Stream Pucks to watch television in more than one room at a time, and even more if additional devices are thrown into the mix. You should be safe at around 60Mbps for streaming in multiple rooms and around 150Mbps for a whole-home-safe solution.
Your best bet is to side with Virgin Media, which is currently offering M100 Fibre Broadband for £27 per month. It’s £1 more than Sky’s entry-level offering, but gets you almost double the speed. Our advice would be to pull the trigger on the M200 Fibre Broadband at Virgin for £33 per month though — enough for about ten devices.
The fact of the matter is, the package you need depends on the amount of devices in your home that’ll be using the internet at the same time. If you’re a one-man-band, you can get away, best side with a provider that’ll get you at least 50Mbps, so you can browse and watch at the same time. For a family with kids, shoot for at least 100Mbps.
