NOW broadband

NOW broadband- owned by Sky – offers broadband, home phone and TV bundles on a budget. They’re also one of the few providers who do not conduct any credit checks. Let’s take a look.

Overview

Average Download Speeds	11Mbps – 63Mbps
Average Upload Speeds	1Mbps – 13Mbps
Broadband Type	ADSL & Fibre (FTTC/FTTP)
Home Phone-line Rental	Yes
TV/Entertainment Packages	Yes
Cost	from £18.00 per month

Broadband Packages and Speeds

Brilliant Broadband:- ADSL

NOW Broadband’s base package, titled, ‘Brilliant Broadband’, is a standard ADSL connection with average download speeds of 11Mbps. These speeds are adequate for either an individual, couple, or small household who only use the internet for browsing social media, online banking and checking emails.

Fab Fibre & Super Fibre:- Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) broadband

The next – and final – two packages on offer from NOW are ‘superfast’, or ‘Fibre to the Cabinet’ (FTTC) broadband connections, and come with average download speeds of 38Mbps and 63Mbps, respectively. Because less copper telephone wire is used to deliver this type of broadband, you’ll get access to faster speeds and a more stable connection than ADSL – which uses only copper cables. If you live in a household where a few devices (3-4) are accessing the internet at once to browse social media or stream and download content in standard definition, this would be a good choice.

Additionally, the price for either of these packages is exactly the same, so even if your household does not consist of heavy internet users, it would make sense to upgrade to the ‘Super Fibre’ package to take advantage of the faster download and upload speeds.

If you’re unsure of what broadband speeds are right for you, check out our guide here.

Contract length

All of NOW’s broadband plans are for 12-months. They also offer a 30-day rolling option across all of their packages.

Those who opt for the 30-day rolling option will pay the same price as those on a 12-month plan, making for a great deal for those who don’t wish to be tied down with a contract.

Home phone package

Unlike most other providers – where call packages will cost extra – all of NOW’s broadband deals come bundled with free anytime calls,

TV bundles

NOW also offers TV packages that can be bundled with your broadband.

The way it works is, you purchase a monthly pass for specific types of channels: Entertainment, Cinema, Sports, or Hayu. These passes can be cancelled at any time.

Package	Includes	Price per month
Entertainment	Unlimited access to Alibi, HBO, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Comedy, Sky Crime, Comedy Central Sky Documentaries, Gold, Sky History, MTV, Sky Max, NBC News NOW, Sky Nature, Sky Sci-Fi, Sky Showcase, Sky Witness	£9.99
Cinema	Unlimited access to all Sky Cinema channels	£9.99
Sports	Unlimited access to all 11 Sky Sports channel	£33.99
Hayu	Access to the latest reality TV shows, aired the same time as the US	£4.99

Any NOW TV package you purchase can be viewed on a compatible device. This includes streaming set-top boxes and sticks (Amazon Fire Stick, Apple TV, Google Chromecast etc.), games consoles, mobile devices, and smart TVs.

However, while NOW TV is extremely flexible with where and how you choose to watch, it doesn’t quite offer the variety of channels on offer with competitors like Sky or Virgin.

Upload Speeds

NOW Broadband’s average upload speeds are offered as 1Mbps on the ADSL ‘Brilliant Broadband’, 10Mbps on the ‘Fab Fibre’, and 19Mbps on the ‘Super Fibre’ packages respectively.

To understand these speeds, if you’re someone who regularly shares content to social media sites such as Instagram or Facebook, uploading 1GB (1 gigabyte) worth of photos or video would take around 2.5 hours to complete at 1Mbps, or about 7 and a half minutes with upload speeds of 19Mbps.

Router

All broadband packages include a NOW Hub 2 Wi-Fi router. This is in fact, the same router as the Sky Q Hub. Although the router itself is free, a £5 delivery fee for the device applies.

Exactly like the Q Hub, this is a dual-band router with two gigabit ethernet ports. Most other routers have at least four, meaning if you wish to have more than two wired devices connected at once, you’ll need to purchase either a network switch, or an independent router of your own.

Installation

NOW Broadband does not charge any installation fees for new customers opting to go with one of their 12-month contracts. However, if you decide you’d rather go with the 30-day rolling option, you will need to pay a one-time set-up fee of £60 (plus £5.00 in postage for the router).

If you already have an active phone line and socket, NOW will be able to switch your phone line without the need of an engineer.

If you do require a phone line installed, or are switching over from a full fibre service, you will need to arrange with NOW to have an engineer sent out to install a line.

Once your broadband is up-and-running (NOW’s timescales from sign-up to activation are around 10 business days), your speeds may fluctuate for the first 10 days. This is because engineers will be constantly testing and re-configurating the line to ensure you get the best speeds possible for your area.

Customer service

NOW Broadband’s customer service team is available on 03330 323 050 and is available 7-days a week from 8:00am – 8:00pm.

If you’re experiencing issues with either slow broadband or disruption on your phone line, NOW gives you the option to check your line through their website. Their site also has an online ‘NOW Community’ forum, where you can sign-up to post questions and receive answers from other customers and NOW staff.

Alternatively, if you’d like to reach out to the team via email, you can do so at: customerservices@nowtv.com.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Extremely competitive pricing:-

NOW Broadband offers a number of broadband packages at extremely competitive prices. As an added bonus, free anytime calls are included as standard across all broadband plans. Also, because NOW operates on the Openreach network, their services are available to a majority of homes across the UK.

No credit check:-

NOW Broadband does not conduct credit checks for any new customers. This makes NOW a great consideration for anyone concerned about their credit score.

Cons

No full-fibre FTTP:-

Although NOW Broadband offers packages on a considerably fast partial-fibre, or Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) connection, this may not be enough for larger households who use the internet daily for bandwidth-heavy activities such as streaming in UHD 4k or online gaming sessions.