NOW Broadband

Now offer a basic home broadband service for those looking for a reliable, yet cheap, option.

With three simple packages, Now broadband is available to around 97% of homes in the UK. They offer a choice of download speed including 11Mb, 36Mb and 63Mb.

Now broadband customers can choose to bundle inclusive calls with optional call plans, as well as get exclusive discounts on Now TV memberships. Now TV offers streaming access to Sky content, including Sky Atlantic, Sky Cinema and Sky Sports channels.

Now broadband contracts run for 12 months, but customers can choose a 30-day rolling contract for an initial £60 setup fee. Where a customer chooses to bundle Now TV, these memberships run on 30-day terms.

Now offer three different broadband plans to customers: Brilliant Broadband, Fab Fibre and Super Fibre.

Brilliant Broadband offers customers average download speeds of around 11Mb, with unlimited downloads and pay as you go calls as standard. This is a basic broadband service for smaller households who do little more than simple online browsing and emails.

Fab Fibre and Super Fibre use fibre to the cabinet technology and offer faster download speeds of 36Mb and 63Mb respectively. These packages are much better suited to people who use the Internet more frequently, including streaming TV and gaming, as well as perhaps working from home.

Now have not yet moved into ultrafast broadband in the same way their parent company Sky have, so superfast broadband of 63Mb remains the fastest package on offer from them.

All Now broadband packages come with a landline included with pay as you go calls, although customers can upgrade to inclusive evening & weekend calls, or anytime calls. Both plans include calls to UK landlines and UK mobiles.

Read more in our full Now broadband review.

Now broadband offers three advertised download speeds: copper-based 11Mb, and part-fibre superfast speeds of 36Mb or 63Mb.

Advertised speeds like these must be available to at least 50% of customers between the peak hours of 8pm and 10pm. We can therefore assume that at least 50% of Now broadband customers can receive those speeds with their broadband deals.

We don't have independent testing to verify whether Now broadband speeds live up to expectations since the provider isn't large enough to be covered in Ofcom's annual home broadband testing. However, the performance of their parent company Sky is broadly in line with expectations.

Now broadband is great for those on a budget who don't need ultrafast broadband - and most people will find their fibre packages more than adequate. However, for people who want faster broadband than this, Sky - who own Now - offer full fibre broadband packages at speeds from 100Mb to 900Mb. It's worth seeing what's available in your area using our main postcode search.

All Now broadband packages come with a home phone line as standard, and the price of line rental is included in the main monthly price listed with the deals above.

For customers who want inclusive calls, Now offer two call plans: Evening & Weekends or Anytime calls. These call plans cost an additional £4 and £8 per month respectively. They include calls both to UK landlines and UK mobiles.

It's important to note that inclusive call plans are also subject to the 12-month minimum term, and so can't be removed from a broadband plan until the contract expires.

One of Now's biggest selling points is the additional discounts available for customers who bundle Now broadband with a Now TV membership.

Make sure to check the table above for the latest special offer pricing on Now broadband and TV bundles. However, it's possible to take Now broadband bundled with:

• Now Entertainment
• Now Cinema
• Now Sports

Each of these bundles will have different discounts depending on the current special offer, but when offered they usually run for the 12-month broadband contract so can offer considerable savings over the course of a year.

It's worth noting however, that customers can cancel any Now TV memberships, even those taken on an offer, at any time on a 30-day rolling basis.

Read more about Now TV in our full review.

Now provides all of its broadband customers with the Now Hub Two router, which is a rebranded version of the Sky Q Hub.

It's a basic router but it supports dual-band wi-fi on the WiFi 5 protocol, as well as offering MIMO technology, so while it's not boasting the latest tech, it's relatively up to date. Now provide the router for free with all their broadband deals, although there is a £5 charge for postage.

Here are the specifications of the Now Hub Two router:

While this router will be adequate for most people, if the wireless signal drops out or struggles in a larger home or with a lot of devices, it's possible to upgrade the router to a faster device.

Now are too small to be covered in Ofcom's research on broadband customer service and satisfaction, so we don't know too much about their performance.

Like many larger providers, the company's record on customer review site Trustpilot is poor, with negative reviews outweighing the positive. Common threads in these reviews seem to be difficulty streaming content and confusion about how to cancel TV memberships once they are operational.

However, it's important to remember review sites attract customers with a grievance, and Now don't respond to negative reviews so we only get one side of the story.

As a budget provider, Now are keen to avoid customers needing to call them directly and prefer to route customers through troubleshooting help guides on their website or through live chat.

Now's parent company Sky are a market leader in terms of customer service for broadband as we cover in more detail here.

Both Now TV and broadband plans can be taken on 30-day rolling contracts.

Now TV memberships (previously known as passes) are all on rolling contracts as standard, so customers don't commit to any long-term contracts when they sign up for the service.

Now broadband deals can be taken on a 30-day rolling contract or a 12-month fixed term contract. The price a customer pays each month will be the same regardless of which option they choose, but the no-contract broadband option does incur higher upfront costs, detailed in the table above, to make up for not having custom guaranteed for a year and to cover the cost of providing the Now Hub 2 to households.

Overall, then, it will cost customers more to take Now broadband on a flexible no-contract basis, but that flexibility may be worth it for customers in short-term accommodation or who don't want the commitment of a long-term broadband deal, as cancelling early can incur fees.

Now broadband is delivered to homes using the Openreach broadband network. As long as a customer is switching broadband provider from one of the ISPs also using the Openreach network such as Plusnet, BT, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Sky or EE, the process of switching is a gaining provider led process.

This means customers just have to sign up to Now broadband and they do all the hard work behind the scenes, including contacting your existing provider and closing that account.

If a customer is on a different broadband network such as Virgin Media, Community Fibre or Hyperoptic, they will need to contact their existing broadband company directly to facilitate the switch after signing up for a Now broadband deal.