Now won awards in four categories in this year's Choose Broadband Awards, including:
Speed:
Reliability:
Satisfaction:
Value for money:
Customer Service:
Recommendable:
Ratings based on an independent survey of NOW Broadband customers carried out by Choose.
NOW Broadband offer a fairly simple home broadband service using either part-fibre or full fibre connections at very low prices.
There are four broadband packages to choose from: Superfast, Full Fibre 75, Full Fibre 100, and Full Fibre 300, with download speeds averaging 61Mbps to 300Mbps on the fastest full fibre deal.
All broadband deals come with a home phone line and pay as you go calls included, with customers having the option of adding an Evening & Weekend or Anytime call plan.
It's also possible to upgrade NOW Broadband with the WiFi Max add-on, which includes a faster WiFi 6 router and up to three Plume WiFi pods to boost wireless coverage around the home.
NOW Broadband contracts last for 24 months, and while prices may be increased on an annual basis, NOW don't specify by how much, which means if prices do go up customers can often end their contract early if they want to.
Read more in our review of NOW Broadband.
NOW Broadband is available to over 97% of UK homes, using Openreach lines to deliver either a superfast part-fibre connection using fibre-to-the-cabinet technology or full fibre to the home.
The full fibre broadband options should be available to around 49% of UK homes, and those who can't yet get it should be able to sign up to NOW's superfast part-fibre deal instead.
Customers can check availability for which deals they can get using the free postcode tool above.
NOW offer a range of broadband download speeds from 61Mbps to 300Mbps, while upload speeds range from 16Mbps to 40Mbps.
However, customers will either find themselves with availability for the 61Mbps Superfast deal, or where they can get the full fibre options they'll be able to choose between 75Mbps, 100Mbps and 300Mbps.
Here are the average download and upload speeds of each NOW Broadband deal:
Download speed | Upload speed | |
---|---|---|
Superfast | 61Mbps | 16Mbps |
Full Fibre 75 | 75Mbps | 19Mbps |
Full Fibre 100 | 100Mbps | 19Mbps |
Full Fibre 300 | 300Mbps | 40Mbps |
These advertised average speeds must be received by at least 50% of NOW Broadband customers between the peak hours of 8pm to 10pm in the evening when the network is the busiest.
NOW Broadband is a signatory to Ofcom's code of practice on broadband speeds, which means they'll also provide customers with estimated speeds and a guaranteed minimum speed when they sign up.
If download speeds at the router drop below the minimum guaranteed speed, customers have the right to exit their contract early if NOW Broadband doesn't resolve the issue within 30 days of being notified of problems.
NOW Broadband is a low-cost provider, however for customers who want faster speeds offered by full fibre they should look to NOW's parent company Sky, who also offer competitive prices on both ultrafast and gigabit-capable deals.
It's also worth customers checking what is available in their area.
New customers signing up to NOW Broadband for the first time, or switching back to NOW from another provider, can access the special offers listed above.
Special offers on NOW Broadband usually include discounted prices for the 24-month minimum term, as well as reduced setup fees.
To see the latest deals available on NOW Broadband, compare packages and prices in the table above where data is kept updated. It's also important to click through on offers using the 'Get deal' buttons and sign up online to ensure you get the offers listed.
NOW Broadband comes with a minimum contract term of 24-months, and cancelling before this period is up can incur early termination fees.
However, NOW also offer customers the choice of monthly rolling contracts on broadband for an upfront fee of £60. This can offer extra flexibility and reduce the cost of needing to cancel early if potential customers know they only need a connection for a short period of time.
NOW Broadband reserve the right to increase prices, however their terms only say that prices may rise and don't specify an exact amount. This means that if prices do go up, customers are given 30-days' notice and the option to cancel their contract penalty free.
In July 2024, NOW Broadband increased the price of broadband subscriptions for existing customers by £3 per month, which is becoming the standard rate for annual price rises.
While NOW Broadband can be taken alongside Sky TV, the minimum terms are separate from the broadband deal even when taken together.
All NOW Broadband deals come with a home phone line with calls on a pay as you go basis. The cost of line rental is included in the deals listed above.
Customers can also choose from two calling plans offering inclusive Evening & Weekend calls or Anytime calls. Both plans cover calls to both UK landlines and UK mobiles, and are priced at £8 and £16 per month respectively.
It's important to note that inclusive call plans are also subject to the 24-month minimum term, and so can't be removed from a broadband plan until the contract expires.
NOW Broadband deals now come with the Sky Broadband Hub, which is the same router as given to Sky broadband customers.
It's a decent router that supports dual-band wireless channels and can connect to devices up to the WiFi 5 protocol. NOW provide this router for free to all customers, however it's also possible to upgrade to the WiFi 6 enabled Sky Max Hub for an extra £6.50 per month.
The specifications of the Sky Broadband Hub router are:
Sky Broadband Hub | |
---|---|
WiFi Protocol | 5 |
2.4GHz WiFi Band | 4x4 MU-MIMO |
5GHz WiFi Band | 4x4 MU-MIMO |
Ethernet | 4 x 1Gb |
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, the WiFi Max add-on is worth considering.
NOW Broadband has shown strong performance for customer service since they entered Ofcom's complaint tables in the first quarter of 2022.
They've consistently received fewer than average complaints for their broadband service, with only 39 complaints per 100,000 customers in the period Q2 2022 to Q2 2023, with an industry average of 46.
However, complaints have spiked in recent quarters, with NOW Broadband gathering the second highest number of complaints in Q4 2023, just behind Virgin Media. So this could be worth watching.
Since becoming 'powered by Sky' in June 2024, new customers signing up to NOW powered by Sky broadband will receive customer service from Sky directly. As NOW Broadband's parent company, Sky is known to perform very well for customer service, usually topping the charts as we cover in our guide to the best broadband customer service.
NOW Broadband uses the Openreach network to provide connections, which means switching from another Openreach reseller such as BT, EE, Sky, Plusnet, Vodafone or TalkTalk should be straightforward, with NOW handling the switch and cancelling any existing services.
So, customers only need to sign up to NOW Broadband and they'll 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 close their old accounts after signing up for NOW Broadband.
02 October 2024
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