Sky.com/join
6 months half price Sky+ TV, broadband & calls
Sky.com/join
6 months half price Sky+ TV, broadband & calls
You’ve probably seen the Sky.com/join deal being advertised. It’s been doing the rounds since the beginning of the summer, and has been used on TV, in UK newspapers, on bus shelters and on vast billboards across the country. But how does this deal break down, and what can you expect if you become the latest person to sign up for the Sky.com/join offer?
Satellite TV, home broadband and inclusive calls from Sky
The Sky.com/join is a basic bundle of satellite TV, home broadband and inclusive telephone calls. It costs £10.25 a month for the first 6 months (then £21.50 a month), plus Sky line rental at £14.50 a month.
New customers who sign up for the Sky.com/join deal get a free Sky+ box. This is a combined satellite TV decoder and digital TV recorder, which can be used to pause and rewind live TV and record up to two different channels at the same time.
The Sky+ box records straight onto an internal hard drive which can hold around 185 hours of TV and movies. You can record over this disc as much as you like, or keep your favourite programmes forever if you prefer!
Award winning satellite TV
The satellite TV package that comes with the Sky.com/join deal boasts literally hundreds of free-to-air basic channels, including the full spread of UK digital Freeview channels plus the exclusive Sky Entertainment Pack.
This subscription-only package includes a further 40 of the UK’s biggest and best TV channels including Sky’s flagship offerings such as Sky1, Sky Living, Sky Arts and Sky Atlantic.
It also delivers top comedy from Comedy Central, Dave, Dave Ja Vu and FX, music from MTV, lifestyle from Good Food, Home and Really and top drama from the Universal Channel and SyFy plus movies from TCM and Movies24. That’s almost 300 channels, and they all come as standard for just £21.50 with the Sky.com/join deal.
Inclusive home broadband and calls
To get this deal you’ll need to switch your landline and line rental payments to Sky, but when you do so you’ll then unlock inclusive calls and broadband at no extra cost – and these come as standard with the Sky.com/join deal. Sky can usually transfer your phone number when you make the switch – and if they’re unable to do so they’ll let you know so you can decide to cancel or be allocated a new phone number.
As part of the bundle you’ll get inclusive weekend calls thanks to the Sky Talk Weekends package. This lets you make as many calls as you like to mainland UK landline numbers (those that begin with 01, 02 and 03) from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday.
The Sky.com/join deal will also give you a free wireless router, although you do have to pay £2.18 towards the cost of delivery. You’ll then be able to access the internet at whatever speed your phone line can handle. You’ll have a download allowance of just 2GB though, so be very careful before you download any movies or try to stream anything from Netflix or other TV on-demand service. However, if you're a light internet user who just does the occasional bit of surfing and emailing you should be okay.
Installation
You’ll get free standard setup with this deal. On the day the engineer should be able to get everything done in less than two hours unless there are any unexpected issues. Bear in mind that you or someone else over 18 will have to be on hand to give permission for the work to be carried out.
As a condition of getting a free Sky+ box with the Sky.com/join special offer you're agreeing to have your box connected to an active phone line for at least 12 months. You’ll need a phone socket within 10 metres of wherever you want your Sky+ box to sit, so make sure you plan ahead and decide where everything’s going.
Also move any heavy furniture that’s likely to be in the way, as the engineer doesn’t have to do this for you. Once the dish and box are connected the engineer will make sure everything works – if you’ve remembered to make sure there’s a spare power socket to plug your Sky+ box into!
With regards to the broadband you should be able to set everything up yourself in under 30 minutes if you're reasonably technical minded. It’s quite likely that Sky will be able to get you online within two weeks, but this may fall after your Sky.com/join TV installation date – but either way you should have no issues getting the most from the Sky.com/join TV, broadband and calls deal in no time at all.
Paying your bill
The quickest and easiest way to pay for the Sky.com/join deal is to set up a full bill Direct Debit. By doing so you'll authorise Sky to take payment for your TV, broadband and calls once a month on a date that you will be notified about well in advance. Paying by DD will also save you having to pay a handling charge.
Sky uses electronic billing as standard (eBilling). This means that instead of getting your bill in the form of a letter you’ll instead check it online or through your Sky+ box. Electronic billing saves Sky money and is better for the environment – and it will also save you having to pay the paper bills surcharge.
Things to bear in mind
Now you understand almost everything there is to know about the Sky.com/join deal you’re almost ready to decide if this is the right deal for you. All that’s left is to bring to your attention some key points that you need to know:
The Sky.com/join deal:
- Requires line rental at £14.50 a month
- Requires you connect your Sky+ to your phone line
- Has a 12 month minimum term contract
- Has a 2GB broadband monthly usage allowance
- Gives you inclusive calls to UK landlines at weekends only
Pros and cons
And finally, let’s briefly look at the pros and cons of the Sky.com/join deal:
Pros:
- It is Sky’s cheapest TV, broadband and calls package
- You get more than 280 channels
- Includes Sky+ box, wireless router & £25 M&S voucher
Cons:
- No inclusive HD channels
- Requires a satellite dish to be installed on your wall
- You’ll need a phone socket within 10 metres of your Sky+ box
Terms and conditions
- Online orders only
- Requires Sky line rental at £14.50 a month
- New customers only
