Sky’s launch of Sky Connect B2B gives the company the potential to become a force in the small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) market. However, Gary Barton, a Principal Analyst at GlobalData notes that Sky should not be too cautious, noting that Sky Connect has played to Sky’s broadband strengths but it needs to more to stand out in the market.

Barton says: “Comcast offers advanced WiFi services that Sky should consider adding to its portfolio as soon as possible. GlobalData’s research indicates that poor WiFi performance is a major concern for home workers.

“Sky should also be bolder with its promise of ‘flexibility’. Its contract terms are similar to many other providers. What businesses want is reliability and to avoid being locked in to contracts.”

Sky, formerly owned by Fox, is now owned by US media and communications giant which boasts 15 years of experience in the US B2B telecoms market, two million enterprise customers and group annual revenues of $103.6bn of annual revenues.

Barton adds: “The combination of Sky’s brand and Comcast’s experience and financial muscle gives Sky Connect a great chance to succeed despite the already high levels of competition in the UK SME market. Sky’s consumer-facing Sky Broadband division already has six million customers making it second only to BT. This presence gives Sky a huge internal market to which to sell. GlobalData’s research highlights a strong crossover between the consumer market and the small enterprise market when SMEs decide on their broadband provider”

The launch also comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the emergence of large numbers of people working from home.

Barton observed: “COVID-19 has made people and businesses think extra hard about their home broadband provider and the reliability of their service.

“More people will opt for higher grade, business class services. Sky Connect has intelligently added 4G backup to its higher tier broadband services in the event that the fixed broadband connection is interrupted. It can also use its existing customer service engineers to offer higher levels of support to business customers.”