BT Superfast Fibre 2 (70mb) to Ultrafast Fibre Plus (150mb)

[Deep Thought]

We have BT Superfast Fibre 2 (70mb) for which we pay £58.99 a month including, i think, BT TV.

I've just seen an offer on our BT account whereby they will upgrade us to Ultrafast Fibre Plus (150mb) with no change in price?

We're no particular need for this and what we have is fine. Theres a £9.99 fee, but other than that all is the same.

Firstly - is there any downside to doing this?

Secondly - will this require a change in hardware in the house? We've an odd shaped house (from a WiFi perspective) and have only just got it all working the way we want it. We dont dont want to dick with that.

Does it require a router change or are there any other consequences?

[THP150]

Recently upgrade to the 150MB, had to have a new router and they changed the connection box but other than that is it.

So you will need an engineer to do the work.

[Deep Thought]

THP150 said:

Recently upgrade to the 150MB, had to have a new router and they changed the connection box but other than that is it.

So you will need an engineer to do the work.

Cheers, yes, that was the intimation i was reading on their site. We've had real problems getting wifi across the house and now have a Ubiquiti system which seems to have the problem cracked.

My wife in particular is wary that if we upgrade, they'll put some new technology in that will stop the Ubiquity working. I cant see it as it just is connected to the router by a network cable.

The only thing we need to do is turn WiFi off on the new router and i assume that can be done anyway.

Edited by Deep Thought on Friday 17th May 13:21

[Integroo]

I doubt you need 150 Mbps. I pay £26pcm for '70' Mbps (guaranteed at 55Mbps). You could find a cheaper 70 Mbps provider?

[randlemarcus]

Deep Thought said:

Cheers, yes, that was the intimation i was reading on their site. We've had real problems getting wifi across the house and now have a Ubiquiti system which seems to have the problem cracked.

My wife in particular is wary that if we upgrade, they'll put some new technology in that will stop the Ubiquity working. I cant see it as it just is connected to the router by a network cable.

The only thing we need to do is turn WiFi off on the new router and i assume that can be done anyway.

Edited by Deep Thought on Friday 17th May 13:21

Only if they have magic technology that differentiates between the Unifi traffic and everything else on the planet. Like you say, its just a cable

[Deep Thought]

Integroo said:

I doubt you need 150 Mbps. I pay £26pcm for '70' Mbps (guaranteed at 55Mbps). You could find a cheaper 70 Mbps provider?

No, we dont - and thats another point. Why bother?

BUT at the minute with Wifi, very thick walls, several very large fish tanks (800 litres), a lot of electrical interference with heaters, lights, an oddly shaped (for WiFi) house, and the telephone point coming in at the other end of the house, we're getting maybe 35Mbs in the lounge area. My rationale is that if we're losing 50% of the 70mb thats coming at the door, then if we go to 150Mb we'd get closer to 75Mb across the house? Or certainly better than we're getting currently.

We're on a Ubiquiti MESH system that requires the base unit - we get 70MB out of it no probs if we're connect to the primary source, but then we're losing bandwidth from the second MESH point on out. Had a previous MESH system that had similar losses and using network plugs we'd 18Mbs and drop outs.

I'm not inclined to change provider as in the past we were with Virgin and when we're speed problems coming in to the house they blamed BT and BT blamed them. I prefer one ass to kick.

[Deep Thought]

randlemarcus said:

Only if they have magic technology that differentiates between the Unifi traffic and everything else on the planet. Like you say, its just a cable

LOL. Yes, thats my view. But i said i would check on here first to make sure.

Doing my due diligence as it were.

[randlemarcus]

Deep Thought said:

LOL. Yes, thats my view. But i said i would check on here first to make sure.

Doing my due diligence as it were.

Unless you have a Unifi USG (the small one) in IPS/IDS mode between the Telco router and the controller, in which case you have 85Mb throughput limits.

[Deep Thought]

randlemarcus said:

Deep Thought said:

LOL. Yes, thats my view. But i said i would check on here first to make sure.

Doing my due diligence as it were.

Unless you have a Unifi USG (the small one) in IPS/IDS mode between the Telco router and the controller, in which case you have 85Mb throughput limits.

You keep saying Unifi, i said Ubiquiti?

Its this setup we have

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01L9O08PW/ref...

As i said, i've no doubt it will work fine with the new BT hub but i told Mrs Thought i'd check...

[randlemarcus]

Ah, gotcha. Looked at those for my Mum, but went the other way to include CCTV. You'll be just fine and will enjoy faster cat memes

[Deep Thought]

randlemarcus said:

Ah, gotcha. Looked at those for my Mum, but went the other way to include CCTV. You'll be just fine and will enjoy faster cat memes

LOL. Yes, i think we will go for it. The other issue was if they were going to dig up the previous connection to our house but it seems not, so all good.

[cobra kid]

Increase in price in a year's time?

[Deep Thought]

cobra kid said:

Increase in price in a year's time?

Yeah i checked that. £58.99 for 18 months, then it goes up to.... £59.99.

Didnt seem unreasonable.

[Calza]

If you're happy with what you have now, why not ask them to match the price they are advertising for the 74Mb package:

[Deep Thought]

Calza said:

If you're happy with what you have now, why not ask them to match the price they are advertising for the 74Mb package:

Thats not the pack we have - its this one. £39.99 introductory, then £57.99 full price.



We could push them to give us the introductory offer again, but i'm not sure they would.

[Calza]

Ah my bad, fair enough then - seems like a no brainer!

[Sheepshanks]

Deep Thought said:

Yeah i checked that. £58.99 for 18 months, then it goes up to.... £59.99.

Didnt seem unreasonable.

Got a bill a few days ago and whatever package we have is £54.49/mth, but then it's discounted by £18.50. It says it's 'Superfast Fibre 1 Unlimited' - IIRC it's nominally 80Mb - I just ran a speedcheck and it said 76.6Mb.

[Deep Thought]

Sheepshanks said:

Deep Thought said:

Yeah i checked that. £58.99 for 18 months, then it goes up to.... £59.99.

Didnt seem unreasonable.

Got a bill a few days ago and whatever package we have is £54.49/mth, but then it's discounted by £18.50. It says it's 'Superfast Fibre 1 Unlimited' - IIRC it's nominally 80Mb - I just ran a speedcheck and it said 76.6Mb.

We've other bits too as part of that (as above) and we're outside our discounted period.

Edited by Deep Thought on Friday 17th May 16:59

[Sheepshanks]

Deep Thought said:

We've other bits too as part of that (as above) and we're outside our discounted period.

It looks like the Entertainment bundle you linked to is the same sort of discount.

I've had my current deal for about a year and I remember being surprised how easily they offered it, and how cheap it is - I'm sure it's the least I've paid since I had broadband (had ISDN at home before that!).

Edited by Sheepshanks on Friday 17th May 17:06

[Deep Thought]

Sheepshanks said:

Deep Thought said:

We've other bits too as part of that (as above) and we're outside our discounted period.

It looks like the Entertainment bundle you linked to is the same sort of discount.

I've had my current deal for about a year and I remember being surprised how easily they offered it, and how cheap it is - I'm sure it's the least I've paid since I had broadband (had ISDN at home before that!).

Edited by Sheepshanks on Friday 17th May 17:06

Maybe we should try them to get put on the latest offer then - one that would be cheaper.

I was only looking at it from getting more for the same money, rather than getting the same for less.