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currently at end of BT contract. Looking at switching.
EE have some good offers (£160 cash back on quidco) but I’m loathe to switch if the performance is going to degrade.
has anyone made the move and can comment on performance?
i know EE now owned by BT but presume there might be traffic shaping, “higher contention” etc on the cheaper service...
TBH I wouldn’t mind paying more for a better service but I can’t find any clear difference between suppliers given that our property is only served by openreach.
They will be using the same line most likely, differences will be negligible between providers other than the phone number you call for help when it breaks and how quick that help is at resolving the issue.
I'd personally avoid going from BT to EE, because EE will LLU your line (basically they will only get the bit of copper from the exchange to your house from Openreach, all other exchange equipment will be theirs), which might make it harder to change provider in the future.
Perhaps try PlusNet (also owned by BT)?
Not fibre, normal BT to EE. I found the EE router to be so much more reliable than the BT one. No drop outs ever, whereas the BT one was pants.
We move every 12-18 months. We've had Plusnet, BT, EE and Sky.
BT and EE were almost identical in performance, but the BT router was better with a stronger signal almost everywhere and never missed a beat. The EE router started playing up at around 14 months and needed rebooted every so often. Sky, despite supposedly being a faster connection is actually the slowest and most variable we've had and the Wifi from the router is pants. Plusnet was the first we had and was only 40mbps, it was fine but also had a temperamental router.
I use my own router, so more interested in the performance of the broadband itself (sync speed and, more importantly, real world throughput as that would be most affected by the ISP’s network infrastructure and traffic shaping/QoS policies)
A lot of people's perception of broadband performance is down to the router and it's not technically the router part of it either, but the wireless access point built into the router. That may even be down to where you have it located. A lot of people have it tucked away in the corner of a room, maybe in the corner of the house. The access point is non-directional and the majority of the signal is going nowhere and the rest is going to struggle to cover the house.
Relocate the router to somewhere central, but then you still want a short as possible phone line run to the master socket. Alternatively disable the built in wireless access point in the router and get a decent wireless access point you can locate centrally and connect it up with Ethernet cable or maybe Powerline. Then the wireless is independent of the provider also, so you can swap about and whatever router they give you isn't going to affect the wireless signal.
Plus you can also use your own router and detach yourself from the provider's equipment at the house end at least (unless they insist on using theirs).
Plus you can also use your own router and detach yourself from the provider’s equipment at the house end at least (unless they insist on using theirs).
Yes, but:
I use my own router, so more interested in the performance of the broadband itself (sync speed and, more importantly, real world throughput as that would be most affected by the ISP’s network infrastructure and traffic shaping/QoS policies)
So, can anyone comment on the merits of EE vs. BT as a fibre ISP (and not the merits of their routers 😉 )?
I'm with EE. Now that BT own them I imagine even more of the infrastructure is shared. The free router is (was?) crap, though. Stick with your Home Hub.
Just easier for me to keep everything under one company, doesn't seem any more expensive.