I'm currently with Sky for land rental and broadband unlimited, but am tempted to move to BT broadband because of their current offer. If I stay with Sky they will do me line rental for £17.40pm and free broadband unlimited, or line rental + fibre unlimited for £27.40pm. If I move to BT they will do line rental + unlimited broadband for £22.99pm and line rental + fibre unlimited for £27.99pm, plus I can get BT Sports through the Sky box for £3pm, and a £50 (bb) or £100 (fibre) cashcard so BT works out a little cheaper and I'd get BT Sports.

I have no complaints with Sky broadband for reliability or speed, so was wondering what peoples experiences have been with BT broadband because if I change I'm stuck for 12 months. Also, can I use my own router with a BT fibre hub?

Cheers

Pretty unremarkable AFAIK. Not brilliant, not awful.

You should be able to use your own router to get online, but if you take BT TV it will be a bit more difficult to make that work through your own equipment.

Do you have your own router already? Do you have fibre at present? If so, do you have the white openreach modem?

You can't put the BT Home Hub into a bridge mode or anything that would really make your own router work well, but you can use a compatible VDSL modem (such as the white Openreach one) or a router with built in VDSL modem.

Cheers for the reply.

I won't be taking BT TV as I still have Sky TV on a half-price offer, but would add BT Sports for £3pm through the Sky box. I don't have fibre at present just normal 17Mb ADSL2+.

I use my own router with Sky, it's not fibre but will accept a fibre modem as pass-thru - this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ilpage_o01_s00 which has Ethernet WAN (EWAN) offers another broadband connectivity option for connecting VDSL, cable or fiber modems. I'd sooner use my own router/modem as it has gigabit ethernet ports and dual channel wireless (2.4Ghz @ 450mbps and 5ghz @ 1300Mbps).

Had Infinity 2 for about 3 years now, speed is always constant, and no problems...that is my experience with them, if you went with BT your experience may differ of course.

I've been with TalkTalk, Virgin Media and Sky Broadband... and BT Broadband were the best of the bunch, I actually liked the Home Hub, it supports dual band and gigabit ethernet which Sky doesn't support (I'm guessing SkyQ's new router might however)

Then all you should need is a VDSL modem - either the Openreach one (HG612 on ebay) or something like the Draytek Vigor 130

I've seen an improvement with the speed i get from getting my own router over BT's own. I've got Infinity, but with BT's router i was getting 18mbps. Using a different one (one that supports dual band and has a gigabit connection), i get on average 30mbps.

Reliability has increased, i used to get consistent disconnects from BT's own router.

Otherwise, i've had no issues.

Cheers everyone for the replies.


Cheers, thats very useful to know, as the fibre for an extra fiver looks tempting.

Strange! I get 35-37Mbps on my BT HH5 with no disconnnects either.

Switched from sky to bt and found no difference. After all its still the same line. BT snr target was the same, sync speed similar. BT router I found to be better but at the end of the day both are cheap.

Network wise never noticed any slow down on either.

I had this issue as well after having Infinity installed. Even after getting a replacement Home Hub 5 from BT it would keep dropping the line. Swapped it out for a Openreach modem + my old Billion BiPAC 7800N and the connection is mostly stable.

I have no complaints. Its not perfect! but nothing is.
I've had BT 76Mb broadband for 28 months now, I've literally never called their customer support line. Great speeds, reliability is near perfect.

Living in the city a new internet provider is now available to my apartment block, Hyperoptic, are a lot cheaper and provide even faster speeds. So, thanks BT you were great. Another reason I'm glad I moved to the city now, I'm turning into a right city dweller in my middle age!

I have had BT Infinity nearly 5 years now and have been 97%/98% happy with the service and also get just over 67mb speeds 98% of the time. Also have only ever had one or two minor problems with service in all that time.
Had BT up to 20mb speeds for 3 year before that and was lucky to get near 4mb speeds most of the time.
I would only give BT customer help service 3 out of 5 as I had poor service from them when I had to phone them twice the other week for a minor broadband fault. Usually I would give BT customer help service a 4 out of 5.
I have also had BT TV with Youview over 2 years now and have been mostly happy with the TV service.

Darren

Infinity's great with them but customer service a no no

Remember that moving to any Telephone/broadband service there is only one top speed you will get and speed will be max that your line can handle only other difference will be:-
1) Price and how long you are tied with them.
2) Type for Hub
( Dual band Wireless and five or more network sockets is helpful to link your TV / Blue Ray players / Game boxes / computers and other items )
3) Companies and it's customer care and help and if a full real 24/7 help service?
4) Internet Home page and any free virus software etc.

There are other ways to get Broadband like Cable, Satellite, full door to door fibre and there are private and town networks which and give higher speeds then normal telephone/broadband companies

so shop around and ask questions.

Been on infinity 2 for a couple of years now and it's been brilliant, great speed and hardly ever have any connection problems.
Agree with others about customer support it's not great, everytime I try to find out things regarding my account I get told different things.

Do you also get access to the BT Sport app for the £3.00 per month?

Please remember you no longer need an Openreach modem. BT Infinity is now self-install. They send you the HH5 plus a couple of ADSL style filters - that's it, no engineer no issues.

If anything, there's the potential for more issues, because at least one version of the HH5's internal modem doesn't work 100% properly with the VDSL equipment in the cabinets, and plug in filters and crappy self-installed extension leads are no substitute for a properly installed faceplate filter.

(oh, and also, if you happen to live in an area where BT has done FTTP, it is still professionally installed for obvious reasons)

And BT will be sending out a HH for self-install which isn't compatible - that's a sound strategy . Who mentioned self-installed extension leads - oh sorry you did.

I initially used the filters on a professionally installed extension socket and was getting the maximum advertised speed. However, I decided to make the socket a data only socket so fitted the Openreach MS faceplate and used the two connectors on that to convert the office socket.

No further need for filters - maximum speed exactly the same, so whilst there's always potential for anything to go wrong it doesn't mean it will.

BT Broadband is ok but not great depending on where you live. I had it for over 3 years before moving to BT Infinity.
I have been 98% happy with BT Infinity the just over 5 years I have been on it and have been with them for BT TV with Youview over 2 years now and have been 99% happy with the BT TV service.

Darren

Self install has nothing to do with that. One revision of the HH5 is not fully compatible with the cabinets that BT use, whether professionally installed or not. Using an Openreach modem makes it fully compatible.


Well, because they are a large part of a lot of people's phone wiring, and it means that they can put the HH in a location that would have otherwise needed the proper data extension kit to be installed. Even if the extension isn't being used for the HH, it's still carrying the VDSL signal. The use of the proper filtered faceplate avoids all that.

These are genuine concerns that people and ISPs have had ever since BT announced the decision to go self install only.


Good for you, but not everyone is in your position or will have the same result

Not it you get an ECI Openreach modem it doesn't.

Lets be honest if you get a Type A HH5 or an ECI modem you aren't going to be kicking doors in screaming it isn't compatible with anything. You wont even notice unless you do some deep digging as to whether G.INP is active or not.

i have bt infinity 2,sometimes its fast other times its like snail mail

Never seen mine (Infinity 2) drop below maximum advertised speed - it's great.