BT cannot test line with 3rd party router

[ravitester]

I have a fritzbox 7530 router that I use for my 900Mbps fttp connection. Zen internet use this router on their system and it has facilities that I use and like. When my family starting to complain about slow internet speeds, I did a variety of speed tests, btwholesale, fast.com and ookla. All came back with around the same 180Mbps speed. When I called BT to see what was happening they suggested I power down the ONT wait 5 mins and reconnect. They said that solved the majority of speed issues.  I tried that without any improvement. I called again and explained that the speed was still much slower than expected, but this time the BT person told me that because I am using a 3rd party router they cannot test the line or the speed of the connection. I explained that swapping the router would mean disconnecting everybody and everything in the house and that would be extremely inconvenient, as they are only open in the hours that my family are using the connection. I asked if we could do outside of these hours but that is not possible. I started looking through the terms and conditions to see if BT can refuse to provide the service I am paying for if I use an alternative router, but could not find anything along those lines. Does anyone have any similar experience and what is the solution?

[garybs29]

Are you running the speed test via wireless or ethernet? Also are those complaining about the speed using wireless as the speed isn't guaranteed via wireless

[pippincp]

From what you have posted BT are not refusing to provide a service, you are preventing them from running diagnostic tests.

Why don't you set up the BT hub at a time suitable for you, give it the same SSID and password for wireless devices as the fritzbox then ring in the next day?

Although BT allow you to use third party routers they do not offer support for them.

[Anonymous]

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@ravitesterwrote:

.......I started looking through the terms and conditions to see if BT can refuse to provide the service I am paying for if I use an alternative router, but could not find anything along those lines. Does anyone have any similar experience and what is the solution?

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[@shaz_j]

Bit of a strange one this, at http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/58748/~/do-i-have-to-use-the-bt-hub-or-can-i-use-diff... it states "If you have copper broadband, you can use a different router but we don't recommend it because we can't give you any technical support for equipment you've bought elsewhere."

It then goes on to say "If you have Superfast Fibre, please see Can I use any Hub or router with Superfast Fibre? >"
The reason I say it's a bit of an odd one is because that's a dead link and just gives a 404 error so I guess the reader is left to their own conclusions

[ravitester]

I have the 900Mbps fttp plan and over Christmas I got some complaints from my family that internet speeds were slow. I initially ignored them, explaining away the issue that everyone was at home and there might be congestion or just too many people using everything online. The complaints continued, and with the lockdown, with all the children using online schooling, I decided to do a quick test on speedtest.btwholsale.com and got a speed of around 160Mbps. I contacted BT and ran into the issue that I do not use the BT smarthub 2 so they could not test the speed. I got up early on Sunday morning when no one was using the internet and plugged in the BT hub and called BT. They tested and found it slow and ordered an engineer who was going to come between 8am to 1pm. I waited in and at midday called to see what was going on, and to my surprise the engineer had reported that he had visited and resolved the problem and informed me that everything was working fine. The BT fault person tested the speed, it came back at 920Mbps, great. Then I ran the test, first with btwholesale then BT sent me a link to test. I was using my i7 laptop with 16gb of ram using the gigabit ethernet port and got 160Mbps! When I enquired why the difference was so profound the BT rep said it was the capability of the laptop, it would not be able to cope with 900Mbps. I naturally disagreed, and they are going to send another engineer, who might show up this time. Has anyone else had this problem, and any advice how to find a solution. 

[ravitester]

I always run speed test when connected via gigabit ethernet.

[ravitester]

I have my router set up to limit the times my children use the internet, with the BT hub that is not possible with the same precision. The router also provides my voip phone system, the voicemail system, and is also used as an online storage and media hub.  It would be quite a disruption to the working of my home.