Do I need to use the new hub sent for fibre?

[UnicycleBloke]

I've received a new hub and been told to plug it in, but I do not currently use a BT hub. I had some problems with mine years ago and replaced it with a Netgear N600 which has been working just fine ever since. So what does the new hub actually do, and is it actually beneficial to change? What do these BT hubs do that regular routers don't?

Thanks.

[licquorice]

Presumably you also have an Openreach modem as the Netgear is just a router. That being the case, you can continue to use your current setup unless you are moving to a G.fast service.

[UnicycleBloke]

There is a little white box which says ADSL on it. That is plugged into the wall and has other two ports labelled "Phone" and "Modem". The modem is connected directly to the router. The back of the router says it is a Netgear N600 ADSL2 Gigabit device. The website claims speeds of up to 300 + 300Mbps.  Though I have some doubts about that in my rural location.

I do not believe I have fibre coming to my house, and the new hub came out of the blue. Perfectly happy to use it if performance will improve, but I am curious as to why it is necessary. Is it just better hardware/firmware for handling higher data rates?

[licquorice]

I suspect your ADSL service is being upgraded to VDSL (FTTC) as BT are doing this in some locations in an effort to shut down the ADSL service. That being the case, they would assume you are currently using an ADSL only version of the home hub which would cease to work when transferred to VDSL. However, your Openreach modem is both ADSL and VDSL capable.

[UnicycleBloke]

Thanks. You've given me some search terms to play with.

[licquorice]

I suspect the WiFi capabilities of the new hub will be better than the Netgear

[UnicycleBloke]

It certainly won't hurt to plug it in. I guess I'm just curious about what's inside the branded hub. I assumed it was just a router.

[pippincp]

The BT hub also has an internal modem.