Router update

[wdf73]

Why in 2025 has BT not upgraded routers from WIFI 5 (2018), all my devices are now a minimum of WIFI 6 and would benefit from an upgrade. We are told BT and EE are together now as one company and EE are now rolling out WIFI 7. BT customers are being treated abysmally in my humble opinion.

[WSH]

See post 33 here:

https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Fibre-broadband/BT-500-vs-900-vs-EE/m-p/2448905#M362923

[Kodikid]

It would be simplicity itself to stick a BT logo on a EE wifi 7 router. 

But the sad fact is BT don't want your custom as they would much rather you signed up to EE much like the tv and mobile. 

[Kimberlin]

@wdf73 

Yup, just buy yourself your own router and have done with it, that’ll save you having to moan about why BT won’t supply you with a WiFi6 router. Not a satisfactory response I guess for some, but until BT can be bothered to replace in tech terms something born of the second decade in this century, you’re stuck with it.

[licquorice]

@wdf73 You clearly have no concept of how businesses work. Why would a company spend an absolute fortune replacing something that is perfectly adequate for 95% of it's customer base just to please the other 5%?

[Kimberlin]

@licquorice 

I don’t disagree with what you say.

But of course when it comes to the routers themselves, I’m guessing that the thousands of routers returned to BT annually from customers who have moved on, an absolute fortune in terms of those returned routers ends up in WEEE waste anyway. Of course all of this has to be factored in in the provision of broadband services. It costs money to turn those routers into a broken down state for recycling and I suspect ISP customers are paying for that.

[gg30340]

@Kimberlin 

The returned BT Hubs are checked and tested then reused. Only faulty ones get broken down.

https://www.bt.com/help/tv/how-to-return-and-recycle-your-bt-broadband-hub-and-bt-tv-box-fo

As has been pointed out the vast majority of ISP customers want a package that is complete and ready to use without having to buy extra equipment to make it work.

Any one such as yourself are free to buy and use their own router if that is what they want. 

Edit: I meant to add that nobody has mentioned that while wifi 6&7 are better for higher speeds etc they are poorer at penetration of walls and can struggle even with a single brick wall so it may be something to consider regarding the constructon of your property when you are buying a new wifi 6/7 router.

[Kimberlin]

@licquorice 

Undoubtedly the reason why I have zero problems with WiFi in my home, it’s a recent new build with dab and dot plasterboard walls throughout so WiFi penetration isn’t an issue.

The vast majority of ISP customers will never purchase their own router because why should they? it’s extra cost they wouldn’t want. I bought my own because it suits my needs better than an ISP router as I have more control over its settings. In the 4.5 years I’ve lived in my current house, I’ve had zero problems with either of the two 3rd party routers I have used (I retired my previous Netgear router because they stopped supporting it). It’s all down to choice at the end of the day.

[WSH]

A good point, but in recent years the insulation rules oblige the plasterboard used to be foil backed.  Not exactly conducive to RF transmission.

How old is the house?

[Kimberlin]

@WSH 

My house was built in 2021. I had an electrician fit a shaver socket in my bathroom and when he cut the plasterboard to install a fastfix double plasterboard box for the shaver unit, I don’t recall seeing any foil on the piece he cut out. It might have been foil covered but I don’t recall it as such.

As I say, zero problems in my house with WiFi of any description, there never has been and I’ve only got two devices that are wired directly into my enormous ugly gaming router. I have altered a number of settings within the router itself because of course my router allows me to do so.