Smart Hub Plus launched

[Anonymous]

I have to be honest, I agree with you both.

The notion that anyone can and will use that amount of bandwidth seems remote, but offering hardware that couldn’t utilise what you pay for if you did want to seems short sighted. 

I assume someone with a spreadsheet has worked out that the amount saved by not providing 2.5Gbps ports is substantially more than the loss to EE/BT of the custom of those who have the technical knowledge to maximise the throughput. 

[Cliffycliff]

Yeah I do and I've seen it done. Bt are providing it off date tech that is unable to support it's own service. Go build a current PC, even a last gen PC many motherboards no longer have 1Gbps LAN ports instead a great many are now shipping with 2.5, 5 and 10Gbps ports along with WiFi 6e not 6.  You are obviously very keen to defend BT but fact is the router is already out of date by at least 1 generation and is not suitable for providing such a service

[licquorice]

I am not keen to defend BT at all. I am a pragmatist and can understand why a mass market ISP with millions of customers that require a very basic service won't spend any more than they need to in order to provide 0.00001% of their customer base with something nobody else requires.

[Cliffycliff]

Ok well let's take it further. BT are not exactly known fruit regularly updating there smart hub. Why provide a new smart hub now with it of date tech that will need to last 3 to 5 years?

More scenarios also. Maybe I have 8 devices up stairs and I want to share my bought and paid for 1.6Gbps service between them. So I install a WiFi disc provided by BT. I device to write that disc into the hub so the devices can share all of the speed. Wait a minute that won't work cause the hub and discs only have 1Gbps LAN ports. So I'm losing nearly 50% of my paid for service.

Instead I device I'll write those devices into a switch on the landing. It has 8 x 1 Gbps LAN ports and a 2.5 Gbps port. Great all devices can now share the 2.6Gbps died I just paid for oh but wait they can't cause the smart hub only has 1 Gbps ports.

This service with these speeds and the premium price would not be attentive to the majority of BTs customers to start with. The small percentage of users that would want this service would be aware of these things though

So the question remains why would BT come up with a service that would only appeal to a small customer base that knows about tech and not provide the equipment that can benefit from it

[Anonymous]

Funnily enough, I read on ISP Review that they are also prepping a WiFi 7 version. 

Not sure the standard is confirmed yet but, hey ho.

[DarrenDev]

As reported in many other media outlets, this is the first hub that has been designed and built internally using new firmware developed internally (codename "Indigo", based on OpenWRT).
No longer do we need to wait for hardware manufacturers to update their firmware to match our requirements - we can do it ourselves, using any hardware we want. This means we can release new hardware and software features much faster than ever before.

Also, don't forget that the router also supports Wifi 6 (802.11ax) with a theoretical maximum speed way in excess of the 2.5Gbps. I'm not sure what this hardware is capable of though (just checking with the team now - no response yet).

[Cliffycliff]

With WiFi 6 users will be lucky to get 8-900Mbs WiFi 6e they may have an outside chance of hitting 1.6Gbps but this is not a 6e solution. 

I admit my previous listed usage cases would not be that of the majority of BT customers but then this offering is not really fit the majority of BT customers  This is a premium product with a premium price and should provide the full speed out of the box.

Sure I could use my third party router and get real performance but then I would lose digital voice and would have to go with another VOUP provider. As a BT customer postings for a premium service I should be able to use all of my BT products without compromise.

This hub should of had at least 1 x 2.5Gbps port and arguably the discs should of had 1 too.

I look forward to seeing reviews of the service and hardware asking with users doing software and not getting there full speeds.

This would of been a day 1 purchase for me but I cannot justify it now

[DarrenDev]

I think it's fair to say that you're not the target market for this product then @Cliffycliff, and you're welcome to vote with your feet.

For those who want faster speeds to their home (and not specifically to a single device), this new offering will be more than capable/sufficient.

[Cliffycliff]

LOl I could not agree more, i think potentially your lack of knowledge on tech is clouding the bigger picture for you. I seriously doubt you willnotice any difference of a 1.6Gbps connection using one of these new smart hubsand to think otherwise is laughable. Bt balls'd this product up, Premium Speeds, Premium Price, inferior hardware again.

I think its clear you are unaware of products available on teh market even in teh low end bracket that leave this "Smart Hub" in teh rear view mirror. Buying this would be like getting a Ferrari and only driving it at 70MPH. Pay a premium and have it crippledby incompetence. My guess is you have some sort of affiliation with BT / EE because everyone i have spoken to in person and on proper tech forums thinks thsi is trash

[DarrenDev]

I do have an affiliation with BT/EE @Cliffycliff - I work for BT, in a team very close to the hub team. I've also been using one of these new routers for a few months.

The Smart Hub Plus will allow a household to consume the entire 1.6Gbps bandwidth, across multiple devices - via multiple LAN/WiFi connections. If all your devices are located a long distance from the hub and you only have a single uplink to it, then I agree that you're going to struggle to use it fully, but you'll be the exception rather than the norm. This is a consumer product, not business.

As for being able to notice the difference - I think that's fair to say for most people. Even if it did have 2.5Gbps LAN ports, people would struggle to notice a difference except for the one scenario you gave of downloading something very large to a single device, from a host that offered sufficient upload bandwidth.

What really needs to happen here is that people stop talking about headline speeds - they've become irrelevant. CPU manufacturers stopped using clock speed as their main measure a long time ago, and the same now needs to happen with consumer ultra fast broadband.