Smart Hub 3

[ChrisB]

The Smart Hub 3 has been announced as the EE Smart Hub Plus (https://newsroom.ee.co.uk/ee-sets-new-standard-for-home-broadband-with-supercharged-16-gbps-full-fib...). Is this the start of the end of BT Broadband?

[stereohaven]

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@ChrisBwrote:

Is this the start of the end of BT Broadband?

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For consumers, yes.

I started a thread on this earlier today: Smart Hub Plus launched by EE 

[stereohaven]

@Ben36551 Later this year by EE as rumoured, see here: Smart Hub Plus launched by EE 

[Cliffycliff]

I wouldnt touch teh smarthubs with a barge pole. Third party router and a VOIp setup is teh only way to go if you wanna receive teh service you would potentially be paying for. Dont tell teh BT reps though, they do not like it when you present them with usage scenarios and facts, possibly not the most tech savvy of people though so probably not there fault

[stereohaven]

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@Cliffycliffwrote:

...Dont tell teh BT reps though, they do not like it when you present them with usage scenarios and facts, possibly not the most tech savvy of people though so probably not there fault

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Just like the vast majority of BT customers I suspect who just need a solid reliable solution that works rather than all the bells, whistles and configurability. 

[Cliffycliff]

@stereohaven 

Would be interested to know what you would recommend over a BT Smart hub as they are hardly reliable, It doesnt take much browsing to find mutiple complaints about how poor the smart hub 2 is or even complaints about teh unreleased new smarthub. Its BT's own fault for locking teh digital voice to the smart hub, with people being forced to use it due to teh pending demise of copper the practise is borderline anti competitive (reminds me of when microsoft got done for pre installing Internet Exploreer on new versions of Windows). I cannot see many people who have been forced to use Digital voice using this higher tier broadband until a better option is released

[stereohaven]

I don't recommend anything because (foibles aside), for most non-technical people it does the job fine. Have you ever tried using Sky supplied broadband kit? Now that is awful on every level! 

Major ISP kit is supplied to a price point and to support a certain level of customer aptitude. I accept that at both ends of that spectrum are extremes. 

Do I wish I could split the bands on the Smart Hub? 100%. Do I wish it had a guest network? Absolutely. Do I wish it had some sort of QoS that I could influence? Definitely. 

But apart from that, it has been OK for us and certainly better than the kit supplied my other ISP's that we have used. The last time I swapped out ISP kit was when I added an Asus RT-AC66U instead of a Plusnet Hub. The difference in quality and configurability was like night and day, but I had to learn a lot to play with it properly.

All I'm saying is most people don't want to even if you do, they just want WiFi that works and in the main, for that majority, the smart hub does the job. 

If you really want to use your own router and retain a phone service, why don't you just swap out the router and move your number to a VoIP provider of your choice? Do you even need a home phone?

[NigelB72]

Speaking as a non technical person, our SmartHub 2 has been rock solid and it works. It does everything that we need it to do and what we need is for it to stay connected to the internet, integrate seamlessly with our TV, Games Consoles, Rokus, laptop, printer, phones etc... Unless you have very specific requirements, it does what it needs to do...

[licquorice]

@Cliffycliff Do you have access to the MTBF and reliability figures for the BT Smart Hub or are you just basing your assumptions on hearsay and forum posts?

The BT customer base is massive and the number of hubs in use runs into the hundreds of thousands of not millions. With that number of devices, there are bound to be failures that of course people will complain about on the forum which leads to an unfounded perception of unreliability.

[Crimliar]

ISP customer service reps are generally not anti-third-party equipment they're just not trained on every piece of kit out there, and the more settings there are to mess with, the more settings will get messed with.  Anyone who has ever been on-site sorting out other people's setups will know the truly odd things that people do when it comes to networking!

*6yo housing estate, Sky did a great job of signing up customers when the houses here were built.  That's left a lot of their customers with Sky boxes and Q devices that simply refuse to play nicely with other ISP equipment!