EE Router / Halo

[John_N]

I've just renewed my BT Broadband contract, but I couldn't do so without booking an appointment with an engineer.  He/She is coming on January 03 2025.

They've also seent me (arrived today) one of those HALO thingies and an EE router.  I never asked for either.  Nor, incidently, did I ask for an enginneer - I just had to book one to complete my order.

Is the EE router significanly better than my existing BT Smart Hub 2?  And how well do these HALO thingies work?  Finally what is all this HYBRID stuff they keep banging on about.

BT is taking great pains to tell me hoe all packaging is recyclable and that units can be returned for proper disposal but it would have been a lot better for me if they'd not sent the things in the first place.  I'm digitally dyslexic, it takes me ages to learn new stuff, if ever, even stuff that appears to be similar to it's predecessor.  I don't mind changing if there's a benefit but I'm going to need a lot of convincing.  I'm digitally dyslexic, it takes me ages to learn new stuff, if ever, even stuff that appears to be similar to it's predecessor.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Are you sure you have not been moved to EE, as the sales people there are have a lot of incentive to sell you as much as they can, most of it is not needed, but you may find its added to the cost?

[licquorice]

There is no Halo 'thingy', Halo is a benefits package. Halo 3+ includes a Hybrid Connect device which switches your broadband over to 4G in cases of line dailures.

Define 'better' with regard to the router.

[John_N]

When the emails started arriving inviting me to look at new best offers for me the BT provision dropped from 70+ download to 40, and i could only get what I had on EE.

When a letter arrived inviting me to look at renewal options the same as I have at the moment was available so I took it, at £1.00 less per month but with an £11.50 set up charge, so no effective change.

[John_N]

I've just got no complaints with the existing set up.  If they change over the router I'll have to reset the dongle on my solar panel / battery array and that's a pain in the proverbial.  Last time I had to ask my neighbour to do it and it took him nearly 90 minutes - but that might be allevaited by the WI-FI disc (which I thought was the HALO 'thingy').

We feel that if the WIFI goes down we'll live with it until it comes back up.  We get reasonable 4G service from EE on one of our phones but we hardly use them anyway, £50.00 PAYG can last us a year.  We'd like to be more digitally fluent but very much in the Silver Surfer club with no idea how this all works.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Are you being upgraded to full fibre from FTTC, as that would require a visit to do the work?

Otherwise nothing would change from what you had before, despite what you may have been told, the speed would be the same.

[licquorice]

You shouldn't need to reset anything, just change the network name and password to that of your existing router.

Please don't blame age for lack of interest/knowledge in matters technical. It has nothing to do with age.

[John_N]

Not going FTTC.  Before retirement I worked for BT / Openreach.  Almost 30 years ago new D54 was provided along the street.  Changes in working practices mean it's been utilised, still on the buried cable.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Sorry, do you mean you are not going FTTP (Direct Optical Fibre) and staying on FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet, copper to the home)?

[John_N]

My mistake, FTTC not FTTP.