I have read here that BT is rebranding to EE for domestic customers - is that correct?

[chriso57]

Is BT rebranding to EE?

[gg30340]

Yes.

https://www.bt.com/ee

[naylor2006 · Accepted solution]

So long as they dont change the PPPOE username and password then its all good 🙂

[chriso57]

 Thank you.  That was helpful and I found this:  "You don’t have to switch to EE until you’re ready. For now, you can choose to stay on BT, but we recommend moving to EE to get the best experience from us."

It seems that eventually I will have to move to EE but as I have just renewed my contract I cannot until the end.  This is not a problem as I would like to see how smoothly the admin support works with the transition.  

It does say I will get faster speeds but it is still copper at a speed of 8.2 mbps - EE would not be able to increase the speed with the current connections.

It does look like BT are retaining business clients and letting domestic go to EE - is that correct?

[zulu17]

Well @chriso57  you really ought to have been provided information  and customised offer about EE at the time you recently recontracted  on BT-  Also you should be able to migrate across to EE  from  BT without the normal early cancellation charges if the correct process is followed.  

[jac_95]

The EE brand is becoming the primary Consumer brand.

This means you may start to see the EE brand on devices and online.

When you renew your contract you'll be offered EE packages and products.

The BT brand will still exist but primarily for Business and Enterprise customers.

As for broadband speed you can check what broadband services are available to your property using the Wholesale checker: 

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

[chrisjp]

There have been a number of horror stories recounted on this forum by BT customers who have been persuaded to migrate to EE at contract renewal time. Because BT/EE agents seem to be badly informed or badly trained (or maybe incentivised to sell particular deals), migrating customers have not received the deal that they signed up for and, in some cases, the migration has been sufficiently badly managed to mean they've been without broadband service for unacceptable timespans.

Then, when the customer complains, BT blames EE and EE blames BT.

I think the best advice, until BT & EE sort out their migration strategies, is to resist all offers by BT to move you to EE!

[Midnight_Voice]

@chriso57 

There is no longer any BT TV. What was BT TV is now EE TV. So YouView, any box model, on BT or EE broadband, subscription or not, will reskin with an EE theme.

Newly supplied Pro or Mini boxes will likewise come with EE branding on the casings, though nothing has changed internally.

BT Broadband and EE Broadband are physically different though, so I expect BT routers and repeaters to maintain their BT branding.

There are now three current sorts of hardware offering EE TV though - Pro boxes, Box Minis and the EE Apple TV box. The first two sorts you can get either with BT Broadband or EE Broadband, but the Apple TV only with EE Broadband. And it’s specially modified; an Apple TV box bought retail can’t be used for this.

So unless you particularly want the (non-recording) Apple TV box instead of the Pro box, or the free pair of Minis (if the EE offer is still going) instead of the one paid-for Mini BT Broadband offers, or the different and in some ways perhaps superior EE Broadband, there’s no reason to migrate to EE Broadband at the moment.

Long term, BT will want to migrate its domestic customers to EE Broadband, but as yet, there’s not much of a carrot, and no sign of a stick 😛

[Hunter2660]

The question about EETV with Apple TV is why do you need BT/EE Broadband? Unlike BT's multicast streams for the Pro Box, this isn't essential via Apple TV. So why constrain this version of EETV to BT/EE Broadband, other than to simplify the order process. Seems a little shortsighted to me.

I'm currently running down my BT contract as I'm now with a local broadband company having had fttp installed. (There are no future plans to build fttp through Openreach in my area). So having the option to continue with EETV with an Apple TV box would've appealed to me. So instead I've opted for the "Comcast" streaming version instead.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Hunter2660 

These things are often commercial rather than technical; BT/EE’s deal with Now and the other providers may be predicated on it only being available to BT and EE broadband customers.

And BT/EE may have calculated that streaming is a sprite to catch a mackerel - any extra revenue they might gain from allowing other broadband customers access they would lose on broadband revenue once customers didn’t have to take BT or EE broadband.

But is it technical? Is it organised so that without BT or EE broadband, you can’t even see where the content is, let alone access it?

But it was never really to do with multicast, as BT don’t have a monopoly on routers with multicast; unless, again, the multicast only ever comes over BT broadband, and isn’t accessible to anybody not using that?

And I then start wondering how Pro boxes on EE Broadband are served, multicast or not? Or is there that much bandwidth these days that the savings from using multicast just aren’t needed any more?

TalkTalk and Virgin operate on the same ‘no streaming without our broadband’ model; Sky never have, being more of a broadcast/streaming service with internet on the side, rather than vice versa.

But triple-play solutions need three legs on the stool; bad enough BT has already given up mobile, though at least they still have landline and VoIP.