topic Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre in Broadband & Landline

Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

XRaySpeX — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 18:13:48 GMT

I recently upgraded my legacy EE Fibre Plus plan (FTTC 80 Meg) to New EE Full Fibre 150 (FTTP 150 Meg), but could just as well have been any Full Fibre up to at least 1 Gig. It all went smoothly as to be hoped & expected.

In early Dec. 2024 I ordered the upgrade & EE booked an Openreach (OR) engineer to install it on 30th.Dec. He promptly arrived then in an OR van also marked with C.J.Quinn, so I don't know whether he was really OR but he did do a neat efficient job.

He laid my new fibre cable overhead from the telephone pole in parallel to my existing separate landline about a foot apart to my roof area, than vertically down to near ground level to a small grey external box & then horizontally to a entry point he drilled close to where my existing landline enters. On the inside he fitted a 1 Gig ONT resulting in this setup:

Once I hooked up the SH+ (SH32B) sent me beforehand I speed tested it at ThinkBroadBand to get sync speeds of 150/30 Meg as it has been since. I confirmed with the engineer that all was satisfactory & he left.

It took about 2 weeks before my legacy FTTC line was cut off. So for a time I was running 2 BBs, FTTC & FTTP, thro' 2 different routers.

I am longer using the SH+ but am using my original BrightBox 2 because I know it can reach all the places I want it to reach, all my devices recognise it without change & it is functionally stronger than the SH+. The only thing missing is IPv6 but I can live without that..

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Profile closed — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 18:48:32 GMT

@XRaySpeX

Excellent. We’ve only ever had OR (well, they’ve always come in an OR van) and they’ve been excellent. I always show an interest and they’ve always been willing to route how we want, and to chat about developments in their world. The offer of a cuppa and chocolate digestive helps.

I remember in our BT days we were on FTTC and getting around 70meg max. Then when they pulled fibre up the pavement ducting we went on FTTP at 100meg for the same price.

Literally a few days later they offered an upgrade to Fibre 900 for a £1pm more. That took about a nanosecond.

In all the issues I’ve had with BT over 50yrs, and now EE, the infrastructure/hardware side has been the best of it. Now on the SH+, we find it better than the SH2 we had before.

On that side, I’m very happy.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Mustrum — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:03:05 GMT

Had an update from Openreach in November advising they have now included my area in their plans and are due to install sometime before the end of 2026. Not that I think I need any more bandwidth, my router syncs at the max 80 20 now.

I have put some thought into it though, and will be asking them to install the ONT in a more convenient position for me. Currently the master socket is in the kitchen and I have used powerlines and a small switch to deliver internet services to the lounge for TV and streaming services and so on. So am looking forwards to a day when the ONT can be closer to the TV and so I can get rid of the powerlines.

Anyways, I digress, other than speed test results, have you noticed any difference in day to day performance or latency - just curious..

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Profile closed — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:35:04 GMT

No real difference (speed tests aside) @Mustrum , but I don’t game. Our use is mainly 4k streaming, video calling, browsing etc. Truth be told, I was happy enough on Fibre100 for what I’d been paying for FTTC 70meg, but they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. “My broadband is too fast”, said nobody ever 🤷🏼

I’d registered an interest and had a planned date but then suddenly it was brought forward and I literally saw them dragging fibre up the pavement ducting, went out, and asked them if this meant individual properties could order it. “Yes indeed” said the hearty fellows. So that was that.

It’s a modern little house, with voice/data, TV, and power points all in a corner where they’d expect the TV to go. On actual installation day I asked them to run it across the front of the house, just below the bark chipping (but I know where it is) and in through a wall to the ONT inside, already adjacent to a power points. Jobs a good ‘un etc. Means all the AV kit, Hive etc can be Ethernet connected, with the help of an 8 port switch.

Positioning wise, we were lucky everything was where we wanted it.

Put on your sweetest smile and hopefully you’ll get the kit where it suits best 🤞

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

JimM11 — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:37:03 GMT

@XRaySpeX You posted earlier in a reply that you did not think legacy to new EE was on/available at present?

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Mustrum — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 22:48:12 GMT

@Profile closed When the time comes, I will stich with the cuppa and chgccy biscuit approach!!

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Chris_B — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 07:18:34 GMT

@JimM11 A few of us have been lucky enough to have this. But it’s not possible.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Profile closed — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 10:03:20 GMT

@Mustrum

😂👍

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Profile closed — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 10:04:42 GMT

What is “legacy to new EE” @JimM11 ?

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

JimM11 — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 10:21:48 GMT

@Profile closed Going to do this the other way round, the New EE is broadband supplied if you were to join EE currently, new router, special funky app control, all singing dancing as to whatever that router's are capable to do, contact via your mobile HELP/PHONE/GUIDE to the text 66033, by the way you ever need to call EE, just do the GUIDE sit back have a cup of tea and they call you back.

The legacy is customers who joined EE going back yonks to a couple of years ago, before the New EE started, they are out in the wilderness, do not get all the new fancy bells and whistles like the new EE customers get.

TWO separate systems, not joined together and ((not easy for one to move from legacy to new EE)) trials going on to allow it to happen and ironing out all the PITFALLS along the way. HTH

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Profile closed — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 10:52:54 GMT

Thanks Jim @JimM11

So, someone like me, moving across to EE last October, new SH+, 2 new smart extenders, wifi controls via the app (once they’d got it going for me) - would I be on legacy or new?

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Matt_124 — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 11:07:25 GMT

That's New EE that you're on @Profile closed.

New EE Packages started being sold towards the end of 2023 I believe and it is very much built on top of the BT Broadband stack so the products are similarly named with broadly the same speeds and guarantees.

Legacy EE Broadband is a system which preceeded the BT&EE merger. It offered Standard, Fibre and Full Fibre broadband with the option of a standard analogue landline with no support for Digital Voice. A similar system was used since the days of Orange, as some people managed to keep some of their "free standard broadband for life" packages going on there until very recently (which originated before Fibre was commonplace so were horrendously slow and had to start paying again to upgrade).

It was very much "No Frills" Broadband and the converged benefits for broadband and mobile aren't as strong as New EE.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

JimM11 — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 11:20:59 GMT

@Profile closed You are new EE for certain, think after the EE Smarthub(2023) model, but for sure anyone 2024 onwards will be new.... Easy to prove if HELP to 66033 as a text starts of the testing, new is 100%.

The legacy customers are just a little restricted at present, once EE sort out all the issues then like BT to EE migration, there will be a Legacy to new EE migration also, nightmares in the pipeline no doubt, always the Forum see's the worst, know what i mean.🤔

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Schockwave — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 11:59:56 GMT

@JimM11 , I am still on a legacy broadband, not tried upgrading, as do not want all the hassle , I have a Netgear router, it is several years old, would not mind having more speed, but do not want to pay more than I already do, my sister is the same, but not sure what her speeds are, she is two hours or more away from me.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

JimM11 — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 12:28:57 GMT

@Schockwave You are quite right, and newer is not all that it's cut up to be, also can bring more issue's to deal with.👍

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Profile closed — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 12:54:57 GMT

Thanks guys @Matt_124 @JimM11

Good to know the background.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

XRaySpeX — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 15:37:15 GMT

@Mustrum : I have not noticed any difference in day to day performance or latency. I have not used TBB's BB Quality Monitor for ages but now it looks like this:

There are few spikes during the day.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

XRaySpeX — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 15:51:31 GMT

@Profile closed : My BB is too fast! 😉 I was quite satisfied with 20 Meg ADSL. I could still stream TV over WiFi to a TV in the Lounge across the hall. I never had the need to use WiFi extenders in a largish house. However due to various factors I have upgraded thro' 40 Meg & 80 Meg FTTC & now to 150 Meg FTTP.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

XRaySpeX — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 16:23:14 GMT

@Profile closed wrote:

What is “legacy to new EE”?

Basically the BB EE sold to new custs before & after about Sept. 2023.

Legacy EE BB: Came with routers up to the original Smart Hub & the white Smart Router for G.Fast. It did provide all BB types, ADSL, VDSL, G.Fast & Full Fibre. All routers were generally fully configurable thro' the routers themselves. Landlines, if taken from EE, were analogue.
New EE BB: Comes with routers starting from the Smart Hub (2023) (SH20A) onwards. It provides VDSL FTTC as well as Full Fibre but does not include G.Fast or probably not ADSL. Its routers are dumbed down & intended to be further configurable by a problematical app. It also provides a better fault reporting & testing by text. Landlines, if taken from EE, would be DV if available.

In essence for VDSL & Full Fibre there is no diff between the BB connection itself.

Re: Upgrade from Legacy FTTC to New EE Full Fibre

Mustrum — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 16:49:48 GMT

@XRaySpeX looking at the TBB graph, not much traffic to notice any difference so far. But will be interesting to see how it goes.