topic Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move in Broadband & Landline

Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 10:06:00 GMT

Been having issues with connection and speeds upstairs since I moved into a new home, started with BT 500mb FTTP with a Smart Wifi Discs, got upsold to an EE Wifi Pro 500mb and told it would solve all my problems

But it hasn't. I live in an old terraced home, where the ONT has just been put on the front corner of the house, the router has awful range and my Smart Wifi Pro Disc upstairs neither keeps a consistent connection or gets remotely the speed I'm paying for. I get a max of 70mb upstairs, and the disc always has an orange light.

I've called them so many times explaining the issue and they keep refusing to do anything useful, and keep offering new discs which won't do anything

Had one advise finally say they'd credit me £130 to cover the ONT move charge, when she called back later to confirm said I had to get an engineer visit first to confirm there wasn't another way to help me.

Played their game - engineer came and agreed with everything I'd been saying, even put down "ONT Move Suggested" as part of his notes. He said the disc upstairs was getting around 15mb when he measured

When I called back today, they're acting like there's been no notes left whatsoever that they would cover it, tried to get me to pay it or offered me another disc, which won't help.

I brought up their Smart Wifi Pro Guarantee (100mb in every corner of the house) and the advisor said "I can't even see you've got Smart Wifi Pro on your account" - They're lying to me at every single turn. So even won't give me the £100 credit in this scenario, that would at least cover most of the cost.

Has anyone ever managed to get something like this accomplished? THey're treating me with utter disdain and don't care remotely about my experience as a customer or their own obligations

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

Northerner — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 10:17:24 GMT

Hi @dliskevich

You can complain here:

https://ee.co.uk/help/contact-ee/complaint

Thanks

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

JimM11 — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 11:29:10 GMT

@dliskevich Have you tried yourself moving the EE Router to a better and more central location, it can be the issue that router is in wrong place?

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 11:40:16 GMT

@JimM11 I can't feasibly do that my self, as I'd have to have the ethernet cable running under my living room door, which doesn't have enough clearance underneath it, so I'd have to have the door open permanently and would likely have a bit of a tripping hazard in my hallway

That's why I'm asking them to move the ONT , to a central location that actually makes sense to have the router

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

Schockwave — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:10:27 GMT

@dliskevich ,I am not sure that EE can request that and it would not be free either, I believe. Have you had extenders for upstairs, so that you can get good internet?

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

JimM11 — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:07:18 GMT

@dliskevich Understand and also moving the Router is also just like moving the ONT, but far easier to relocate a router with Ethernet cable than to move the ONT to a central position with a FAR more delicate fibre optic cable that has to be re-positioned.

Have you tried to re-locate the position off the Smart Wireless extender, floors, walls, doors etc all block and weaken the strength of the Router, you may find that Powerline with wi-fi would be sufficient, but if you have the hang-up that paying for 500 and want / need to get 500 it may not work out for you, the laws off physics with wireless wi-fi are hard, what else advice wise did the Engineer suggest to you?

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:42:56 GMT

@JimM11 I understand that's easier - but They haven't offered to do that either by helping with cabling/drilling, and it makes no sense I as a customer would need to privately get that done in such a way that it doesn't obstruct any doors as they have a Full Wifi Pro guarantee of 100mb in each part of the house - they aren't meeting that obligation in any way.

For the record - I'm in no way saying I'm demanding 500 upstairs - I'm expecting at least 100 however based on their guarantee - 60mb when paying for 500 is just not reasonable.

The only place I can reposition the Smart wireless extender would be again , through a doorway, leaving it in a narrow hallway

I also don't see , when paying for their Smart Wifi Pro, that i should need powerline adapters, which come with their own limitations anyway

The engineer advised - there was nothing to be done to get better connection/speed in that room , without the ONT or router moving to a more central location

@Schockwave Yes i have Smart Wifi Pro extender upstairs - that's the issue, it can't reach the main router to maintain good connectivity or speed

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

JimM11 — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:52:18 GMT

@dliskevich If you login to your account, what does it say you have, or do you have any e-mails that backup you have the wi-fi 7 package with all the bells and whistles that go with it, you already posted EE do not see it there end?

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:57:52 GMT

@JimM11 My Bill has the Smart Hub Pro + Smart Wifi Pro charge on it. My main package displayed on the site is "Essentials: Full Fibre 500" - but the Pro addons are only on my bill, not visible clearly on my account when I log in

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

JimM11 — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:29:09 GMT

@dliskevich Link below from the help. With you being billed for them yes i would say it all applies per the document have a read see for yourself, but and this just WHY does EE not see it on the account side of things, they should know exactly what you have and entitled too, the account side may be the issue for getting that fixed, but the Moving off the ONT is going to be a separate issue to deal with, either paying for it or trying to get a FREE move of that device.

ee-smart-hub-pro-and-smart-wifi-pro-t-and-cs-september-2024.pdf

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

Profile closed — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:31:04 GMT

Just to clarify...have you considered using powerline adapters to link the ONT to the router, rather than using them to connect your devices instead of Wi-Fi?

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:37:23 GMT

@Profile closed I haven't tried that no - as feels like it shouldn't be my responsbility when they've limited where I can actually place/install my router. But it's really good suggestion, that I am going to order a pair now and try it out, the fight with EE is just getting more and more drawn out and taking it out of me - Just concerned about any potential latency issues but shall see how they perform once I have them

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:38:04 GMT

@JimM11 Yeah for sure - I'm just planning to use the £100 credit towards paying for the ONT move, shouldn't have to but i'm already so tired and stressed out from calling them

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

JimM11 — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:44:35 GMT

@dliskevich And you can return them if you watch were you get them from, pushing the limits to get 500Mb/s out of a powerline device, i know because use for the Ring Doorbell and Camera but speed is not a major requirement for the Powerline devices, that's for sure.

No ISP limits where the router goes, it's ALWAYS a major problem where the ONT get's sited which is the main major issue....

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:43:36 GMT

@JimM11 Ordered just now from Amazon so generally easy on returns in my experience.

Will do a test of performance downstairs (where i'm getting fine speeds/connectivity) before i try the powerlines when they arrive, so will be able to see what hit (if any) I take with that approach

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

Profile closed — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:45:14 GMT

Just keep in mind that powerline are a half-duplex system, so to get 500 up and 500 down will need 1000 rated units! Avoid the cheap ones.

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

Mustrum — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 20:53:37 GMT

@Profile closed @dliskevich yje link between the ONT and router is 2.5Gb, so you will not get that speed over powerlines.

Not sure how moving the ONT is going to be any different than you moving the router. Openreach will have the same limitations as you are with an ethernet cable, and are not going to do much to get a fibre closer to the centre of the house. Or why this was not considered and asked for when the fibre was initially installed.

I am unsure why another WiFi Pro extender has not been considered, to help "extend" the WiFi signal around the house. Sticking the one as far away from the router does not compute!

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

Chris_B — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 06:03:13 GMT

@dliskevich I’ve been reading this thread with interest. The one thing that hasn’t been asked is

Whats going to happen if the ONT got moved and it still doesn’t help with the signal ? Is to be moved again and again until you get what you want ?

What is next to the router by the way ? and other electrical devices?

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

JimM11 — Sat, 12 Apr 2025 07:09:17 GMT

@Chris_B @Mustrum It's all heading down the rabbit hole at present, got the feeling powerline hopes are going to be way to high, no way i would be putting one between a ONT and a Pro router, bad enough for a ring doorbell an camera setup, we can only see the response with interest for sure.

Re: Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

dliskevich — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 10:25:53 GMT

@Mustrum @Profile closed Yeah sadly the powerline made too much of a hit on speeds+latency in all parts of the house, including those that already had good speeds (un surprising really) - worth a try but didn't pan out.

@Mustrum The difference is they can do it far cleaner than me (along skirting board,around door frame) and drill it through a wall , to a far more central location, without the cable being anywhere loose on the floor (This is where Virgin have previously drilled through - I'm aware it's an entirely different type of cable that is more flexible than cables used in FTTP, so it may not be feasible - i'm at least expecting a survey to tell me if it's possible/not possible). If they offered to instead wire me an ethernet cable to that more central location (rather than moving the ONT) I would take that , but they haven't offered anything of the sort.

Why it wasn't considered on install? I can only speculate , as I'm a new tenant at this property, but my understanding is open reach installation is purely a "get the job done" objective , install as many ONT's as possible, never mind if it is actually a suitable location on the house or what it means for wireless performance.

I already have 3 Wifi Pro extenders, the whole issue is Pro extenders do not connect to each other (based on my experience and EE have at no point told me that's wrong/explained how to do it) in a cascade/daisy-chaining fashion so it's entirely based on the distance of each extender from the router (which I currently can only have right next to the ONT). My extender upstairs just cannot get a decent connection with the router, and I have no where else upstairs closer to the router , that would still cover this back part of the house, for me to move the extender to.