topic Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working. in Broadband & Landline

EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 14:51:46 GMT

The weather was terrible, but the BT engineer was superb. For those who are curious the ONT Model is a 2023 Nokia with an orange 2.5Gb (also labelled as 2.5Gb) on the ONT. Plugged the ONT straight into my own hardware, and away I went.

Simple for me, although I did felt sorry for the engineer who had to climb up the pole in torrential rain to get a fresh cable across for me to my house.

So initial speed tests are below along with a comparison to my back-up supplier. I'm of course very happy with the results so far, and are completely within my acceptable speed range.

Initally testing with Ookla, and fast.com. BT ONT with 2.5Gb port

Fast.com reported 1.6Gb on the nose.

I always take Ookla speed testing with a grain of salt, but also good reports there (with my backup ISP below it for comparison). coming in at 1554.74

Ookla

So there you have it! - I've still got more testing to do, as this is day 1. But any questions just ask.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

TuckerUK — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 15:56:42 GMT

@miggle Was you with BT or another ISP before going with EE on the busiest home bundle?.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 15:59:25 GMT

The pictures aren't showing up yet probably. But I was and still am with an altnet fibre provider as now my backup line. I wasn't with BT previously so everything came in new. New Cable from the telegraph pole, new ONT - new everything.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

Warbs816 — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 14:49:02 GMT

Hi @miggle thanks for posting.

What hardware do you use in the rest of your home? I'm considering upgrading but I'm struggling to find hardware capable of exceeding gigabit speeds, that isn't ludicrously expensive

Thanks

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 15:04:23 GMT

Hi @Warbs816 my gear is sadly expensive, as it's party of my hobby.

I've got an Asus GT-AXE16000 as my main router, which links back into my home network through a 10GB Switch, and connected to that is my main office hardware, as well as an ASUS - GTAX11000, followed by an ASUS RT-AX92U which both provide part of my WiFi mesh network. This is all things that I've built up over a long period of time. If i was starting from scratch It would be overkill to go with the setup that I've got, although I would still go with a mesh network such as Amazon Eero's, the Asus option, or perhaps even getting a Unify Dream machine and buying additional components for that.

The cheapest option is of course to use the ISP supplied hardware, although in my case that would neither provide me full capacity of my network, or cover my old house fully.

It's a hobby without an end, as some point in the future I'll upgrade my mesh WiFi network to WFi7 - and then there will be some new shiny technology on the horizon that I'll want.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

Warbs816 — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 15:58:36 GMT

Thanks @miggle for the detailed reply, much appreciated 🙂 And thanks for confirming my suspicions!

I'd honestly not heard of ASUS AiMesh until looking into those routers just now, that definitely sounds like the best bet. I already have a 3 node mesh setup with wired backhaul so it would be a simple swap out.

I did look into the UDM but I'd then need a rack and when adding in two 10Gbe SFP's and a 2.5Gbps capable switch + 3 AP's... it's silly money. And even the Amazon Eero Pro 6E only has a 2.5Gb WAN port, not LAN which is frustrating.

Your setup even beats the Orbi 960 in terms of price, so definitely a winner.

Thanks again!

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Sat, 11 Nov 2023 20:50:34 GMT

you're welcome @Warbs816 . Oh I did try some orbi's but sent them back. The range on them was nuts, but the firmware was problematic.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

mountain-goat — Sun, 24 Mar 2024 14:41:34 GMT

Hi Miggle

Was this part of the testing of the 1.6Gb or did you just purchase the service?

How did you hear about it?

Thanks.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 11:09:08 GMT

@mountain-goat I purchased the service back in November 2023 (I heard they were taking orders for it it on a broadband website) , my go-live date was the 9th November. I had plenty of time to ensure my internal network was up to scratch. The testing of the Orbi's that I did was prior to my install - i'm sure hardwired they would have been fine, but not as controllable as the ASUS routers, as the interface on the Orbi's sucked.

@Warbs816 Sorry for the slow response, I have a computer upstairs with a 10gbe interface (GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS MASTER motherboard), directly connected to a 10Gbe switch, which is then hardwired to my Asus GT AXE16000 router downstairs using one of it's 10Gbe ports. (I've got a whole bunch of other devices connected too, including a NAS using a bonded network link) then the usual plethora xbox's, amazon echo's and various other wifi devices. I've also repurposed an old Asus GT AX11000 and an old Asus RTAX92U which provide my wifi mesh network, that combined cover the whole home in wifi.

A future upgrade for me, maybe in 2 years time will be to purchase a pair of Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE98 pro's to future proof myself with wifi-7, but that's a long way off, and not needed at present as I don't have any wifi-7 devices yet.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

mountain-goat — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 19:23:24 GMT

Hi Miggle

Thanks for the reply. I have a small network at home with a couple of servers (Synology and Qnap) but not in your league!

The reason I'm asking is I am having a bit of an issue with EE to get this service and when the service became available is a key factor for me. Do you mind telling me roughly what part of the country you live in and if the service was easy to find on the EE website after you saw it on the broadband website as I have seen conflicting details searching on google i.e. one site suggests this service was not announced until early March this year and another matches with November last. Roughly where you live is only because it may have been available where you are but not where I are am, in Berkshire, last November.

Thanks again for your help.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Mon, 25 Mar 2024 20:08:36 GMT

@mountain-goat Sure, I'm in North Devon, The service was easy to find on the EE website, it was on their gaming page advertising here - superfast Full Fibre broadband there was a number to call on the page as there wasn't an actual link to sign up on the website. I believe I called on the 25th of October 2023, with the November 2023 install date. I do keep an eye on the thinkbroadband, and ispreview websites, which also mentioned EE accepting live orders in october last year. I first found out about the service from this article, and read the comments from people - some of who had already ordered it.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

mountain-goat — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 06:54:13 GMT

Thanks Miggle this has been really helpful. May I ask one last question, who was your broadband service provider before moving to the EE 1.6Gbs?

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 09:01:38 GMT

@mountain-goat It was jurassic fibre, I still have them being used as a backup provider in case my main link with EE goes down. It hasn't and it's overkill, but I cannot afford to be without internet.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

mountain-goat — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 09:08:44 GMT

I was hoping it was BT as that would have helped my argument hugely but nonetheless your help has been very useful and I'm most grateful. Thanks and best wishes.

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

Warbs816 — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:13:22 GMT

Hi,

Again thanks for the detailed reply! I have the same mobo but Z590 variant with 10Gbe port.

What switch are you using? Cheapest I can find that seems of decent quality is Zyxel, XGS1010 unmanaged or XGS1250 managed. There's a couple of Chinese brand that are cheaper than that but they're not reputable names

Thanks!

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

miggle — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:50:48 GMT

@Warbs816 QNAP QSW-2104-2T 🙂 it's unmanaged but does the job, 2x10Gbe ports, and 4x 2.5Gbe ports

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

infinitywaiter — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:12:08 GMT

Just to clear things up with Openreach new 1.8gbs and 1.2gbs services...

Openreach started the trial for these at the end of November 2022, see here:

Openreach Launch Pilot of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps FTTP Broadband Tiers

It has been in pilot testing for many months, often being extended as it was due to end last year, click on the links here for more info:

Openreach Extend UK Pilot of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps FTTP Broadband

Openreach UK Extends FTTP Pilot of 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps Broadband Again

Openreach Extend UK 1.2Gbps and 1.8Gbps FTTP Pilot into 2024 UPDATE

The 1.8gbs service has been available only through EE as 1.6gbs for quite a while now

ISP EE UK Launch 1.6Gbps Full Fibre Broadband Plan and WiFi 6 Router

With it officially being launched in October with BT moving consumers to EE, as they had already started with the likes of mobile and television.

EE Becomes BT’s Main UK Broadband Brand – Launch 1.6Gb FTTP UPDATE

And finally in Feb 2024, Openreach finally took it out of pilot testing, therefore other providers have started to push it too in preparation for April.

Openreach Confirm UK Launch of 1.8Gbps and 1.2Gbps FTTP Tiers UPDATE

I'm a long time BT user as it's the only one we can get here, with FTTP 900 with BT Mobile (now EE Mobile), Digital Voice etc, actually @miggle here lives in a similar area!

Despite EE clearly stating when logged into my account, that I can get the 1.6gbs service, when I phone up to swap over to it, I am led up the garden path and told that I can't get it, and I also can't get EE Digital Home Phone, which is the equivalent of BT Digital Voice of which I have been on since the first trial for DV way back in 2019!

If you read previous forum posts here, you will find plenty where people have rushed to get the new service last year from EE whilst Openreach had it in pilot testing, and they ended up moving from BT to EE and then being charged for the 1.6gbs service and actually only delivering them the same 900 service that BT do, as EE could only upgrade their service at a later date.

If you are a new customer to EE like @miggle was here, then you are going to get it easily, however if you are an existing BT or EE customer then I've found, and many others have, that it is pot luck who you get taking your order and them knowing about the 1.6gbs service or saying that you can't get it, or they'll try to get you to swap over to EE making you think that you are getting 1.6gbs whereas when you check the final contract before agreeing you see that you are only on the 900 package still.

I know I can get it as my neighbour next door has it already, and yet the last time I tried to order it, I was told that I couldn't get it! Yet they still tried to swap me over from BT to EE and charge me £70 for the 1.6gbs service, all the while knowing that they were actually just going to move me over from BT to EE on the same 900 service.

They even claimed that the existing ONT box was fine and didn't need changing, yes the ONT box with the 1gb WAN port would somehow magically turn into a ONT box with a 2.5gb WAN port according to them, so an engineer wouldn't be needed to fit a new one!

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

infinitywaiter — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 03:35:13 GMT

You know if you had posted this on the BT Community Forum about your setup, then you would have got one of the mods from there asking, well more like telling you, that what you have setup is overkill!

A certain mod there seems to think that everybody should live in the dark ages and nobody would ever need a connection faster than 1gb, so the likes of me editing CAD files from a few mb to 2gb or more and multiple other files in bundles of 1 to 5gb+ and sending them back and forth to clients etc, I wouldn't ever need it!

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

mountain-goat — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:13:56 GMT

Very interesting background details of the emergence of the 1.6Gbs service.

I am furious with EE and their apparent arrogance. I received the BT email on the 8th November last encouraging me to move to EE and referring to the 1.6Gbs service. I spoke to a 'Guide' the same day and moved the next day speaking to another 'Guide'. On both occasions I made it abundantly clear that the ONLY reason I was moving over was to get the 1.6Gbs. I was told it was being tested at the time so I assumed (big mistake) I would get it when it was available.

To cut a long story short I was told by a 'Guide' last month that this service was only for new customers and I wasn't one! So in theory I have another 20 months before I can switch as I have a 24 month contract. I was not told at any point when I first enquired about this service that it was for new customers only. It would seem from forums that I am one of many customers duped in this way! It would also seem from the forums that it was known by EE that this service was only going to be available to new customers at the time I ordered it so why wasn't I told!

Re: EE Busiest home 1.6Gb service fresh install and working.

mountain-goat — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:22:26 GMT

I should add that based on recent prices the service I am receiving and was getting from BT, 900Mbs, I am paying £74.99 a month for and if I took that out now as presumably a new customer it is £46.99 so as I see it I've been screwed over twice!!!