2 week review of EE 1.6gbs

[Bluenose_Dave]

Having been on the new 1.6gb/s service now for 2 weeks, and here are my views,

i have the EE new smart router plus and 3 extenders, first off i know the EE smart hub plus only has 1gb LAN ports, speeds have been ok and stable WIFI rangers from about 650-820  what is not bad, i m running with them hardwired with a lan to them, i know WiFi 6 max speeds are 1200 but rarely get them in the real world 

this package feels like it been rushed out, my reason for saying this are,  openreach engineers laptops have 1gb Ethernet ports so they are unable to check speeds from ONT or any other Speedtest at your home if you are on the 1.6gbs package

the EE router having only 1gb LAN, also it comes with a cat 5e cable, this cat of cable does up to 1gb, so if you are on 1.6gb/s you will need to get a new Ethernet lead to connected the smart hub plus to the ONT

all the WiFi features like work and game mode and WiFi controls dont work, it say page not found, i have heard that the WiFi enhanced feature has been turn off so the team can look at it and fix it as it affecting a lot of users and should be back after a month, i am unable to check speed via the router page this time it asking for me to make an EE account

speeds and connection has been stable and good, but i did have a lot of issues getting the service

i know of people who have bought a 3rd party router so they can get full access to the raw 1.6gbs speeds, and they are having no issues on speeds as router has 2.5gb LAN on them unlike the EE smart hub plus

i have bought a usbc to 2.5gb Ethernet adapter so i can test the raw speeds at the ONT, plus if openreach do need to test speeds at my home they will be able too

so in short i hope you can see why i think this package has been rushed out from the fact openreach dont have the kit to test speeds at the customer home, to all the issues with the new smart hub plus

[TonsOfFun]

This is a no still! 

Had the call from him explained it was the extra node and then he's sent out another order last week and said this should be the one, got parcel on Monday and was another node!!

So currently 2 nodes and no hub haha.

He called on Monday and said he was going to do a direct order with the warehouse team and get it ordered personally still no tracking or notification yet, but when I was talking to the nextgen team before him they said hubs are being sent out every Thursday to keep track of the list etc.. as there was to many errors.

The guy said he was off until the 6th Dec and was handing my case onto some else to make sure things are moving onwards and a update call to make sure I've received the hub. 

So maybe Xmas 2025?? 🤔 lol

[Bluenose_Dave]

Hi tons have you got the pro router ?

side note my son waiting to get fibre in his new house, had 1 open visit to Survey the job, and had 2 Openreach visit to do the work, but both times they gone it a bigger job, as this has been dragging on for 5 plus week got him to CEO Openreach via email. High level complaints team have contacted him and looked into it and replied with this

I've picked up this case and I'll be dealing until we've got your service fully installed and working.

From the job notes earlier in the week I can see that when we've been out, we've found that there's been a stretch of duct missing, so we've not had anything to pull your cable through. We've raised this with the planning team and they'll be raising a job for the new duct to go in.

We'll need a permit and possibly traffic management to get that work completed.

As soon as the job is planned then I can get the work expedited.

seems Openreach just a bad as EE can be, seems it was myself with no internet last Xmas and now my son in his new house this Xmas 

[TonsOfFun]

Hey Dave, 

Well I never got contacted by another person so good ol john rang me on Friday just gone which is when he was back from leave like he said previously.

Said he could see no activity has been made on the account since and just went ahead and ordered the pro hub. Tried saying about back orders and no stock which is why he could never select the right thing on the previous stuff he sent yada yada yada...

But on the ee order page it does actually so pro hub this time so I quite sure he has cracked it this time and should be coming Tuesday by royal mails estimate. 

Only taken 1 month with nextgen and 1 month with executive complaints team to get sorted. Crazy to think I was in that first run of text/emails/order notifications. You guys have had it age's. Be ready for wifi 8 by the time it comes 🤣

Now with your son. It's not really ee's fault that's an open reach issue and would have this with any other company that uses OR network.

And the planning and having to apply for traffic lights and roadworks can be quite long winded unless is a gas/water/electric emergency.

Keep us updated on this one be interesting to see how OR get this resolved with ee executive complaints on their backs . 

[Bluenose_Dave]

Yes I know sons issues is with openreach, I had great fun myself with them, but now he sent the email to ceo hopfully he get it early jan as don’t think it be this month what with Xmas etc , but it  really should of been picked up on one of the 3 visits Openreach did, big comps but only way to get things done is ceo email should really not have to come to that to get things done

i keep the thread updated about how it all goes with get his connection up and running

sounds like you almost there tons of fun as it says it the pro router this time, and when you speak to the person say about how badly it been as might be offered credit to your bill

[TonsOfFun]

Tbh I think it will be more likely Feb by time all the planning and permission is made and released with it being Xmas alot of non major one will be pushed to the new year, but I suppose it depends on as well how good the local council is aswell. 

I am going to ask for some compensation once I'm happy with everything done and dusted. 

I can imagine not getting much as I bet it will be a case of giving us the pro stuff for free as we signed contracts before the pro stuff was available etc... 

Full fibre ltd is building around my area so that opens my options as befibre do 2.3gb up and down and is only £50 a month with no rises and only 12 months contract too! So very doubt full I'll be staying with ee in 18 months time anyway. 

The customer service is good at answering the phone and reading the script but getting stuff done has been a complete sh!show to say the least, not impressed with how it's all been handled at all especially the amout paid per month. Shame ee is the only one at the time offering the service 

[Bluenose_Dave]

Update on my sons is  the missing duct is between his and next door neighbour so no digging up the road,and much less planning for it details have been passed to planning and the person in high level complaints said he is hopeful my son will be all connected for Xmas and will do all he can to make sure it is not a 1.6gb connection so less issues on the ee side of things

[TonsOfFun]

That's good news if they can get him connected before Xmas but I still think that's a bit hopeful thinking tbh. But if they do as they said then it's happy days and will be a better Xmas for him.

Had my pro hub today...

Not impressed at all... seems to not be switching like mesh should for mobile phones and tablets and in the same room as the hub I get speeds ro my phone that I would get with my asus 6e router when at other end of the house!!

Something seems a miss and I've got a galaxy s24 ultra so supports full wifi 7 with mlo...

The mlo when I had one of the first tp link wifi 7 routers my s24 and firestick would recognise the wifi connection as a mlo one and I don't seem to be getting it with this setup 

I'm currently in my room hub is pretty much 2 meters under me in living room I have a pro wifi less than a meter a way that's hardwired backhauled and one in the girls room through a thick wall and about 4 meters away.....guess which node it's connecting me too!!! So as i sit here watching bluey with my little boy sad as sh!t doing a Shed ton of cable rerouting to be sat watch 200mb download speed tests. 

Early days and need ro look into setting abit more but it's very locked down with any adjustments you can do though so not hope full I'll be happy with this setup.

[Matt_124]

Sounds like a setup issue to be fair, kit was flawless for me while I had my 900Mbps connection. S24 Ultra with Full Speed all around the house with the Smart Hub Pro and one Smart Wifi Pro, it was fantastic.

Missing it slightly now that I'm in a FTTC area with no prospect of FTTP for at least a year😢

[JimM11]

@TonsOfFun If you have a device with a 2.5Gb/s nic on it, you should check that the 2 extenders wired backhauls are running full tilt at the 2.5Gb/s sync speeds direct cable out back of the extender, then cable to the spare port and also make sure that they are working also. The device makes the connection decision as to what wireless node to goto and preferred would always be the Router, but if wired backhaul and stronger signal on the Smart Wireless Extender that should be the preferred way to connect. Looks like you have got some testing to do, and as far as can be seen, 2 FW updates from new out of the box, so may be worth finding out and noting what you have currently.

[TonsOfFun]

The one I've got in my room it's a direct connection from hub to extender and then extender to pc. It's fully synced at 2.5gbps so all good on that and bufferbloat and general speed tests are the same so there is no issue there. 

Tbh my house is not massive by all means and I think I've oversaturated the the wifi which can hurt performance so I might take the one put turn off the one in the girls room and see if it's any better. 

After some digging found it not to actually support MLO so that sucks as that's probably the best selling point for wifi 7. 

If the signal wasn't patchy with my old router I probably wouldn't of bothered chasing so hard for this set up as I knew it be half baked and locked down setting etc..  

I know the hub did a update for it was fully active not sure about the nodes though and can't see anywhere to check for fw updates.  I'll carry one testing and digging though..