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

[cliffy37]

When this package was first announced i had moaned that the supplied router was not fit for purpose due to the lack of 2.5Gbe ports. Needless to say i got shot down on both these forums and the BT ones. I stand by that claim though that it is not fit for purpose and when buying a premium package such as this for a premium cost teh supplied equipment so be fit for purpose or a discount should be pro0vided if using your own equipment. Its evben worse if you use Digital vocie because then you have to use the EE router.

I shall be moving over to a WiFi 7 router in the next week or 2 but for now i have a ASUS AXE 16000 which has 2 10Gbe ports on it. What i noticed was that when downloading from Steam using my old Gen 3 NVME i was bottlenecked at around 1.1Gbps but since upgrading to gen 5 NVME i able to download at 1.6Gbps. Running speed tests i have even seen sustained speeds of 2/2.1Gbps

[Bluenose_Dave]

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/09/ee-uk-launches-wi-fi-7-broadband-router-and-5g-standal...

EE press release about the Wi-Fi 7 router and 5g hubs, at least there is light at the end of the tunnel as the smart hub plus has been a nightmare and the good news it has 2.5gb lan ports 4 of them!!,

[Bluenose_Dave]

I read from 2sources that the ee smart hub pro will be given out free for 1.6gb users, it been a long slog the last year with the smart hub plus. The pro finally has 4  X 2.5gb LAN   Ports and what more the WiFi repeaters also have 2 X 2.5gb ports on them, and WiFi 7 if what I read is correct 17th sept is the date

[JimM11]

@Bluenose_Dave Someone posted end of October when they spoke to CS, so not sure what the date will be,.👍

[Bluenose_Dave]

When I called ee CS they was you are on the latest router lol I had to let him know about the press announcement the sooner the better

[cliffy37]

I really hope EE set people expectations accordingly re WiFi 7. They really need to publish a list of supported mobile devices and let people know in advance that they will need the as yet unreleased version of Windows 11 (24H2) and latest drivers

[JimM11]

@cliffy37 Why would you think that it would be any isp's responsibility to support something that they would not be able to support?

[cliffy37]

@JimM11 Sorry you got me confused, when did i say support? List of supported mobile devices would still be relatively small and letting people know WiFi 7 wont work on windows yet is no hardship. Would of thought it would be easier then answering support calls about why am i not getting WiFi 7 speeds or why am i only connecting at WiFi 6. Might be wrong though guess we will find out soon enough

[garetc]

It would be prudent of them to include a leaflet to say WiFi 7 is new technology and they should check their device supports it or people will misunderstand and compatibility with older devices.

[JimM11]

@cliffy37 Think you have got it wrong, if you think that it takes wifi7 to only get those speeds.