Broadband - Are new customers being treated bettter than existing customers?

[drofspin]

I was a BT customer for many years.  I was lucky enough to get full fibre 900 Mbit a few years ago, and it's great, but has always been let down by the lacklustre BT SmartHub.  So I have been waiting and waiting for the EE Wifi 7 router and it has finally arrived.  Furthermore it is cheaper than my BT broadband and it is 1.6 Gbit.  Can I get it?  No, because I am an "existing" customer.  So I phoned 150.  "Yes you can get it by switching to EE.  Oh no, it's not coming up on the system.  Look, switch to EE, get the 900 Mbit package with Wifi 6, and once you are on EE the Wifi 7 will become available.  Once you are set up, I'll phone you on Thursday and we'll get it sorted."  (Oh and by the way it is more expensive than the 1.6 Gbit package available to new customers). 

So I am up and running.  Don't get me wrong, the EE Wifi 6 router is miles better than the BT SmartHub.  But no phone call on Thursday, no option to upgrade to Wifi 7 online, paying more than advertised.  Does this sound a familiar story to other people?  Didn't BT have a promise at one point that existing customers would not be treated worse than new customers?  I guess that's history as soon as it's not convenient.

[JimM11]

@drofspin The wifi 7 router and the 1.6Gb/s package are not totally exclusive of each other, just so you know! 

[drofspin]

Yes, I understand 1.6 Gbit and Wifi 7 are both part of the same package, while if you go for 900 Gbit it's the Wifi 6 router.  I wanted the 1.6 Gbit & Wifi 7 package and could select it from the store after putting in my postcode ... up until I logged in (I had a login for my EE sim when I was a BT customer) and suddenly I couldn't select that package.  Similarly if I log in and then go to the store in that order it is not available.

[Northerner]

Hi @drofspin 

These routers are free and will never be as good as buying a WiFi 7 devices if you have the need, just plug it into the ethernet port. Longer term this is your best option. 

Thanks 

[JimM11]

@drofspin The wifi 7 Pro router and smart wireless is available with select full fibre packages as a £10 addon. There are some automatic blocks, ie DV or TV are not available currently on both the top two packages!

[drofspin]

@JimM11  Yes, I was told by 150 that it was a £10 add-on.  Except it's not available to me as an existing customer.  And if it was, I'd be paying £20 more for 900 Gbit than is being offered to new customers for 1.6 Gbit (which I would still take on the chin).  BTW I do appreciate the time you are taking to reply, and they are all good points.  It's just that I seem to have hit the blocks with all of them.

@Northerner  Now that I have dumped digital voice I am free to use my own router & mesh.  Though for Wifi 7 they're still eye-wateringly expensive.

All I'm asking for is the same choice as a new customer.  After waiting years (it seems) for the rumoured EE Wifi 7 router, it's just a bit galling to to fall at the last "existing customer" hurdle. 

I'll temper it with this though.  After waiting years for the rumoured EE Wifi 7 router, and sticking with the naff BT Smarthub, the switch to the EE Wifi 6 router is getting me close to the 900 Mbit on my PC that it wired into the Smart Wifi Plus hub, whereas before, with a similar arrangement I would get 550 Gbit on a good day.  So it's still a massive improvement, and is there much value added from the Wifi 7, probably not. 

But I still come back to the title of my original post.  Maybe I'm the only one with this problem.  Maybe I'm being a bit too quick out the gate wanting the new router.

[JimM11]

@drofspin There is plenty to add value wise, no way on this earth can you get a router + Smart wireless for £240 and over 24 months, it's the bargain of the century, newer, faster, future proof, and someone or system is blocking and there should not be. Loyalty does not count much anymore, that is just the way unfortunately. Sweetner's, incentive's call it what you wish but just not for the current customers.... Re sign up for a whole 24 months, what could NOT be better!  

[Northerner]

@drofspin 

I can only speak from personal experience but I have used the free router for years with a Netgear wireless access point which at the time was WiFi 6 connected via ethernet. Then I changed to city fibre and I was given an Eero 6 pro e. Now addicted to them and have the max 7 which yes is expensive  but long term will pay for itself as over the network it's wonderful. There are loads of WiFi 7 devices now but they are expensive and this likely why EE are not just handing they out.

Other points are:

1. Most consumers electronics are not even WiFi 6 although this is changing.
2. Most mobiles are not WiFi 7 yet unless it's a new release. 
3. The internet is only as fast as the site you are connecting to.

I do sympathise and can understand your situation but my own view is these free routers should be used as access points only. 

One last point if you're using ethernet use Cat 8 cables and from the fibre box.

Thanks 

[JimM11]

@drofspin Below is a example of a wifi 5 device, ie laptop connected to a EE Smarthub+ router on wireless, just look at the wireless sync speed's internal network can be just as important as external...

SSID: ??????????
Protocol: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
Security type: WPA2-Personal
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Description: Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9560 160MHz
Driver version: 22.120.0.3
Network band: 5 GHz
Network channel: 100
Link speed (Receive/Transmit): 1733/1733 (Mbps)
IPv6 address: 2a00:23c8:a45b:f100:XXXX:21a8:d376:XXXX
XXXX:4c15:XXXX::112
XXXX:4c15:XXXX:0:710e:61aa:932f:ecad
Link-local IPv6 address: fe80::XXXX:76d9:XXXX:XXXX%17
IPv4 address: 192.168.1.112
IPv4 DNS servers: 192.168.1.254 (Unencrypted)
Physical address (MAC): F4-D1-XX-55-17-XX

[drofspin]

@JimM11  Most of my devices where speed makes a difference have 6e receivers.  Nothing has Wifi 7 (yet).  My gaming PC has Wifi 6e too but I use a LAN cable to the Mesh device since I figure that'll be quicker than connecting to it via Wifi.  With the Wifi 6 kit Steam downloads have increased from ~ 60 MB/s to consistently over 100 MB/s (I've seen 111 briefly).  So I don't expect much improvement with Wifi 7 (at least with 900 Mbit/s).  My ping has improved with Wifi 6 and I figure that would improve with the new Wifi 7 kit.  Internally, connection to my NAS is definitely speedier.  The other benefit is I have been able to use my Quest 3 In the room next door to the PC) with wireless SteamLink for the first time, and Half Life Alyx seemed to run pretty smoothly.  These are two areas that I would expect to see further improvement with the latest kit.