Buying a Smart Hub Pro

[Chasloyal]

So we currently have a Smart Hub Plus which is fine to be fair but as we've got a few WiFi 7 compatible devices in the household now I've decided that I'm going to buy a Smart Hub Pro on the grey market as such.

I fully understand EE won't give me any product support with the router were I to need any because I've not got it from them, so my question is about firmware updates.

I'm no expert on such things but I'm guessing our current Smart Hub Plus receives different firmware updates to what the Smart Hub Pro does.

So is anyone able to tell me if the network/servers will pick up our router has changed and so the updates that come through  after that will be for the Pro rather than the Plus once I've hooked it up?

[XRaySpeX]

Your SH Pro should still receive the f/ware updates due to it. I even believe that EE will still support it even when they did not supply it as it is a current suitable EE router. I sometimes use an SH+ not supplied by EE (but not from grey market as such) & it has had its f/ware updated & been supported by CS.

There are other legal aspects that I won't go into here but may come into it.

[Ewan15]

@Chasloyal You will find that the Smart Hub Pro will get the correct firmware updates. I used a grey market Pro for many months until recently, when EE offered meal an excellent deal (unprompted) to upgrade to their Ultimate package. I had no issues at all with my grey market pro.

The only thing you will notice is the EE APP will still show the router that was issued by EE as part of your plan, however you will see the serial no within the router details page in the app is that of the Pro Router together with its Firmware version.

EE are aiming for a common UI between the Pro and the Plus router models. If you look carefully the version numbers are similar. The Plus appears to be ahead of the Pro at the moment by 4 iterations

PRO -  r3.8.26-R-1595999-PROD-1

Plus - r3.8.30-R-1627300-PROD-83002

[Chasloyal]

Thank you @XRaySpeX and @Ewan15 for the very useful, not to mention surprisingly positive, information the both of you have given me.

With the not insignificant numbers of brand new Pro routers for sale on places like Amazon and eBay I felt rather comfortable about pulling the trigger. Glad to hear I wasn't being overly confident in just assuming it would OK and going through with the purchase of one last night after what you's have said.

Thank you again 👍🏻

[XRaySpeX]

Thanks! You're welcome 🙂 ! Glad I could be of assistance & trust it is now sorted.

[XRaySpeX]

Posted in the open:

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@Chasloyal wrote:

Hiya mate,

Thank you for your reply and a very happy new year to you!

Would you be so kind as to go in to a wee bit more detail about you meant when you said there were legal aspects that may come in to it?

Regards Chas

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[XRaySpeX]

@Chasloyal : Unless you buy these routers direct from EE, as I believe the ones on Amazon are, you can assume that the sellers were originally loaned these by EE for a BB service from EE. Therefore they are not their property to sell & they were meant to return them when they cancelled their BB, unless they have paid a non-return fee as detailed in https://ee.co.uk/help/orders/return-and-recycle-ee-product . 

[Matt_124]

Important to note also that even when paying the non-return fee, this does not transfer ownership and the equipment remains the property of EE at all times per the T&Cs.

Section 4.c (https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/help/terms-and-conditions/broadband/home-network/ee-home-network-terms-...) 

[Ewan15]

@XRaySpeX Nobody has yet explained why certain sellers have stacks of these routers to sell that arrive with the seals unbroken. This would imply they have been provided them to sell. They clearly do not fall into the the non returned kit sold on category.

It is also pointless selling your EE Provided equipment unless you plan never to leave them, as they will charge you for  a non return, which is invariably far more than what you got when you sold it.

[Chasloyal]

@XRaySpeX this seller had already sold about 15 of them when I grabbed mine last night. So he's sold another 3 or 4 since then as he's now sat on 19 sold and 5 still available.

He's hardly the only seller who has/has had plenty available which is why I used the 'grey market' term.

I appreciate luxury watches and home network devices are very different consumer markets but hear me out. Like when Omega have made too many pieces of a certain model and/or discontinuing it they'll just out surplus stock on the cheap via the back door and let the grey market sellers do their thing.

Hence I've got this suspicion that perhaps BT Group have got a mountain of older version Smart Hub Pro's which they ain't going to supply to subscribers at that 12 quid a month premium or whatever it is but also can't be seen to let them go cheap either. So punters subscribing to the more pricey monthly packages get these shiny new upgraded WiFi 7 routers, whilst us rabble on the more budget conscious plans still get the opportunity to grab an EE WiFi 7 router, but it's a lower spec bit of kit from an unauthorised seller.