EE Broadband with my own firewall/router

[radiocheck]

Hello, I'm a network engineer, and my background is in networking. At the moment, I have Virgin broadband (residential) with my own firewall (Palo Alto). Virgin doesn't offer a static IP, but the IP hasn't changed in about 2 years. I put the Virgin hub in modem mode, so my firewall receives the public IP, and the hub just transparently forwards the packets. I rely heavily on the IP to use VPN and other stuff.

Today, I saw BT engineers installing full fibre on my road, and they said we should get full fibre in a couple of weeks. As of now, EE only offers up to 70 Mb/s, so it's not full fibre, I believe. Anyway, my contract is due for renewal next month, and I'm thinking of switching to EE for broadband and TV. My big questions are:

- Can I put the EE hub in modem mode, or at least bypass the hub and use my own firewall/router? (My firewall supports PPPoE if that's what is required for full fibre)
- I'm also planning on getting EE TV with Sky Sports, etc. Will having my own router cause any issues? From what I read, I can't get EE TV without the broadband so, just trying to understand what will happen if I use my own router.
- I understand EE doesn't offer static IPs, but do they change often? Are they sticky?

Thanks in advance

[XRaySpeX]

1. No modem-only mode but you could disable DHCP and/or WiFi & let your router handle it all. Yes, Full Fibre is over PPPoE.
2. Yes, you must use the EE router to get EE TV (& DV).
3. Fairly sticky dynamic public IPs.
4. Up to 80 Meg fibre is FTTC, i.e. copper to the home.

[JimM11]

@XRaySpeX Not sure if you are still on legacy, but with the new EE, not once has the public IP stuck on fttc or now on fttp.

[XRaySpeX]

@JimM11 : You mean it's NOT sticky? I'm still on legacy FTTC with a fairly sticky IP.

[JimM11]

@XRaySpeX Correct it is NOT sticky at all, not ONCE have i had the same public IP.

[radiocheck]

Thank you, from what I see in other discussions I can connect my firewall directly to the fibre termination point by-passing the EE hub. If I just disable DHCP and WiFi, the public IP will still be on the EE hub I believe.

Ideally, I want the public IP to be on my firewall as I currently have.

[radiocheck]

Thanks, that won't be ideal for my use case.

[XRaySpeX]

That is correct.

[JimM11]

@radiocheck Believe EE are now doing the sky streaming also and not sure if that is router dependant my be worth having a look at, if you require landline DV and from EE then you have to use the EE Router, no way round that as far as anyone has been able to do yet... Independent VOIP looks like the way to go, although reported the new wifi7 router seems to be rock solid on DV function, but it comes at an extra cost!