Looking For Opinions - Upgrade to Full Fibre Core 900

[drlabman]

Hi,

I've just been "invited" to upgrade my broadband from Full Fibre Core 500 to 900 for £0.  I'm currently using a BT Smart Hub 2 - I didn't get an EE router when I upgraded to full fibre a couple of years ago.  I'm currently mid-24 month contract.  My understanding is that if I accept an upgrade I'll get an EE Smart Hub 7 Plus.

In our house we have a few TAPO Smart plugs, Ring doorbell/chime (subscribed), the laptops we use are Macs of 2015 and 2017 vintage, iPhones SE 2022, TV is fairly recent LG.  We use YouTube a lot, as well as football streaming.  No gaming or anything like that.  Oh, and BT DV phones, which drive me nuts with their random rebooting and poor battery management (but that's another story).

Simple question, really.  Should we upgrade or not?  Will we see any benefit on our relatively old computers.  More importantly, are we likely to break anything due to incompatibility with older wifi standards.

Thanks.

[JimM11]

@drlabman More than likely to have the WiFi 7 Hub issues for connections, but if EE allows you to keep the BT Smart Hub 2 as well then that works on a FF900 but wireless wifi5 may just be a stretch to get above the 700Mb/s mark. 

The 7 Plus has had a real rocky road since it's inception FW wise, if you are doing any PF Port Forwarding at all think very carefully for the 7Plus variant currently, getting there so look at the Forum for 7 Plus issues. 

If you have ANY BT Smart Wireless Complete wifi extenders they will require to be swapped out also, keep in mind.

As you have DV phones, remember to back up from the SH2 all your contacts, and restore to EE 7+ version, hopefully the feature works for you.

[DoingItSideways]

How much are you currently paying?

[baron75mk3]

The upgrade is for £0 , no brainer upgrade wont do any harm thats for sure , i migrated from BT & they sent me a Smart hub 7 i maybe wrong but dont all EE plans at leased have a smart hub 7 plus as standard now ? as @JimM11 has stated on WIFI that BT smart hub 2  hub only just manages about 650MBps on wireless standing right nest to it i can confirm that but well its a free upgrade so id say go for it as for the porting issues mentioned by @JimM11  i cant comment as i never had to port forward anything on hub 7 , i have on the pro & its similar software but there may very well be some issues also Extenders yes if you get the Hub 7 The BT ones wont work you'll need EE ones there are certain packages that contain these extenders.

[JimM11]

@baron75mk3 Think the standard below FF500 may still be the EE Smart Hub 6 + version.

[drlabman]

Thanks.  I assume that EE will allow me to keep the SH2 - I've never returned any previous routers anyway.  So if it all went Tango Uniform, I could just revert to that.  Must admit I don't know anything about the 7Plus or any issues so I will spend time on the forum doing some research.

I don't have any wifi extenders.

TBH, the number of contacts in my DV phones is minimal, so no big deal - but thanks for the advice.

[drlabman]

Currently paying £38.99 per month for Full Fibre 500

[baron75mk3]

Confirmed , Smart Hub 6 plus for all part fibre (FTTC) customers. everything full fibre (FTTP) Smart Hub 7 Plus & Smart Hub 7 Pro

https://ee.co.uk/broadband/ee-smart-hub-comparison

[baron75mk3]

I wouldn't be so sure i have had to return all my BT & EE hubs , you get charged if you dont

(well thats what the emails say at leased)

[baron75mk3]

Offering you another 0.5Gb for free , seems pretty good to me.