ISP BT Prices New UK Gigabit and Full Fibre Broadband Plans
BT has today quietly revealed how much they’ll charge new customers who pick a package from their refreshed range of “Full Fibre” (FTTP) ultrafast broadband plans, which includes a “gigabit” class top tier that offers average download speeds of 900Mbps+ (uploads of 73Mbps). The good news is that they’re surprisingly cheap.
At present Openreach’s full fibre network covers 2.1 million UK premises and aims to reach 4 million by March 2021. After that the operator has also signalled that they have an ambition to cover 15 million premises by around 2025.
Until recently though the fastest consumer tier (leaving aside their premium business options) available on Openreach’s national network was 330Mbps (50Mbps upload), but on 23rd March 2020 they will officially refresh their portfolio of products and add two new top tiers – 500Mbps (75Mbps upload) and 1000Mbps (115Mbps).
Naturally BT’s consumer division has, following recent trials (here and here), just become one of the first ISPs to launch packages based off these new tiers and today we’ve finally been told what you can expect to receive (they seem to have gone live a day early). Overall the new packages are extremely well priced for BTWholesale based packages and seem intended to take on rival ISPs in the gigabit space.
Full Fibre 100
Average Download of 145Mbps / Upload of 30Mbps
Upfront Fee: £9.99Price: £39.99 a month for 24 months (£47.99 thereafter)
Full Fibre 500 (new)
Average Download of 500Mbps / Upload of 73Mbps
Upfront Fee: £9.99Price: £49.99 a month for 24 months (£57.99 thereafter)
Full Fibre 1000 (new)
Average Download of 900Mbps / Upload of 110Mbps
Upfront Fee: £9.99Price: £59.99 a month for 24 months (£67.99 thereafter)
The eagle eyed among you will notice that the old Full Fibre 250 (300Mbps) package has effectively been replaced by the new Full Fibre 500 tier for the same discount (standard pricing is a bit higher than the old tier), which is probably because BT wants to make the service as attractive as possible and focus customers on a smaller number of options. We should add that the paid HALO 1 or 2 add-ons are not a requirement, which is a positive.
BT now has the ability to put significant resources into marketing of these new products in order to tackle similar packages from rivals, although this is somewhat countered by the still very limited coverage of Openreach’s new Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network.
We now wait to see how much other Openreach based ISPs will charge for such tiers. BT has significant economies of scale on their side, which is probably how they’ve been able to set such a price point, particularly given how much their own wholesale division charges other providers for the same tiers (here). No doubt they reached a good wholesale agreement for a better price.
However we wouldn’t be surprised if some of BT’s rivals in the alternative network (altnet) space complain about the pricing. At present most of those altnets are still cheaper, but no doubt they’d prefer to be charging more. The pressure to keep prices low can make the economic model for building new commercial networks much more difficult, especially for smaller rivals.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Do we get free upgrade to 500mb if we are anyway on the 300mb tier?
If they are allowing that, it’s not on accounts. From 300mbit you can currently only upgrade to 900+Halo2, for £75/mth. There isn’t an option for 500mbit at all.
I just phoned them: 0800 672476
I also want to know this because i am also on the 300mb package, an upgrade to 500 would be welcome free of charge.
CJ- Dont’t post telephone numbers, as phone numbers can lead people into a false sense of security, readers then these unverified telephone numbers posted as genuine, then inadvertently divulging personal details/credit card info/account info to someone they think is BT.
This number may/may not be genuine but it’s certainly not on sayno0870.com and it’s not the main BT.com customer service contact number.
@ Adam Jarvis it’s is the real BT number, get a grip, bigger problems in the world just now.
I just ordered the top package, £57.99 a month I got it for. Probably don’t need it all but was paying the same for 330. (more like £49.99 a month after cash back). Only slight downfall is the 2 year contract but I haven’t had any issues with BT so far.
How did you order it? Didn’t give me that option
Just a wee update, getting it for £54.99 a month now. My friend phoned up and got it cheaper than me so I phoned back and they matched what he was quoted.
Dunno how you’re getting through so easily, lines jammed for me 🙂
Tell me how you and your friend managed to negotiate the discount? Did you threaten to leave? Does anyone know how much flexibility they have?
He didn’t need to push them too hard to get the £54.99 deal, just kept asking is that the best you can do?
CJ
That’s pretty good. Any chance they would go down to £48-50?
Bit unsure whether to order given the COVID situation with an immunocomprimised elderly family member at home. We’re on 4G right now for internet and an ADSL line. Want to upgrade the ADSL line to FTTP and the BT website shows my postcode can get Fibre 900.
I’m guessing ordering means an immediate install versus in say 3-4 months when this crisis might be over? £50 or less and I’d jump at it, or else if it was a shorter contract.
I’d jump ship in a heartbeat if I could get FTTP at those prices, I’m paying an almost identical price from Virgin Media for the 1Gbps service, so moving to actual fibre from DOCSIS would be extremely compelling for the price difference. If I’m lucky then by the time my contract with VM ends BT might have expanded the network to make switching an option.
I balked at taking VM’s 1gbps plan for this reason. It locks me into an 18 month contract, and there’s a good possibility I’d get a slightly better (on the upload side) package from an Openreach ISP before the 18-month term is over.
This is a very welcome pricing structure.
Can’t wait to get the top package ordered ASAP.
Hopefully this will encourage Sky to announce their FTTP offerings.
Openreach have brought FTTP to my door but I’m with Sky so no connection yet.
I don’t have any option to upgrade at all. If I proceed as a new customer Fibre 900 is available but at the end it recognises that I am a current BT customer and won’t proceed.
If I try and upgrade, then only current 300Mbps speed is available.
Anyone else have the same problem?
Same for me
Yes rang them to upgrade my existing BT Fibre 250 service (300 mbs). They said my exchange has not been enabled yet to provide the higher speeds. Could be a few months they say.
Bts DSL checker will tell you the likely head end. Thats where you’re caught I expect
I have 330/50. Can’t upgrade. If I go to place a new order then Fibre 900 is available to me, but it stops at the end because it recognises me as an existing BT customer. BT availability checker shows up to 1000/220 available
Yes on the DSL checker max on my exchange 330. So will have to wait till this is lifted.
I can’t even get the 80/20 tier, max I can get here is 40/10. 1gb is never going to happen here anytime soon.
Well a few weeks ago my max speed was 36 Mbps down and 8 Mbps up lucky my area got upgraded to fttp. I haven’t got it yet but hopefully, the installation goes smoothly. so there is a big chance of you get 1gbs soon!
Great pricing, at least if you’re a home user who doesn’t need one or more static IPv4 addresses. While I’d like to see pricing below £100 per month for either tier on smaller ISP’s who use BT Wholesale and offer at least one static IPv4 address, I have a feeling that may not be the case sadly.
BT Needs to expand like VM is, VM is available most places which i have in London but I cant get BT or i would, especially with these new fast and cheaper plans than VM!
Houses in the next street are on VM, but despite 70% of this area having VM (which is why the other 30% get mailshots from VM) the homes in my cul-de-sac are unable to get it, because they are spreading out rather than filling in ‘existing’ areas.
I am more likely to move and get Hyperoptic than bother with VM or BT.
FTTP coverage from Openreach is expanding way faster than VM’s coverage, Jordan.
I’m assuming their 115mbps upload is a deliberate challenge to Virgin? I’m assuming that’s what Virgin will provide on their Gig1 for upload when they move the upstream to the DOCSIS 3.1 standard.
It depends actually as DCOSIS 3.1 can do up to 1Gig upload
But DOCSIS 3.1 isn’t a magic wand – the maximum speeds assume a number of factors and network changes, some of which are quite considerable and which would be a significant cost / effort for Virgin.
As Openreach have slowly realised, there’s only so much fudging you can do with your legacy network before you might as well have just gone to fibre (which Virgin have done in their expansion projects, though it’s still RFoG for the time being)
It’s a pleasant surprise that their retail price is 59.99 and that existing customers are getting it for less. I’m gonna upgrade later on tonight.
I was surprised too, I think it’s a great deal.
I’m on the BT FTTP service. I tried upgrading via the BT website, it’s wants me to pay £80.99 per month for 24 month for the Gig service.
@MAX360
You’ve got to call them.
> it’s wants me to pay £80.99 per month for 24 month for the Gig service.
Are you in a Market A area?
@Ne555.
I am – and I am still quoted £59,99 a month – so that’s no longer a problem.
Still disappointed with the relatively meagre upstream bandwidth…
@André
I presume you must be uploading massive gigabytes of data to make that comment.
Tim what a stupid statement to make – shame on you A gigabyte is a gigabyte after all
Yes, I am.
I’d happily chuck my money at them for that gigabit tier if Openreach would rollout FTTP to my town.
I am so glad I am with Vodafone because when City Fibre come to Fife I getting the 900 Mbps package. I would rather pay £40 a month for Vodafone’s 900Mbps package in pay £59.99 a month to BT. BT should be a shamed of themselves.
@Dave
You’re using a product which is not available to many so there’s not a lot of point comparing the Vodafone offer with that from BT just now. When there is wider availability, bear in mind you have opted for something which will have more contention on the backhaul, nothing wrong with that, however some may prefer to use a product that can stand more network loading.
It’s interesting though that BT’s tiers are now effectively 145M / 500M / 900M which very closely mirror the Vodafone ones (except Vodafone offer higher uploads, by oversubscribing their GPON more)
For the very small number of people who have both OR and Cityfibre available, there’s a big price incentive to take Vodafone.
But having set such a low price in the first place, Cityfibre/Vodafone are going to find it very hard to make a return on their investment.
Dave Scott – you’re lucky. That is a fabulous price. Wish Vodafone would offer that here (being a Vodafone customer as well).
“Everything is proceeding as planned.” – I did say that BT would not be able to market their “Full Fibre 900” for much more than £50 a month given Vodafone is offering Gigafast for £40 (at least not if BT Sales wish to walk around with their trousers on).
£59.99 for Fibre 900 is still not great either though. If the other ISPs start offering FTTP on Openreach too, then the price will hopefully come down to around the £45 level nationwide. Not keen on the 24 month contract either. Wasn’t Openreach going to reduce the wholesale price AGAIN in October? Still tempted to wait, unless BT offer the 24 month contract at the £40-£48 like Vodafone.
Why is the “Stay Fast Guarantee” on the 910/110 only 455Mbps Download?? Surely Fibre is reliable and you won’t lose half the speed!
CityFibre will still be making money. Obviously they are willing to take lower margins than the likes of BT. It’s no different to Aldi selling things cheaper than Tesco. The “backhaul” can always be upgraded later. The fact is they delivered a Fibre line to properties.
Very encouraging pricing, just a shame it’s going to be a long wait for fibre to arrive here.
Just shows how much BT Wholesale are ripping off other ISPs. Ofcom should get involved and gently persuade BT Wholesale to offer these products at a sensible wholesale price. If they dont BT Retail will have little competition especially outside the other mass market players.
I don’t think Ofcom have any ability to regulate BTw pricing – other ISPs can either put their own kit in exchanges or buy from TalkTalk if they ever start wholesaling FTTP products, it will be interesting to see if TalkTalk see the high BTw pricing as an opportunity.
Eh? Nothing stopping “other ISPs” taking on millions of customers and therefore paying less to BT Wholesale for bandwidth costs. A bit like why a tin of beans costs far less at your Tesco/Asda/Aldi etc than at your local corner shop.
With Openreach GEA, many more ISPs can get on the bandwagon and run their own core networks – they now only have to build out to a couple hundred sites instead of up to 5500
If ISPs don’t like BTw pricing and think they can run a national, resilient, high capacity IP/MPLS network for far less – it’s never been easier to have a go.
@Ivor there or approx 1000 Openreach handover points (AKA OHPs or Parent exchanges). At each of these OHPs providers connect to each FTTP PON via a headend / layer two switch. To do this they buy a cablelink product at ~£1000 for 10Gbps. There are often dozens of layer two switches at each OHP, and most of the new FTTP installed isnt accessible via existing cablelinks used for FTTC. So for a provider to get 100% coverage they need a CAPEX investment in cablelinks of £10-20m. On top of that they need hardware, backhaul, engineers etc. There are very few providers that can afford this level of investment especially as retail prices continue to fall.
Small providers have no option but to buy from a wholesaler if they want to provide services nationwide.
Right now the only real FTTP wholesaler is BT. BT is discriminating in favour of its own activities with unfair cross-subsidy.
@Jonny Ofcom do have the ability to regulate BTw pricing. In fact they already regulate some products and some markets.
So you are admitting that this is an expensive and non-trivial business and perhaps ISPs might choose to pay the extra for BT Wholesale to put in the effort and take the investment risk?
BTw aren’t the only name in the game – TalkTalk and (I believe) Vodafone provide wholesale services.
There’s nothing to stop an ISP doing a targeted rollout. Zen have been slowly expanding their network.
out of my price range
Out of most peoples price range……..Monopoly money (which is exactly what it is!) Its like getting live Virgin media and sky’s tv packages (but just for broadband).
Even I am tempted by BT. Decent pricing. I pay around £75 for 2xVDSL, 1Gbit would be an absolute no brainer.
I’ve had over 6 months of uptime from my BT FTTP connection. It’s been flawless.
Spoffle
Is the speed the full speed? I don’t get why they put a “Stay Fast Guarantee” of half the speed. Surely on Full Fibre to the Property you lose zero speed?
BT should have cancelled that plan – due to coronavirus to ease network capacity in UK
Hope Boris Johnson bring in toughter laws to get all of us in UK as a maximum capped speed are 40/10 on all FTTC / FTTP / G.fast to ease the network issues as more childrens in UK stay at home and many will be streaming on their TV.
BT has already said they’ve got more than enough available capacity to cope, they’re well below their highest ever peak: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51974866
Things that bad in Telford, Max?
Leave the running of networks to the network engineers working at ISPs. You wouldn’t expect politicians to walk into an operating theatre and tell surgeons how to do the procedure, or tell gas workers how to repair a broken gas line. I’m not sure why certain people think politicians who have for decades created and proposed nonsense legislation with no understanding are suddenly able to comment on how to run complicated SP networks.
If we experience issues on our networks due to video traffic hammering it to the point where important stuff can’t get done, we will take action to protect the network and our critical customer traffic.
Translation: ‘I can’t get it / can’t afford it so don’t want anyone else to be able to’.
Jealousy is such an unbecoming emotion. I would far rather everyone were brought up to a higher level than people held down to the lowest one.
Interesting to see the prices for BT as we have Gigaclear in our village (through Superfast Northants BDUK funding) and was always worried they would overprice the service given no commercial competition. We pay £75pm for symmetrical 900/900 from Gigaclear which is only £7 more than the 910/110 top tier from BT.
In our experience routers struggle to fully utilise the full gigabit connections on a single device and many internet services can’t supply data at those speeds either (updates/game downloads from Xbox and Playstation rarely get above 100-200mbps even over Ethernet) but of course if you have many devices then the bandwidth does get used across those. Just something to think about before jumping on the top tier.
In hindsight the lower Gigaclear 300/300 tier would have been more than enough for our needs even with 4K streaming, etc. As routers and online services evolve it may be worthwhile to have that top tier.
Good point Jason. How many hard drives can even handle that speed of bandwidth transfer?
Any decent 3.5″ drive can handle it fine. Sustained write speeds on mine are around 200MBps so easily capable of managing a 1Gbps transfer. To say nothing of SSDs.
2.5″ drives ar 5400RPM probably less so!
You do know 910mbps/8=113MBps @Buggerlugs?
Any hard drive that came out within the last 10 years will be more than capable to handle it. The main problem with dl’ing on consoles is that they restrict the bandwidth to ease load on the hosts end.
How are people getting the upgrade, I called BT and have been told that I was not telling the truth as they only offer up to Fibre 250! after asking to speak to a manager I was hung up on after 30 minutes. Is there a different number people are using rather than 0800672476.
i’d try again and hope for a better handler but if all else fails the fibre to the home team will know whats going on…
If you are unlucky, you might be in an ECI FTTP area.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2019/06/tackling-the-330mbps-speed-limit-in-some-openreach-fttp-areas.html
Our street only got the fibre installed 2 months ago, surely they would not have used the ECI equipment with a new install??
Called today, I’m on Ultrafast 2 Fibre to the Home for many years… 330mb…
BT website says I can get full fibre 1000 product BUT I can not order yet online or on the phone, agent said their system won’t let me order yet… bah
Reduced my bill by £15 while I wait
Same here. On the phone to them now but been waiting 20 minutes to talk to someone.
Order placed. Got it for £57.99 existing customer discount wiped out by the force £9.99 delivery fee for a router I won’t use.
PB what number did you phone?
The one posted above. 0800 672 476
I am getting the same issue, did they say how long?
Interesting that while politicians are telling video streaming platform to lower bitrates, ISPs are selling ever “faster” packages.
Because BT are confident in their capacity. Are politicians asking streaming services to reduce though? I haven’t see that (might have missed it through all the crap reporting).
I called the BT Fibre sales line on 0800 587 4787. 10 minute wait time (not terrible), then no trouble upgrading whatsoever. Very helpful person on the other end and they even offered me a price of 54.99 immediately without having to haggle despite being an existing customer. New 24 month contract of course but that’s fine, it should be activated tomorrow!
They hung up on me after a couple of minutes on hold. On hold to a different number now…
Do you have just broadband or broadband & landline?
Broadband and a landline phone, though I don’t use or pay extra for the phone, they just wired it in as a matter of course during the fibre install.
It’s definitely worth calling the number I shared and waiting on hold for as long as needed, once I got through I had a much more painless (and cheaper) experience than some are reporting. Just luck on my part but I’m happy to pass that on!
I have just been offered 910mbps for £56.99 they wouldnt budge on price “/.
Any ideas how to get them to knock off the extra £3?
i mean £2
Pete, nicely done.
Has anyone been able to get BT down to £50 a month? And does the price include zero random Line Rental increases and such like?
Only thing is I’m not sure during the COVID 19 situation whether it’s wise for engineers or BT Wifi staff to be going out to houses etc for the sake of health of both customers and engineers.
Sky may have planned to launch today, as we have seen numerous reports that it is imminent over the last few months. Unfortunately SKY have closed their sales lines temporarliy whilst they deal with reduced resource and lots of people looking to reduce their bills by cancelling or suspending packages.
My guess is that we won’t see Sky launch their FTTP service for at least a week or two whilst they get on top of managing capacity to meet demand.
I wont be stupid to adapt quickly whilst stuck into a 24 month contract. Play for time and see what else the other providers have planned and cost to go with it
“Everything is proceeding as planned.” – I did say that BT would not be able to market their “Full Fibre 900” for much more than £50 a month given Vodafone is offering Gigafast for £40 (at least not if BT Sales wish to walk around with their trousers on).
£59.99 for Fibre 900 is not bad, but not great either. If the other ISPs start offering it too, then the price will hopefully come down to around the £45 level nationwide. Good to see some here managed to get £54 a month.
Not keen on the 24 month contract though. Wasn’t Openreach going to reduce the wholesale price AGAIN in October? Still tempted to wait, unless BT offer the 24 month contract at £48.
Why is the “Stay Fast Guarantee” on the 910/110 only 455Mbps Download?? Surely Fibre is reliable and you won’t lose half the speed!
I just called BT and they said it was going to be £66.99. I said that that is more expensive than online and what other people have got if for, but they wouldn’t move on the price. Weird!
I had exactly the same conversation, they simply wouldn’t budge and were quite happy to see me leave (not that I would, I’m only halfway through a 24 month contract so the cost to leave is too great).
It’s disgusting that I’m paying the same price for 300mbps that a new customer can get 910mbps.
“Everything is proceeding as planned.” – I did say that BT would not be able to market their “Full Fibre 900” for much more than £50 a month given Vodafone is offering Gigafast for £40 (at least not if BT Sales wish to walk around with their trousers on).
£59.99 for Fibre 900 is not bad, but not great either. If the other ISPs start offering it too, then the price will hopefully come down to around the £45 level nationwide. Good to see some here managed to get £54 a month.
Not keen on the 24 month contract though. Wasn’t Openreach going to reduce the wholesale price AGAIN in October? Still tempted to wait, unless BT offer the 24 month contract at £48.
Why is the “Stay Fast Guarantee” on the 910/110 only 455Mbps Download?? Surely Fibre is reliable and you won’t lose half the speed!
Why should BT pay much attention to Vodafone’s FTTP pricing? They’re not like for like, especially in terms of coverage, and how many people can choose between them anyway?
The fact that the service is fibre to the premises, and therefore doesn’t have the problems VDSL/G.fast has, doesn’t prevent it from suffering from congestion whether in the access or inside the core network. What’s Vodafone’s guarantee on their “cheaper” service?
You speak as if 455Mbps is some triflingly small amount of bandwidth.
@Ivor
I don’t think you read my message properly. Re-read it.
Vodafone Gigafast is NOT VDSL, nor G.fast. It is FULL FIBRE to the property. And also a full 900/900 connection (symmetrical).
If BT offer a 900/115 service, on FULL FIBRE, there should be next to zero signal degradation. So the “Stay Fast Guarantee speed” should literally be as close to 900 as possible.
At the end of the day, pricing by ALL of these ISPs is nationwide pricing. The consumer is not going to care what “backend” technology delivers the service – whether it’s Openreach, CityFibre, Google Fibre, the Martians etc. What will stand out is the level of service and the NATIONALLY MARKETED PRICE.
I did say that BT would never be able to sell Full Fibre 900 for £100 a month as some people here suggested. No BT Sales person would be able to walk around with their trousers on had they done that. They’ve clearly concurred since they’ve released this initially at £59 a month.
Still competition will come on the Openreach network. At still, BT will lose out to Vodafone in CityFibre areas, and lose out in a marketing campaign if they don’t bring the price down closer to the £50 area.
@James Band
You’ve posted the same question four or five times here in the space of ten minutes or so. Once is usually sufficient to generate an answer, there’s no need to cut and paste so many times.
New_Londoner
Had a computer issue. Didn’t mean to. Must have hit Post twice and then retyped it on the wrong “reply”. Thanks.
@James Band
“So the “Stay Fast Guarantee speed” should literally be as close to 900 as possible.”
You’re confusing leased lines with FTTP. No way on God’s Earth will you find a consumer 1 Gig FTTP service – no matter who the provider is – offering a speed guarantee of 900 Mbps. The fact that BT offer around a min speed guarantee of 0.5 gig is fairly good.
@James Band
Why will BT lose out to Vodafone/Cityfibre?
I’m one of the lucky ones who has access to both and am still use Openreach FTTP (note not BT and out of contract)
Vodafone has issues from the outside with customer services and I have no inclination to be a guinea pig while they get their act together as an FTTP ISP. I’ve not heard a lot about the reliability or otherwise of the Vodafone offering so will not jump ship.
This isn’t a just me issue either. Others in this situation feel the same.
James, please look up what “network congestion” is – this is essential to understanding the issues in play. I would also ask that you read before replying, as you seem to be telling me that Vodafone’s service is “full fibre” when I have already said it is FTTP.
Like I said, given that almost no one is in the position of being able to choose between the Vodafone and BT offerings, they are not really in competition and therefore comparing the prices is not terribly relevant. While the customer may not care, the underlying network is essential to understanding where the costs are coming from.
I wouldn’t expect a great deal of movement on price – this is a premium service and ISPs will be looking to charge as much as possible for it. A few quid, maybe, but nothing stunning.
Either buy it or don’t buy it, unlike the vast majority of the country you can, but FGS stop whining about it.
It’s astonishing. People are stuck with no superfast option and you’re here whinging on an almost daily basis because you can only get Openreach fibre and don’t want to pay more than Vodafone charge over CityFibre.
Seriously: first world problems. Being able to complain about the pricing makes you seriously privileged, much of the UK can’t order this product or anything comparable full stop.
Ivor
First I think that what I said about pricing is common sense marketing that clearly has to a certain extent reached those at BT. Earlier on these comment sections, people were talking about how BT would be selling Ultrafast 900 for £100 a month, because otherwise they wouldn’t make a profit. Given Vodafone (or whoever) are currently selling Gigafast or whatever for £40 a month, BT would have to try to match the price, or be within range. I think £50 would be a more acceptable area, but £59 is clearly not £100. So I am glad not succumbing to their ridiculous £59 as recently as Friday for 330Mbps!
Thank you for the clarification on network congestion. That makes more sense. I am not supporting Vodafone over BT – as far as I’m concerned they’re all greedy and inept in their own ways (might as well call themselves Public Enemy Number 1, 2 and 3 etc). I don’t understand though as to why the FTTP network would suffer from such congestion that the speed of a 900Mbps connection would drop by half?
With copper, I get the signal degrades. But given there is literally no degradation, to get “congestion” where you are losing half the speed, you’d surely have to have EVERY single FTTP household downloading 1000Mbps of “stuff” at the same time all at once, just to spite the ISP into paying out the £20 compensation?
From what people seem to say on here about BOTH the BT FTTP service (330Mbps) AND the Vodafone Gigafast, all these people seem to be getting the “full whack” of whatever their stipulated product is – i.e. 330 (not just the 150 guarantee), or 900Mbps (and not 450).
Even if there isn’t much overlap yet, nevertheless, all of these ISPs are effectively marketing nationally on websites, TV etc etc. They’d look foolish if they wanted to charge double, or even 1.5 times what a competitor was offering. Given that everyone knows that Sky, BT etc increase the price mid contract through sneaky (unscrupulous) line rental changes during a contract, then suddenly a 24 month contract at a higher price doesn’t seem that great.
If BT had released this Full Fibre 900 at £55 a month FIXED PRICE (i.e. no increases in Line Rental) then they’d have a lot more goodwill. Thank you for the clarification on congestion, but I just don’t see how the FTTP network could get congested by that much to render it to half the speed.
@Ken
Thank you for the clarification. It doesn’t help that they have different “guarantees” which also seem to differ in the small print. I was under the impression though that Full Fibre (as per the BT consumer website) is essentially the best the country as ever had. And given you get next to little signal degradation, and in this case a massive bandwidth, surely you wouldn’t get a situation where the FTTP network would be so overwhelmed that it could only give you HALF the speed?
I mean unless every single house coordinated some type of massive download of 1000Mbps of “stuff” at the exact same second just to spite BT into paying the £20 a month, I feel like you’d pretty much get the full FTTP speed nearly all the time right?
From what people have said on here about both the BT 330 FTTP product and the Vodafone Gigafast products, all these people SEEM to have been getting the full speed constantly?
I am glad that they have the good sense not to charge £100 a month or whatever that a lot of people here thought they would. I do think that price will go to closer to the £50 level sooner rather than later.
Would be nice though if BT sorted out their “BT Premium Wifi” Triband system (with the dedicated backend) to offer a Complete Wifi guarantee that would be better suited to the speed of “Full Fibre” on offer.
CarlT
Having an open debate in a free country is a right and not “whining.” If I’m not mistaken, you were one of the people saying BT would be charging nearly £100 a month. Doesn’t look like that is the case at all.
I was asking people about why the Guarantee was half the speed. And like any rational consumer, want to keep my options open, especially given the offering is on a 24 month contract and how all these ISPs have messed me about the whole time on copper. Not about to enter a 2 year contract unless there are certain standards and it’s a good price.
And before you start on FTTC being enough, been using wireless this whole time to be able to actually get home working done.
It’s not about reliability, it’s about network capacity where you share bandwidth with other users.
@Occasionally Factual
You’re very lucky. Take advantage of it!
Firstly I am not defending, or advocating Vodafone’s cause. They are also a greedy inept business a lot of the time. If BT were Public Enemy Number 1, then Vodafone seem to be vying to take the title with a gusto. I was merely pointing out that at the end of the day, a lot of people don’t care what the “backhaul” infrastructure is – whether it’s Openreach, CityFibre, Google Fibre etc. They will care what speed they can get, level of service and the PRICE.
Given the pricing is all national, and openly marketed on TV etc with great fanfare, I did state here on numerous occasions that there was NO WAY BT could ever market an Ultrafast 900 product at £100 a month. Looks like they’ve agreed and released this at £59 a month.
I personally would hope that BT offer it for something closer to £50. Because they are well known to increase price mid contract and 24 months is a hella long time. I’m not sure what you mean about being a guinea pig on Vodafone, or BT.
From what I’ve heard (here) about the reliability of BOTH the Vodafone Gigafast offering AND the BT “Full Fibre” services (which were up to 330 as of last week), they both seem to give the FULL speed. So that’s why I was concerned, or wondering why the hell they would only guarantee half the speed. I understand that it’s one network, but surely to congest it to the extent that the bandwidth drops on Fibre (where there is no degradation) you’d need every single house to just coordinate a download of a massive 16K film just to spite BT (or any ISP) into paying the £20 compensation.
I’d like to have some competition first, before I commit to a 24 month contract in any case. It’s wonderful to finally have FTTP available. Have had to use 4G to be able to work from home for so long and it’s been incredibly expensive. The FTTC has been useless (only 1 Mbps). But obviously I don’t want to sign myself up to something for 2 years having suffered at their hands for a decade unless it’s decent. Already there is a stark difference between the price on Friday and the price on Monday.
@The Facts
Yes thanks for clarification. But how would the FTTP network become so overloaded that a 900 connection drops to 455?
Unless everyone starts downloading a 16K (not 4K, but 16) film at the exact same moment, just out of spite, it seems unlikely the speed would drop that much right?
@James Band
To give you 2 examples: Those on the 1 Gig Hyperoptic and 1 Gig Vodafone FTTP services regularly see significant slowdowns at peak times – certainly less than 500 Mbps. And guess what? None of these ISPs offer a minimum speed guarantee….but neither do they state anywhere that you would get 900+ Mbps day & night
Don’t you think its better for BT to give a minimum speed guarantee? I believe TalkTalk also give a similar figure (400+) on their York FTTP rollout.
No, James, you pop up and always find something to whinge about with walls of text. It’s not debate it’s whining. You do virtually nothing but complain about Openreach FTTP, despite being on 4G, because it’s not CityFibre / TalkTalk UFO / Hyperoptic / whatever in between pontificating on how you think it should be.
Even though the pricing is way lower than thought it’s still too expensive.
The guaranteed speed is too low despite being the highest guarantee we have.
The contract should be fixed as the line rental they don’t charge on FTTP often gets hiked and they are open about ability to increase prices by RPI.
The WiFi speed should have a higher guarantee despite that being well outside of BT’s control – people in flats have heavy WiFi congestion for example.
Every single article on this topic you pop up with the same basic complaining. If you don’t like what BT are offering whether it’s the price, the contract length, the wireless guarantee, just don’t buy it. You have been banging on about this for weeks if not months writing basically the same things each and every time.
Answering your point yes I thought it would cost more based on the wholesale price. I am delighted to be wrong and have ordered it – being upgraded tomorrow.
If you aren’t happy with it you can end the contract early.
If you are really desperate to see what Sky, et al, offer you’ll have to wait for them to show their hand – complaining about BT isn’t going to make that happen any quicker. About the only thing it’ll do is make increasing numbers of people avoid the comments sections here because they fear getting drunk off the whine.
‘But how would the FTTP network become so overloaded that a 900 connection drops to 455?’
There’s an awful lot of network in between where the FTTP terminates and the Internet. Any of that could become overloaded.
The FTTP itself may, and in new build estates, will, serve 30 customers. It’s unlikely but possible for those 30 customers to overwhelm the 2.4 Gbit/s Openreach provision, especially as it’s closer to 2 Gbit/s after overheads.
The guarantee is very, very high.
@Ken
I see. Thanks for the clarification. So are we not likely to see speeds of 1000Mbps (or 900 as the name of the product states)? I was under the impression that most people on FTTP (whether it’s BT, or anyone else) gets virtually full speed at all time.
In order for the network to drop to half the speed, wouldn’t you need nearly everyone to just download 10 massive 8K films at the same time?
It’s good if anyone (including BT) offers a guaranteed speed. It just seems alarming that it’s an almost 50% drop. Had the speed guarantee for the Ultrafast 900 been say 700, that would be less frightening shall we say.
I hope BT can sort out their “Premium Home Wifi” which has a dedicated backend Triband system. If they amalgamated that into a Wifi guarantee (where the guaranteed Wifi speed could be much higher than present) that might have lots of takers.
CarlT
Hopefully you understood my point. I am glad to have been proven right that the price would never be £100 a month. Glad to see it at £59, though I think it may come closer to £50.
I merely wondered why the speed could drop by half. Most people who comment about their Fibre on here seem to suggest that whoever they are with (BT included) they get the full whack of speed.
As far as Wifi goes, I don’t know why they will only guarantee 30Mbps though (or 10 according to small print at the bottom). Given the initial speed (e.g. 900) is so high, it seems highly likely that their Home Wifi system can go way higher than that with multiple discs.
If BT would sort out their “Premium Home Wifi” which has a dedicated backend channel being Triband, then they may well be able to offer a fantastic Wifi guarantee if other Wifi 6 router reviews are anything to go by. But thus far I can’t find any professional reviews and there seem to be some alarming consumer reviews on BT’s own website.
£59.99 a month though doesn’t look like it’s a fixed price. If I’m not mistaken, BT (and others who charge Line rental) tend to increase the price multiple times in the contract. Not just the CPI stuff. But “Line Rental” increases sporadically. I’m not sure why they want to lock in people for 24 months. That suggests that the October price drop may indeed be coming. I’m not advocating Vodafone over anyone else. Just saying prices can’t be widely different if any of these ISPs want to avoid having egg on their faces.
@James Band
“if BT offer a 900/115 service, on FULL FIBRE, there should be next to zero signal degradation”
You are confusing signal degradation with contention – FTTP is not magic, is still being used for a contended broadband service. The guarantee is a helpful proxy for the maximum level of contention, you might want to enquire about the Vodafone equivalent if there is one.
As for overlapping networks, this is pretty minimal at the moment given the very limited deployment to date of FTTP by City Fibre. Vodafone has chosen to pitch its prices at the low end to buy market share, there’s no real reason for BT to follow suit at the moment given it has much wider availability and a broader set of product offerings.
As an analogy, Vodafone is the Dacia to BT’s VW – nothing wrong with either, very different prices though. And despite being more expensive, VW outsells Dacia.
New_Londoner
Thank you for the clarification. That makes a bit more sense now. I’m not defending one provider over another mind you, I am interested in getting an accurate comparison so as to be able to decide what is the best priced best product out there. After years of having to deal with useless copper and having pay a lot for 4G to be able to work from home, I’m sure you can understand trepidation and a want to analyse these things.
Whilst FTTP isn’t magic, I just feel like surely it’s pretty much future proofed for now that you would never see a drop of half the speed? Thus far, most comments here about BT FTTP as well as Vodafone Gigafast suggest that people are getting the full whack of download speed constantly. Unless everyone on the network downloaded 16K films (thus far not on the market) at the EXACT same moment in some type of massive “Revenge of the Consumer” to get the £20 compensation, the network would never get overloaded to the point where half the bandwidth was gone?
I just felt that BT would want to make sure they don’t have egg on their faces. I am glad that the predictions of £100 a month for BT’s Fibre 900 were blown out of the water today. I did say it would have to be closer to the £50 mark and thankfully they have seen the same. I’d prefer to see if the price does come closer to £50 given it’s a 2 year contract, and BT are notorious for raising prices (e.g. by increasing Line Rental) mid contract. Had this been £55 a month on a FIXED contract, I’d have said that would have swayed more people.
I like the analogy you’ve given. Not sure I would go so far as to call BT as reliable as a VW though! If BT is VW, then I’d say Vodafone is a Skoda. And Sky is an Audi (which has no material advantage over a VW) I suppose? I’d much rather that BT be KIA though and give the equivalent of the 7 year warranty by sorting out their Triband Wifi Product. Given the Full Fibre speeds are immense, if they were able to guarantee a higher Wifi speed, they’d hit the ball out of the park and acquire customers.
Very little demand for 900 service IMHO. The key battleground will be the 145 and slower services.
Prices will put another nail in Gigaclear’s coffin though and will squeeze Virgin’s already poor take up.
Okay Partial. Demand won’t be very high but I can’t see a big squeeze on Gigaclear or Virgin Media.
New customer, called them today they said its 64.99 for 1GB and 59.99 for 500MB, yet strangely were doing 300mb for 39.99.
Told him i’ll call back later, will see what the next BT adviser on the phone says.. Is it purely luck of the draw?
why don’t you ask them to look at their own website? They can’t really charge you more than what’s already advertised, can they?
I keep being told the price is £66.99 and when I say the website says £59.99 they say that must be for new customers or online ordering only. I have said the website doesn’t say anything about new customers only and I can’t upgrade online, but they won’t move on the price.
I switched to this today, download is working fine (around 920-930mbps) but the upload is locked to 51mbps (the same as my old tier) when using the Smart Hub 2.
If i dial a PPPoE connection directly or use my netgear hub I get the full 110-120mbps upload.
Not sure if the Smart Hub needs to update it’s config (it seems odd that it would have any kind of throttling on board, given the ONT handles that…) or if it’s just not performant enough to handle faster upload than 51mbps.
Anyone got any ideas?
How much are you paying for it?
wrt config, it may be a coincidence but immediately after upgrading to 1gbit, my Smarthub firmware got upgraded (to v0.17.01.12301-BT)
Having the same issue. ONT dropped for a few seconds just now and I’m getting 900Mbps down but stuck at 51/52 up instead of 110/115.
I have spent about an hour and a half on hold to BT over last two days. How did you guys upgrade?
Did you get an order complete email? Wondering if things are delayed somewhere in the BT machine due to (understandable) current staffing situation.
I did get an order complete email. I also checked direct with the ONT and I get 110Mbps up. It seems like the HomeHub2 can’t handle more than 50 up?
and @Oliver I just called the FTTP team to upgrade and got it for a decent price.
Hi LiamG.
I have heard doing a router reset either from the UI interface or sticking a paper clip in the back sorts the upload problem out.
Hope this helps. 🙂
Finally got through and they couldn’t offer me the prices advertised only the higher out of contract prices. ♂️
Will try again later and see if I get through to someone more knowledgable / they have sorted out their systems.
Can you order though with the coronavirus out there? Would have thought engineer visits would be out of the question.
Still too expensive. Should be £50 at most.
Vodafone Gigafast 900 is £38. Yet BT 900 is £59.99?
As long as an engineer visit isn’t required I think it should be fine. For example, transfers and regrades shouldn’t require an engineer visit usually. I’ve ordered from Cerberus a regrade from FTTPoD to FTTP, but apparently it will take 7 to 10 working days to fully process before I see the new speed.
Ixel
I’d have to wait. I don’t have FTTP yet – my property can get Fibre 900 from BT, but given you have to install an ONT, a visit would be required. Got an immunocompromised relative at home, so I don’t want to endanger them from the coronavirus.
Still unsure why Vodafone do their product for £40, and BT is £59. Any chance BT would go down to £50 given it’s a pretty long contract – 24 months?!
Ixel
I think it’s on the news now that all installs are being suspended in any case. So we shall wait for now.
BT new faster speed removed for new customers
The upgrade price has increased for me was £64.99 halo 2 complete wifi and its now £76.99 halo 1 complete wifi
I was quoted £59.99 for Fibre 900 with Halo 1 (No Complete WiFi – don’t need it)? To me, with Complete WiFi being an extra £10 a month the right price for Halo 1 Fibre 900 with Complete WiFi would be £69.99?
Not disputing its expensive compared to less GA competitor products, but I can see how the price points you have been given have been determined.
I switched to the 900mbs package yesterday. Complete waste of money. Over wifi even next to router I only get around 330mb download, 30mb upload. Just saw someone mention resetting router to get faster upload which i’ve down and my upload speed has improved. I’ll be ringing BT back up and switching back to my 150mb package, its just not worth the extra money for barely more than twice the usable speed.
@Ian
Have you tried using an Ethernet connection? It’s possible your speed over wifi is being affected by pressure on the wifi channels if you’re in an urban area or if you haven’t configured your router properly to search for a free channel.
Yes over Ethernet I probably get the advertised speed (haven’t tested the upload since resetting router). There is no pressure from wifi channels, I live in a detached new build and there is no other wifi signal detected anywhere in the house
@Ian
So the service is delivering the advertised speeds, the issue is related to the wi-fi connection between your device and the router. Is the speed constrained by the type of wifi that you are using? For example, is it 802.11n rather than 802.11ac?
@Andrew
My pc as an Asus 1.3Gbps Wifi card in (connecting at around 900mbps) and my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G Ultra, as far as connections go they are both top notch. Even right next to the Smart Hub I only get about 350mbps over wifi. Upload won’t go faster than 30mpbs which BT have admitted to it being faulty but can’t give me an ETA on when that will be fixed. Unfortunately its not feasible to run an ethernet lead to my main PC which would benefit from the 1gbps so I’ve asked BT to switch me back to 150mbps from tomorrow.
Bloody hell. Those packages are really expensive. I’m on Vodafone’s 900 meg (both up and down) for £40 a month. I’m happy to stick with them
I agree. Still too expensive. BT needs to bring that Fibre 900 package closer to approx. £48 at the very least. Vodafone will do it even cheaper than £40 if you’ve got a mobile with them already as well.
I have to agree. I’m on 80/20 FTTC with Plusnet, and pay £28/m for it. It’s very stable, and I always get speeds of around 75/18.
I’ve been waiting for a compelling FTTP offer with higher bandwidth for some time – looks like I’m still waiting.
I think the biggest issue is the lack of competition, even on the Openreach network. Until there is more competition, BT can charge what they like – and are doing.
Been trying to get a regrade from 300 to 900 all week.
BT.com showed as available, but for usual reasons, unable to order upgrade through BT.com.
Rang BT, spoke to FTTP and Easy Assist team and the product doesn’t show for them. Referred to data integrity team (who are in India) and callback didn’t come through when told would happen.
Sadly, BT.com now shows my max speed as 78mb if trying to place new customer order which isn’t true as we have only ADSL and FTTP (no FTTC). I don’t know where the faster speeds have gone, seems to be the same for all my neighbours’ addresses, but my line is (touch wood) still running at 300.
Is anyone aware of this being limited not only to FTTP and Huawei GPONs, but more at the Exchange level? We definitely have Huawei kit so should be able to get BT 1Gbps?
BT DSL Checker (BTW) is currently down when checking address, sadly my FTTP number is not recognised by telephone checker despite being a BT number.
An Update…
Just got off the Phone with BT Easy Assist, have been informed that now not able to even do regrades due to the high number of orders failing and Openreach prioritising orders for “Vulnerable Customers”…
I’m just going to leave it for a few weeks until all this calms down, however I am shocked how such an event we’re going through has resulted in a surge of new connection orders?
Hi Pete
I was in a similar boat to you. Then over the weekend the max speed on my exchange was suddenly lifted from 330 to 1000. I therefore have been able to upgrade to the 900 package today. Going live in a couple of days. Regrades (but not new installs) seem to be on again during the crisis
I just phoned BT to upgrade from Fibre Essential for which I was paying £25/month to Fibre 900 for £40/month, absolutely shocked.
Hi spycat, sorry but how genuine is this? As I just phoned them (based in Dundee) and they were also shocked by what I said, but still stood still and claimed they can never do £40/month for Fibre 900. I’m a new customer though…
Not sure but here is a screenshot of the order confirmation https://i.imgur.com/FK4Yczk.jpg
Fibre 500 was offered at £34.99.
@spycat
£39.99 for Fibre 900 is a great price (and actually in line with Gigafast 900 from Vodafone). How did you get that from BT?
I’m currently on ADSL, but my line is showing as FTTP ready (up to 1000) and I saw online the advertised price of £59.99 a month. Can you just ring them up and get the new Install for £39 a month for 900/115?
I was under the impression that during this COVID crisis, all new installs are cancelled though. Got a venerable person in our house so will have to wait it out.
Very interested to know how you got that price though!
I’ve just got off the phone with BT and got Fibre 900 for £40/month upgrading from Fibre Essential for which I was paying £25, I queried why it was so cheap and they said because of everything that is going on. Shocked to say the least.
What number did you call to get the package at £40 p/m please?
Wow, I am paying £66 when i upgraded i asked if they had any deals and the person I spoke with wouldnt budge
0800 672 476
@spycat just made an almost identical comment?
Thanks. I phoned BT couple of minutes ago, they are unable to upgrade me to 900 package due to openreach suspending new orders, even though I’m an existing customer.
Yeah – just noticed that I can no longer see the upgraded packages online – just fibre 1 and 2 at the old price/speed structure. I guess they are needing to manage demand on their call centres by taking these new products off the market for the time being.
I’ve been getting this for the last week – despite ringing up since Monday 23rd. OR have apparently suspended new orders due to a large number failing, but my understanding was that there is only a suspension of orders requiring an engineer visit? A regrade does not require an Engineer visit and is in fact a configuration change on the line which is done without customer contact.
Interested to see that people are now being offered Fibre 900 for £40/month. That is a steal.
Secondly, the BT.com website removed the option for Fibre 900 (only SF1 and SF2) last week. When I queries, they told me it was because of the requirement for new orders not to have an engineer visit (which is a requirement for FTTP to deliver Fibre 900). Irony was that it was showing SF1 and SF2 for my address, where we cannot (and never have been able to get) FTTC so we would require an engineer visit for SF1/SF2.
Not sure anyone really knows what’s going on, I think a lot of it depends on if you get to speak to the right people who know how. I have raised a complaint centred on 2 points, inability to order Fibre 900 and inability to perform any package change on MyBT. At this stage, fairly sure the calls are being routed to any available person no matter what option/existing account you have as well.
I upgraded from Fibre 300 to Fibre 900 yesterday (goes live tonight). Previously quoted £56.99 on 3 occasions even though I stated others had been offered £54.99 etc. Called yesterday and mentioned about the £39.99 some customers are paying and was told that deals are customer specific but they had their doubts about that price. I was offered £54.99 for 910Mbps so I went for it.
To those who got the £39.99 was you coming from an ASDL connection as I can see that being a reason they would give lower prices, as I imagine they want to migrate everyone away from ADSL.
Fingers crossed that could be me. Currently using ADSL at a very poor 1Mbps down and almost nothing up but so very close to having FTTP completed as we speak.
I was already on FTTP on Fibre Essential (36/10) paying £25/month before I was offered it.
@Mike D
@Tim Procter
@spycat
£39.99 for Fibre 900 is a great price (and actually in line with Gigafast 900 from Vodafone). How did you get that from BT?
I’m currently on ADSL, but my line is showing as FTTP ready (up to 1000) and I saw online the advertised price of £59.99 a month. Can you just ring them up and get the new Install for £39 a month for 900/115?
I was under the impression that during this COVID crisis, all new installs are cancelled though. Got a venerable person in our house so will have to wait it out.
Very interested to know how you got that price though!
I can now see the Full900 upgrade option. Unfortunately it comes with BT Complete wifi which I don’t want. Anyone been able to get this removed (should reduce the costs?)? Thanks
Just upgraded to 900 service @ £54.99 per month for 24 months. Activation in next couple of days.
Just called BT to see if I could upgrade; Already on Fibre 250 with Halo, etc. Advised I would need an engineer to visit which seemed odd…
Anyone know if you need an engineer or it’s just fluff? BT DSL Checker is offline for me.
I have an ONT in the oblong case with BBU inside the case?
Thx
I upgraded to the 900 service but my speed has been dropping gradually I am now maxing at 600mbps on a wired connection with nothing else on! I have an open fault with BT but they keep getting me to resent the open reach modem I have done this at least 6 time it’s a joke! Anyone has had the same problem with speed degradation?
Thanks
Upgraded from 250 to 900 also, activated in the next couple of days. Only managed to get it down to £54.99, how the hell did someone manage to get it for £40??
Decent price, can I ask how much you were paying for 250 prior to the upgrade?
Hi there, I was on the 250 package (was actually called 300 or 330 i think before, and I get about 330 speed), and I got it for £47/pm. Again this was through calling up and negotiating it before ordering.
When i called to upgrade to 900 she first said best she could do was £57.99, i said ok i’ll probably leave it for the moment but might check in a few months, she went away and came back with 54.99.
Still not been activated yet though even though it should have been on Monday
Thanks for the reply. I guess this is where the issue is me getting a lower price. One of the sales team said they couldn’t both upgrade my broadband and at the same time reduce my monthly price.
Guess that leaves me no choice but to leave and join again as a new customer which is a joke.
Don’t see why new customers always get better deals than current loyal customers!
What number did you ring? I rang the FTTP number (0800 587 4787) which I used last time when ordering 250, they’ve always been very helpful
@TT: Thanks for the number. I’ve tried ringing it and the lady wouldn’t shift at all from £69.99 p/m.
I’m out of the minimum contract period on 330/50 so I would’ve thought it was a no-brainer that I’d be able to get the new customer price, but apparently not!
Update: I rang back, spoke to someone else, they also insisted they couldn’t budge from £69.99. I said this was ridiculous because the new customer deal is £59.99 for 24 months then rising to £67.99 a month, so how could it be £2 more expensive for me than the final price for a new customer?!
It makes no sense, especially as I’m out of contract. He insisted so I told them I was leaving, and only once I confirmed that did I then get out through to the “loyalty” team who gave me the upgrade to Fibre 900 at £54.99 p/m.
So if you’re out of contract and they’re not budging, just start the process of leaving.
Thanks for your help, finally got to the magic number of £54.99 after speaking to yet another sales advisor on the phone. Not sure how they work out who to give this price to as it seems who you manage to get at the other end of the phone.
Quick question. I had my Full Fibre 900 activated today but not seeing anywhere close to 900mbps (200-350 MAX) and still seems to cap at 50Mbps upload
I know it depends on devices etc… but i should be seeing much faster speeds on my wireless 11ac devices.
I set up the new Smart Hub 2 as per the instructions but no (super) fast speeds yet!
Restarted the modem and the router but no change?
Strange it took so much effort for both of you to get down to 54.99, I didn’t haggle too hard!
Anyway, mine still isn’t activated, so B Wayne maybe yours isnt actually active? My order is outstanding, even though it was supposed to be last week
Actually, I lie, mine is upgraded now I just hadn’t checked in a couple of days. It took 11 days longer than originally estimated though, but I can appreciate with the current situation things will be delayed. Getting about 700 down and 130 up, that’s on Wifi but still definitely upgraded from the 330/50
Currently on 250 paying £59.99pm looking for an upgrade to 900.
Defo depends on who you get. Spoke to one person who would not budge from £69.99 pm
then put the phone down, called back and the next person offered £66 pm.
Couldn’t get no where near £54.99, never mind £40!
I live in a very rural area in South Derbyshire, 3 years ago we were on 2mbs/0.5 upload, so you cannot imagine how excited I am atm. On Monday 29.06,i am getting BT’s 500mb fttp package plus BT TV for 49.99 per month.
I am currently on fibre 250 with halo 1 paying 59.99. Reading the comments on here I thought I would ring using the 0800 587 4787 number . I was offered fibre 900 with complete wifi and halo for 76.99 or 66.99 for halo 1 without complete wifi. I mentioned
this website and that I saw prices of 54.99 to 59.99 being offered and said he couldn’t match these prices. He admitted that he couldn’t move on price but if he put me through to the sales team (or something like that) then I would be treated as “downgrading” and they might be able to better the price. I asked if I would still get halo and he said unlikely as you would be treated as downgrading and hence possibly the better price. The thing is I want to move to BT mobile (from Three) as I can get a better deal than I get at moment and with the halo benefits I can double my data etc. My question therefore is does this 54.99 deal come with Halo benefits (was looking at complete wifi but reckon smart hub 2 should give better coverage than current hub 6 so shouldn’t need it). Are you guys getting Halo. Unlikely to get £40 deal (in my dreams)
Hi Paul. My upgrade to the 900 package is still going through (see my comments above), but they did tell me I would keep Halo. I already had Halo (and was making use of it with 2 Family SIMs), so I don’t know if they added in it because of that or if it’s a standard part of the 900 package.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL shows 1000/200 FTTP service available at my address/phone line but BT Retail website checker is stupidly currently only showing 16Mbps ADSL2+ as available at my address because some management big cheese at BT Retail thought it was easier to just disappear FTTP availabity at addresses needing an ONT install than to tell the real truth that its available but the date of the engineer visit cannot yet be set (don’t know why when home movers and gas engineers are allowed in to your home wearing face masks) due to their COVID-19 shutdown.
BT Retail sales phone line also just dumbly assure me only ADSL2+ is available and claim my cabinet must be full when challenged on the issue. They still continued their script however by trying to get me to move my ADSL2+ service to them with a new 24 month contract lock in for somebody who is out of contract.
All of BT’s competitors like Zen, IDNet, Acquiss etc all show FTTP as available but only want to sell me slow versions of the service and/or at much higher prices than BT Retail Acquiss also told me install dates were available from Openreach but were currently running in to July onwards.
I rang the number about but as a new customer I was told that the prices on the website for the FTTP were the only ones available :-[
Called yesterday to upgrade to FTTP 900 was activated at midnight.
Couldn’t get 59.99 so had to keep halo thing for £67.76 month
Just to say BT Retail management finally seem to have realised their own idiocy in only showing ADSL2+ as available at my address just because it required an ONT install and no new ONT installs are taking a place for a while (although if a gas engineer can visit with a facemask then why can’t an Openreach engineer)
So anyway at my home postcode at RH5 5GA Full Fibre 900 at £59.99 per month, Full Fibre 500 at £49.99 per month, Full Fibre 100 at £39.99 per month, Fibre 1 at £27.99 per month (50Mbps Speed) and the seemingly pointless Fibre Essential at the same £27.99 per month (36Mps speed) are all now shown as available. Intriguingly they aren’t even now showing ADSL2+ as available to buy at all. Is this because BT is now refusing to do new ADSL2+ installs on exchanges that have FTTP available?
I see that calling options are now also different from the past with either no calls included Pay As You Go at a billing pounds a clock per call or the totally inadequate 500 minutes at £5 per month or the expensive Unlimited calls at £15 per month. The only good thing about these calling plans is that BT is finally including mobiles but only at a vastly increased price for unlimited Anytime calls.
I would love to have the 900 Mbps service with Unlimited calls but don’t see how I can really justify £75 per month in a single person household. For a family household of 2 adults and 2 or 3 teenagers it would of course be great value.
Also the killer as far as I’m concerned is the 24 momth contract as I have had this flat for years and am actively thinking of leaving including possibly moving abroad or merging with another household. If it was only a 12 month contract I would probably be prepared to give it go. Clearly their install investment wouldn’t be wasted as their is no Virgin here and so the next occupant would also make use of the fibre cable and the ONT. SO why do they have to penalise me for leaving before 2 years if the next owner also takes up FTTP broadband? Why can’t I just pay for the actual cost of the ONT install and then be on a 1 month contract?
I also don’t see why they can’t some up with data capped versions of their 900Mb plan at data quantities and prices that are appropriate for a single person household……..
Just to say that BT hide until the end of the order process that there is an additional unavoidable charge of a further £23.61 for the phone line (with no calls) on top of the £59.99 for Full Fibre 900. Unlike Zen, IDNet, Aquiss etc you can’t even order any BT FTTP service without the FTTP phone line.
So in reality the cost of Full Fibre 900 is at least £83.60 per month for just the 900Mbps Full Fibre 900 and compulsory fibre phone line. This compares with ADSL2+ at 16Mbps speed here at £18.99 per month for the first year with Now Tv including unlimited calls to landline and mobiles and cancellation charges of well under £100, even if cancelling after 6 months, and none after 12 months. Also for £20 a month I can have unlimited calls and 80Gb of data with GiffGaff and I don’t seem to use more than 50Gb per month even with watching online tv programs.
And don’t forget that BT mobile is another £20 per for unlimited calls and data on top of this and a further £15 per month for unlimited FTTP landline and mobile calls. So its £118.60 with BT for unlimited calls and data vs £20 per month with GiffGaff. And 24 months contract with BT vs 1 month or less contract with GiffGaff….
So once again BT is far too expensive and only seems to want large families of four or home office customers for its full speed fibre product…….
Talked to a very good BT Broadband adviser in South Wales who by chance was FTTP trained and clearly a technophile.
He maintained there was no line charge of £23.61 on top of the £59.99 for their Fibre 900 service and said that unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles should be £12 and not £15 per month. So ran BT ordering wizard again and this time there is no line charge of £23.61 on top but the unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles was still definitely £15 and not £12 a month. So seems like BT has put this price up lately but he is unaware. How exactly do they expect people to pay £15 a month for unlimited mobile and landline calls when a cheap 1 month mobile contract costing as little as £5 a month and with some data too (probably 500Mb at this price level) provides unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles.
I think what I want is a a 900Mbs package with a 100Gb data cap and unlimited calls for say £39.99 a month since as a single person household I won’t use more data than this. But no single bods like me are supposed to subsidise all the family users getting through many Terrabytes of data a month and making several thousands of minutes of phone calls. This unlimited pricing model does not exist for gas, electricity, petrol, supermarket shopping or going to live music or sports events. So why does BT only sell its Fibre 900 service on an unlimited basis that makes it unaffordable for non family sized households?
Net result is their fibre cable will continue to pass my front door while still remaining unused.
Also now found this BT page at http://www.bt.com/help/account-and-billing/information-about-your-bt-contract that says “All of our contracts vary in length. Most of our contracts are for 12 months, but we do have some that are 18 and 24 months.” But when I ask their telephone advisers about this and how I can have any broadband connection from BT with less than a 24 month contract I am told it is not possible. If I ask about a just pay for the engineer install cost of the ONT and pay on a 1 month contract option or 6 month, 12 month or 18 month contracts they do not exist so the help page is wrong and is a lie.
If I challenge why their contract needs to be 24 months I am told this is because customer’s like securing their pricing for this long and not having to renegotiate.
When I ask what abut customers who may move abroad or move in with another household and so no longer need a BT line of their own they then finally admit you will be hit with massive and swingeing penalty charges if you do so only 3 or 6 months in to the contract. This is even though the next customer living here will almost certainly make use of the ONT and their FTTP services, especially seeing as how Talktalk and Sky don’t do FTTP (despite endless bullshitting claiming they are about to do so) and all the other current FTTP providers like Zen, IDNet and Andrews & Arnold who provide service over BT FTTP cables only provide much slower maximum FTTP speeds at much higher prices than BT does.
I have just completed a comprehensive review of broadband availability here during which I discovered I can get Now Tv Brilliant Broadband on ADSl2+ at 16Mbps at this address (already get this from Plusnet but at extortionate £33 per month) at £18 per month for 12 months with unlimited calls to landlines and mobiles and then with £100 cashback from Quidco taking the net cost down to £9.75 per month with negligible cancellation cost were I to cancel between months 6 and 12.
This makes it as cheap as tethering my mobile on GiffGaff at £20 per month (I will go back to the £10 a month GiffGaff plan) without all the hassle of worrying about exceeding the 80Gb cap if I watch too much streaming tv or of course discontinuing my trust landline completely as I would have to do if relying totally on GiffGaff.
BT’s 900Mbps service would be nice to have but ultimately it is just way too expensive and I’m not prepared to consider the slower but cheaper BT FTTP services due to the stupid 2 year contract requirement and their large penalty charges for terminating early if you move in with another household or move overseas………
So why is it that all the main broadband comparison sites apart wrongly show that EE is providing 145Mbps Broadband at my address and only Uswitch shows BT offering FTTP or any other broadband products at all at my address (postcode RH5 5GA). Do they perhaps omit BT because BT doesn’t pay them any commission? Although can’t understand this as BT clearly does pay commission to those clicking through to BT Retails from TopCashBack or Quidco.
The net result of this is that I am only shown ADSL2+ product offerings from all the main providers apart from EE where all the comparison sites also claim that EE offers 145Mbps FTTP service at my address at postcode RH5 5GA but they don’t and in fact only offer 16Mbps ADSL2+. It seems naughty EE must only have backhaul equipment in some larger BT FTTP enabled exchanges but in their database provided to comparison sites must claim their service is available in any BT FTTP enabled exchange.
Yet almost none of these comparison sites shows BT FTTP products available at all or if they do they get it wrong and only show the 300Mbps service as the fastest available. They also don’t seem to show BT copper ADSL2+ products in several cases.
Is the regulator Ofcom completely asleep at the wheel to be letting the comparison sites get things this badly wrong??????
Not one comparison site correctly shows BT offering their new fastst 500Mbps and 900Mbos products at my address or their other slower FTTP offerings such as Fibre Essential.
I’m currently looking to switch to a FTTP package as I have it installed including the ONT in my home. I’ve tried the BT website and online chat and the fastest I can get is 300 (Fibre 250) for £49.99. Why is the 500/900 not showing? It seems silly to pay the same price for 300 when I could get the 500 (if it allows me) – this is preventing me from signing up as a new customer, any ideas? Is it only available in certain areas?
Not all BT FTTP exchanges can do the new 910/110 service depending on the kit that is installed at the exchange. Many only can still do Fibre 300/30 at the current time (a service that dates back as far as 2012)
Seems it depends on what equipment is installed at the exchange. As long as its Huawei then you seem to be able to get the full Fibre 900 service.
Fibre 500 was a temporary marketing upgrade offer from Fibre 300 BT was offering at the same price until a week or two ago. Annoyingly now on Fibre 900 capable exchanges they are only offering Fibre 900 or Fibre 300, 150 etc again. Fibre 500 was being offered at the same £49.99 per month as Fibre 300 but Fibre 900 was only £10 a month more.
All in all I would like to have Fibre 900 but consider £60 per month plus £15 per month for Anytime calls (compared to £5 per month on various cheap 1 month contract SIM deals for the same Anytime calls to landlines and mobiles) a total ripoff. So going to wait until BT has competition from TalkTalk and Sky and prices head down to the £40 per month that I’m willing to pay……
I’ve been trying to find Fibre 500 deals but all I see are Fibre 300 and Fibre 900. I was thinking of ringing and asking but after reading some comments here I assume that the Fibre 500 was some sort of temporary offer and that I should give up?
Just as an update. I rang up BT and they offered me 500 at the price of Fibre 250.