ISP BT Launches Free UK FTTP Broadband Speed Boost Trial
Customers of BT’s consumer broadband ISP, specifically those with one of their “full fibre” (FTTP) packages, can now benefit from a new “speed boost trial”, which will allow them to test out faster download speeds of up to 500Mbps at no extra cost. Customers who decide not to keep the faster tier will be put back on their previous package.
New Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) customers will be able to activate the speed boost for 1 month free of charge. For example, customer taking BT’s ‘Full Fibre Essential’ or ‘Full Fibre 1’ packages will be bumped up to ‘Full Fibre 100’, which is 5 times faster, while ‘Full Fibre 2’ and ‘Full Fibre 100’ customers will see their package boosted to Full Fibre 500, saving £20.
In order to activate the speed boost, customers can simply visit the ‘Broadband: Extras‘ tab on the BT.com site, and upgrade to a new package of their choosing.
Sharon Meadows, BT’s Director of Propositions, said:
“We’re delighted to be introducing the speed boost to new BT Full Fibre customers. With a growing number of connected devices in the home and Brits adopting technology so readily, it’s more important than ever to have the fastest speeds and best reliability on the market.
“We want to give our customers flexibility in the packages they choose, which is why we’re offering a one-month trial of faster packages for no extra cost. It can be hard to imagine what a game changer it is having ultra-fast and reliable connectivity, and this way, BT customers can see the impact of the speed boost for themselves, without having to commit to an upgrade.”
Just to recap, BT’s current range of “Fibre” packages are as follows.
Full Fibre Essential
Average Download of 36Mbps (1Mbps upload)Price: £25.99 a month for 24 months (£33.99 thereafter)
Fibre 1
Average Download of 50Mbps (10Mbps upload)
£50 BT Reward CardPrice: £27.99 a month for 24 months (£35.99 thereafter)
Fibre 2
Average Download of 67Mbps (20Mbps upload)
£90 BT Reward CardPrice: £29.99 a month for 24 months (£38.99 thereafter)
Full Fibre 100
Average Download of 150Mbps (30Mbps upload)Price: £29.99 – £35.99 a month for 24 months (£43.99 thereafter)
Full Fibre 500
Average Download of 500Mbps (73Mbps upload)Price: £39.99 – £45.99 a month for 24 months (£53.99 thereafter)
Full Fibre 900
Average Download of 900Mbps (110Mbps upload)Price: £49.99 – £55.99 a month for 24 months (£63.99 thereafter)
The reason why the Full Fibre 100, 500 and 900Mbps have two different monthly prices is because some areas are currently able to benefit from a bigger “regional” discount, while other areas pay a bit more.
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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Isn’t this simply them getting customers to re-contract on a new 24(?) month contract and in return offering their first month at the new rate at the same (presumably lower due to it being a lower package that they have upgraded from) as they were previously paying?
I don’t have a problem with the idea of a trial of a faster package, I think that’s a good idea and I’d like to see other ISPs offer that, but not keen on it simply being a way in to a re-contract starting the clock all over again (reason given previously for fixed 12 or 24 month packages was to cover hardware/install costs, which these presumably don’t have!?), and would like to know if it’s an “if you forget to downgrade back/cancel the boost” that you automatically start paying for the higher rate package, much like most “free trial” offers tend to hope you will forget to cancel before the end of the trial and then you are stuck in the contract paying for the rest once the trial has ended.
Hopefully it’s not a new contract, Virgin Media let me upgrade from 350 to 500 without needing to recontract.
James™ I am sure virgin telling you this no contract but wait until you get a next billing and it will put you on new contract. I heard horror stories that customers was told no contract when upgraded but soon found out VM are lying and it does indeed got a new contract and face a long battle with VM to get that the contract written off.
@adslmax, nope it wasn’t a new contract, just a change of plan. And when I was due for my contract renewal. Rightly so I got confirmation and called them up.
I should note when Gig1 became available they wanted me to sign a new contract if I was to upgrade to that.
@James – Gig1 is a contracted 18 months with a price fix of 24, that one isn’t negotiable from my understanding. As for just a speed upgrade that is possible and only recontracts if you take it with a different price or offer but as standard it increases by £6/per tier, ADSL is fully anti-Virgin and anything else that isn’t Talktalk
I currently have the 300mb package and I am not given the option to upgrade to 500.
Thats probably as you are on the same tier. If you ring BT and ask to be upgraded to 500 they will probably do it for the same price as you are paying now. The 500 tier replaced 300 so you shouldnt have to pay extra.
Not every area is being offered the 500 option at the moment
Just checked using a neighbours address and they do not offer 300 anymore
BT have moved to offering 500, I think it’s to offer similar to Sky and TalkTalk.
Called BT was told it was not an option they could process and the best they could do would be to offer the Halo 500 for 49.99. I didn’t even know that game had been released!
Steve,
Sometimes it just depends who you are talking to on the phone. Ask them specifically why you cant be moved for free and point out that Sky are doing it for 45 quid. Sounds like the person you were talking to wanted their commission. Get a reason from them as to why you cant change for free and point out that they have a guarantee that you will never be charged more than a new customer, according to their adverts. Their 500 is now £45.99 i think.
Ken, he was pointing out that I had a regional offer already and I suppose if they no longer sell 300mb I cannot say I am paying more than a new customer. I also see they are now charging £2 extra for a landline. Anyway at this point of time I cannot be bothered to waste any more time with them on the phone and 300 is fast enough for my current needs although the upload boost would be useful.
Ive got 330meg and cant notice a difference between this and 80 so il stay as i am . Fine for downloading but hasnt made any difference to my life
If you are a gamer you will notice it. Xbox servers from Microsoft top out at around 350 meg download, so there isnt any point in getting faster for gaming than 300. Xbox game pass games can be up to 100GB in size, and when you get the game pass you certainly will notice FTTP speeds. Other than that, you are correct, unless you are a Youtube uploader which does support 110 meg upload and faster. Your videos are uploaded before you are finished filling in the details instead of having to wait 25 minutes to upload.
That’s funny early yesterday I was downloading at 700 Meg
Matt,
Which FTTP package and xbox are you on? We used to download at 150 meg but it went up to 350 or so after i added a faster external hard drive to the xbox. We use the original xbox one from about 7 years ago. Good for you for getting those speeds! I get 900 on the PC though, instead of the 350 on xbox.
1. What is the regional discount about? So is there not a universal base price for FTTP on Openreach with an ISP like BT?
2. Is there going to be some type of likely discount in October (owing to Openreach cutting its cost to ISPs)?
Trying to decide upon when to upgrade given FTTP is now available. From what I can see, Vodafone is offering Openreach up to 900 and TalkTalk offering Openreach FTTP up to 500?
Also, does anyone know if BT still increase the price during the contract with various complex price changes instead of the standard inflation change once a year?
1. The price range is covered in the article. Regional discounts are usually given when an area is rolled out but if you search hard enough you will find the regional discount links work anywhere. Try searching for bt fttp Bristol regional discount.
2. It is possible.
3. One price change a year but it is inflation plus a fixed amount, I think 4.5%
With a little URL manipulation you can combine the £240 regional discount with Topcashback, I managed £105 cashback on the 150mbit service with the £240 on top.
This brings the price on 150mbit down to a shade under £26/month on 24 month contract.
@Steve & @Frank Butcher
How do you see a Regional discount though? Isn’t it only for certain areas/postcodes?
It still seems like the price is much higher versus what TalkTalk are offering in their own FTTP network (only in certain cities), or similarly CityFibre products. Not to mention, people here saying that Openreach may reduce the wholesale price possibly within the next 3 months meaning all ISPs on Openreach could POTENTIALLY try to outbid each other to a lower price point for the new customer at that point.
The other thing is BT’s Smarthub at the moment surely should be a bit more upmarket to give higher wifi speeds for the 500-900Mbps services?
See https://www.hotukdeals.com/comments/permalink/41867295
This works with Topcashback as well.
I should have added that this works for my postcode which has only just been enabled for FTTP, and doesn’t currently show the discount via the standard process.
I assume it takes a while for this discount to be applied automatically as adjacent postcodes (some in the same road) automatically show this discount, but they are on a different splitter node that went live a few months ago.
@Frank Butcher
Thank you. I guess the Regional Discount only shows up on the BT website after a while then.
Might wait to see if they reduce the price in about a month or two. I can see now that others like Vodafone and TalkTalk are beginning to offer FTTP on Openreach also.
Where exactly in bt.com can I request this trial? I looked everywhere and I am unable to find it 🙁
Are you a new FTTP customer, i.e. contracted on or after 20th August 2021 when they announced the promotion? If not, you’re not eligible to take part.
Cannot find it
Are you a new FTTP customer, i.e. contracted on or after 20th August 2021 when they announced the promotion? If not, you’re not eligible to take part.
Isn’t this an attempt by BT to move people from contracts that increase by CPI to ones that increase by CPI plus 3.9%. Unless you recontract you avoid the eye watering extra 3.9% price rises. BT are giving nothing away with the speed increase as they will get it back through years of price rises.
No because the promotion isn’t open to existing customers.
It’s a shame this is only open to new customers. I upgraded to FTTP with BT and took the Full Fibre 100 package way back in July (last month) so am not new enough to be eligible for this (BT has confirmed this to me).
I’m not sure where the logic lies in excluding their larger customer base of existing customers, in favour of the small number of new ones trickling through, from a promotion that could encourage many to stick with higher speeds and thus pay more. Perhaps it’s as much a trial for BT as it is for their customers and they’re testing the waters before rolling out the promotion to existing customers at a later date.