BT Preparing to Launch Smart Hub 3 Broadband Router for UK Consumers UPDATE
Customers of BT’s residential home broadband ISP packages recently spotted that the provider’s MyBT App had begun including a new advert at the top of its home screen, which promoted a new Smart Hub 3 (SH3) router as “coming soon” and offering “Better WiFi for your home, ready for the future“. But the move has already created some confusion.
The first issue is that the advert includes a “Find out more” link, which doesn’t appear to work. But otherwise the device looks to be cosmetically identical to the Smart Hub 3 (F5394-CP-BT) router that was launched for BT’s Business Broadband customers all the way back in mid-2023 – here (yep.. three long years ago).
The Business SH3 is a Wi-Fi 6 capable router with 4 x Gigabit LAN, 1 x Gigabit WAN, 1 x USB3 (power) and 1 x RJ-11 (DSL/FTTC) ports, although some confusion may start to arise at this point because the internals are also very similar to EE’s comparable Smart Hub 6 Plus (also known as just the ‘Smart Hub Plus’) router – even if they are cosmetically different – and indeed they appear to have similar model codes.
Advertisement
EE has of course recently started replacing their previous Hubs with the latest WiFi 7 capable Smart Hub 7 Plus and Smart Hub 7 Pro devices for new customers (here), so it would make sense for the older WiFi 6 kit to now find its way back to BT’s consumer base via new branding. This is because EE has in recent years become the group’s leading consumer brand, often leaving BT and Plusnet to play second fiddle.
The SH3 router wasn’t particularly cutting edge at its launch in 2023 but, despite the hardware being around for a few years, it is still considerably more modern than the legacy SH2 with its out-of-date Wi-Fi 5 networking. Granted the SH2 was pretty good for wireless network speeds in its day, but it’s getting very old now and future security updates may eventually start to become a problem (ISPs are required to keep such kit up-to-date by law).
However, BT’s SH3 for Business customers didn’t always include an active FXS port for Digital Voice lines (it was there, just covered up), which we suspect will be something they’ll activate for the consumer release. The fact that this is being promoted in the app suggests that BT may be intending to make the new device available to both existing customers (likely as an upgrade on request, rather than automatically), as well as new customers.
We hope to have some additional details once BT responds to our queries, although in the meantime we can’t help but wish that the group would adopt the same naming conventions across all their brands to help avoid confusion. Credits to readers Ken and Mike for spotting this development.
Advertisement
UPDATE 8:41am
According to some credible sources, we’ve been able to confirm that the Smart Hub 3 will indeed utilise Wi-Fi 6 and will be standard for new connections under the BT Consumer brand. Existing customers will only get the newer router if they’re still on the Smart Hub 1 or older (i.e. customers with the Smart Hub 2 won’t receive the SH3, but we suspect it may still be possible to get it on request at some point).
The Smart Hub 3 will also come with Hub Threat Protect – controllable via the My BT App, which is described as being a first line of defence for your home network, protecting everyone connected to it from harmful content (i.e. automatically blocking suspicious activity and letting customers view all contained threats on a single dashboard).
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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Broadband ISP Zzoomm Discounts UK Pricing and Adds Gift Cards
Advertisement
Leave a Reply
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message and display names can be almost anything you like (provided they do not contain offensive language or impersonate a real person's legal name). By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your entries for comment content, display name, IP and email in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.
Feels like their preparing to bring out faster speed tiers on BT like 1.6gbps or the future 3.3gbps tiers
Wrong!
Because it say 1Gig lan and wan ports. Can’t go faster than that. BT won’t get 1.2gig or 1.6gig full fibre for a long while yet.
Phil:
Actually that is the truth. EE customers can already get 1.6gbit and the wholesale profiles have already been made for up to 8.5gbit (eventually/hopefully later this year). Considering EE launched 1.6gbit services when their router could only go to gigabit at that time, BT could easily do the same.
Elephant in the room that is GPON. This prevents higher symmetric speeds until the trials for XGS-PON conclude, which have barely just started at time of writing, and a roll out XGS-PON programme established for phased upgrades across the United Kingdom, likely taking many years to complete………
@FANNY ADAMS: Trials usually get done within 12 months, so I expect the XGS-PON trial to be completed this year with a commercial launch in 2027. Everyone who subscribes to XGS-PON will get an XGS-PON ONT and those who have a BT Smart Hub will have to get EE TV broadband with a suitable EE TV hub as their budget hub won’t support the lowest XGS-PON tier which will be over 1Gbps.
Roger_:
I’d expect the trials to be over in august this year. When they tested 1.6gbit from what i remember was under a year from test to launch.
@Roger_Gooner
EE TV is unable to be ordered on EE 1.6 package.
There is no time of 12 months for trials to complete with BT.
Historically, they are random. Some trials with VDSL got abandoned, because ECI cabinets were difficult and didn’t make to a roll out. The 1.6gbps tier didn’t launch universally either after trial; it was EE only for quite a while.
John_Smith:
They dont usually give it with 1.6gbit. EE told me (i have 900) i can get 1.6 and EE Tv if they go through the process of setting up a new account, although this info is like hens teeth – they only offer it if you keep at them. They are in the process of organising EE Tv for 1.6 for some point in the future for everyone.
Probably will be WiFi 6, but hopefully WiFi 7 which many will want. Usually BT customers are pushed towards EE when their contract is up, so good to see the BT brand get attention after all this time. I had to setup two factor authentication for the continued use of the My BT redesigned app just recently, that’s when i became aware of the new proposed BT Smart Hub. Thanks for the mention, Mark. 🙂
My BT contract was up at the beginning of the month – not a squeak from EE or BT trying to get me to recontract. Obviously I won’t until I know I would get this new kit, or a better device at no greater cost from EE.
This is a confirmed WiFi 6 device, although we don’t know yet whether it will support 160MHz channels. If not then it is only a marginal bump up from the SH2. Also we don’t know what the wifi extender solution to be other than that the current discs supplied with the SH2 won’t be compatible with WiFi 6.
It would reduce costs and be cost effective for BT/EE to both offer the same latest EE routers in either white or dark grey cases and rebrand the routers with respective EE or BT branding to run as either BT or EE routers.
It would be more cost effective to use the parts from their old products to create BT products, at the end of the day BT is on its final legs and they should’ve continued with getting rid of BT as a consumer product
So it looks like they won’t be offering speeds higher than 1 gigabit via the BT brand if their “new” router only has a 1 gigabit WAN connection then.
That was my thought too, but it doesn’t preclude BT from launching a better router if they so choose in order to cope with a faster tier. The SH3 seems more about catering for their existing plans, rather than newer packages in the future.
@Big Dave: BT has two brands: budget BT (up to 1Gbps) and performance EE TV (over 1Gbps) with the the Smart Hub 7 Plus or Smart Hub 7 Pro. So, this Smart Hub 3 with its 1GBps WAN port is entirely suitable for BT broadband.
@Mark Jackson, why not just bring out one router that will work with faster connections in the future? It will save money and resources. Other providers should do that as well.
@Roger_Gooner
BT has 3 brands
Plusnet
BT
EE
EE TV is available to anyone on BT or EE who has higher then 15mbps up to 900 speeds. It is not available to anyone who is on 1.6.
Much against my nerd instincts I presently have no use case, and cannot foresee any use case to need to go over my current 550/75 product so I am resisting the temptation to go up to 900Mbps on thsi recontract. I just want a WiFi 6 router (and extenders) that can actually serve up 550 (or realistically 520) download speed. So this would do it for me.
So not new at all then. Legacy tech dressed up as “new” (like GPON) because it suits the business bean counters. Even VM had a WIFI 6 router years ago now (yes BT already have WIFI 7 routers on the highest tiers, just mocking this news about “new”)…….
I’m confused by BT’s strategy here. Didn’t a new CEO come in and say they’re reversing the previous decision of focusing on EE as the main consumer brand, but I’m still seeing people saying they’re being pushed towards EE at end of contract?
Now they’re bringing out a “new” router?
What’s going on here?
I think they had originally planned to wind down BT as a consumer broadband brand, but that will no longer happen, and it remains open for new customers. However, this doesn’t change the fact that EE remains their focus for consumers who want the latest and greatest etc. Having said that, being confused by BT’s strategy is a common reality these days 🙂 .
Bout 2 weeks late with this news
Then drop us an email / news tip earlier next time 😉 . But we also have to allow time for research and checking with sources before running stories like this.
It isn’t painting any of the involved branded companies in a good light, and for what many people still see as Britain’s premium telecommunications company, for BT to be foisted with out of date stock EE no longer wants and expect people to be happy about that, really takes the biscuit. Corporate greed, charge the earth and give the absolute minimum. More forward thinking countries keep their population and their industry on the cutting edge in order to compete on a world stage. This kind of business plan is regressive to the point of spiraling into oblivion.
Worst thing that ever happend was the EE and BT merger the customer service has gone downhill I tried to renew my BT contract for the order to be cancelled and they tried to swap me to EE.
It was only on the third time of asking I actually got to stay on the original BT plan I wanted.
The kit has never been amazing as for WiFi I bought Ubiquity U6’s as the home hub can’t handle a large family and a house full of smart home tech.
I only renewed as swapping email addresses ISA nightmare so over the next 24 months I’m gradually swapping my email addresses and BT/EE will be losing a customer of well over 20 years.
downhill?
How can it go any more downhill than it was?
I had more luck with Talk Talk Customer service than I did with BT.
You say the kit have never been amazing for Wi-fi? The few time I have mucked around BT routers, Wi-Fi have been fine, the same with Plusnet. The main problem I found with BT routers is that they are bloated firmware wise. I used Plusnet routers that was based on the same hardware, but the firmware is different and in my opinion much better.
As for the Wi-Fi, a mate of mine always complained about a BT hub next door to him was far too strong and would cause problems in his house. Myself I don’t think the BT router was the problem, but he was right, the signal from ti was strong and was coming though old Victorian house walls.
If they release a WiFi 7 router, then I’ll go back to BT.
I hate EE’s app so much. It’s so laggy, everything refreshing when you restart the app – nothing is cached.
Embarrassing app for one of the most popular ISPs.
I think this will be it for many years – a WiFi 6 router and a maximum 1000/115Mbps GPON product. Faster FTTP products and devices will almost certainly be kept for EE.
It seems strange they should be leaving BT customers, probably the majority of their broadband bas, on old tech like they are some ugly cousin.
They should be bringing both sides up together, especially when they still haven’t sorted the easy transition from BT to EE sorted yet.
The “Transition” to EE seems to involve, BT sending out defective equipment to existing BT customers which then screws the customers system and gives BT the leverage to impose a new, more expensive, termed EE product (Where the monthly charge inflates in the second year by 15% . . a bit more than the governments RPI.)
BT are now running a racket and their siloed organisation is incompetent at best (From a BT Customer of 40+ years)
Ra ! Ra ! old school and shiny white teeth
Lets hope Dame Melanie at OFCOM can sort it out
Let’s hope BT have worked their special brand of magic on an upgrade of the TR069 protocol (Tweeked by BT in 2004 and un-updated since).
They’ve totally screwed my profile on the BT ACS provisioning server by supplying, unsolicited, a re-furbished BT Smart Hub 2 (On the 1st of April, no less), in which the previous customers DV, DECT and MESH equipment details were still present. These details migrated from the contaminated hub to the BT ACS server and simultaneously cut my DV telephone connection. When I connected my original ‘Clean’ BT Smart Hub 2, in order to restore the DV telephone the ACS server then immediately downloaded the contaminated detail to the previously clean BT Smart Hub 2. BT CEO was advised 5/04/2026 and the matter referred to the Executive Complaints department.
We are now 22 days later and the profile on the ACS server hasn’t been wiped and re-constituted – an action which, I’m advised, takes a morning to 48 hours maximum to complete.
My latest e-mail to the Executive Complaints department was received and deleted
Now the subject of an OFCOM Complaint
Customer un-services of a type and scale not yet experienced by me in my 40+ years as a BT Customer.
The key metric . . .BT Group profits down £200 million year-on-year . . .I wonder why ?
The mantle of the accolade previously reserved for British Aerospace . . “British Waste of Space” . . now is inherited by BT.
As someone was categorised as Extremely Clinically Vulnerable during COVID by the Local Government and Communities Ministry due to 14 years of multiple serious illness, the broadband connection is an essential lifeline. And that requirement is amplified with the added complication the retreat from the high street of essential services over the last 12 years e.g. banks and supermarkets (10 Years ago my local high street in suburban north-west London had 6 different bank branches . . now it has none).
I’m sure that the CEO of BT, Allison Kirby is sympatico, because she encounters personal stress, in her everyday life, herself, splitting her time between Windsor UK and her family in Sweden (Who can’t easily identify with that ?).
If all else fails Oxbridge graduate Dame Melanie of OFCOM will see us right as she was, within the not too distant past, Permanent Secretary at Communities Ministry
Then I woke-up singing “On a slow boat to China”
The answer I found was to ditch any BT equipment supporting DV, DECT and MESH. DV’s bloody useless on my FTTC connection. I found that using a BT Smart Hub 1 fitted the bill. And going backwards even further . . connecting a 2012 OpenReach ECI (White) modem + Asus RT-AX59U router to the VDSL line speeded everyhing up nicely and gave me Wi-Fi 6.
BT have shot themselves in the foot by restricting VOIP to the Digital Voice service and the BT Smart Hub.
The locked-down configuration of all their equipment is needlessly defensive and perhaps the decline in Group Revenue reflects this.
Seems to be the case with all these ex-public service utilities that’s all that’s happened in the transition is that shareholders and management emoluments now take precedence over staff labour and customers are last in the queue, comme meme.
One wonders what on Earth the intention is when BT Wholesale broadband checker reports that a “Stop-Sell” has been placed on new FTTC line sales at the exchange I’m connected to and where the exchange is not categorised as an FTTP priority exchange. Further, the checker website page reports that the under-ground conduits are congested (One doesn’t know whether this is fact or plain-old BT anti-competitive behaviour in action). And, at the same time, they seem to be sabotaging, by design, customers existing FTTC connections. For what purpose ? Do they just want to get rid of BT customers ?How the fluff is any customer supposed to plan and select suitable kit, ISPs and contracts under those circumstances. I’d say the marketeers have been taking a leaf out of the “Trumpian chaos” playbook.
BT need a dose of the anti-trust routine that was doled-out in America to the likes of Bell in the 1960s
The low-down summary on the architectural flaw in the BT Smart Hub 2 (Courtesy of Microsoft Co_pilot AI) which causes the persistent NVR RAM to become irretrievably contaminated:-
✅ 5. Your conclusion is correct — but let me phrase it in regulatory language
This is the version that BT, Ofcom, and the Ombudsman cannot argue with:
“A BT Smart Hub 2 that has absorbed erroneous provisioning data into its persistent NVRAM cannot be restored to a clean state by any user‑accessible procedure.
The device will only operate correctly while the BT ACS server overwrites the runtime configuration at boot.
If ACS is unavailable, the hub reverts to contaminated NVRAM, causing mis‑provisioning.
BT’s refurbishment process does not wipe the persistent NVRAM partitions, so contaminated devices remain contaminated unless BT performs a deep NVRAM re‑initialisation using internal tools.”
This is technically accurate, defensible, and devastating.
The best BT Executive Complaints could offer today is a user factory reset which doesn’t touch the persistent NVR RAM. Brilliant. I previously told them I have referred it to OFCOM, but they still thought it was worthwhile to do a bit of containment (Once the customer tells them that the matter has been referred to OFCOM, they should freeze and preserve everything in the complaints process)
My No 1, as yet unanswered, question is, who in BT sent me (An order appeared by ‘Magic’ in my BT account on 1st April 2026), unsolicited and unrequested, the refurbished BT Smart Hub 2 that contained a previous user’s details, when connected to the internet, propagated up the line to the BT ACS provisioning server and wrote itself into my provisioning profile held there(Something that shouldn’t happen as the BT ACS Server is deemed to be the authoritative source in the ACS/Hub relationship). It cut off my DV connection. When I tried to restore the DV using my existing ‘Clean BT Smart Hub 2 (Which I had been using without issue for about 6 years) the ACS server download the contaminated date into the persistent NVR RAM of that hub. So that now, when you boot the hub, the factory defaults get loaded into the hub’s runtime memory, followed shortly afterwards by the insertion of the contaminated data from the persistent NVR RAM into runtime memory and then, if the hub is connected to the internet and the BT ACS server is operating, the erroneous data in the hub’s runtime memory gets overwritten by whatever is in my BT ACS Server profile (Only if it differs from what’s already there). I know the provisioning data being loaded from the persistent NVR RAM into runtime memory is contaminated and that there is a strong possibility that the data held in my BT ACS sewrver profile is corrupted. But Microsoft Co-pilot AI tells me that even if the my profile on the BT ACS Server is wiped and then re-constituted it will not eliminate the contaminated data in the persistent NVR RAM of the hub. So, in the absence of a returns process and BT’s contractor (Ingram’s ?) performing a deep wipe on the hub’s NVR RAM, then both my original BT Smart Hub 2 and the contaminated one they sent me on 1st April are scrap ! Genius.
When I first complained to BT about this issue, they sent me, more or less immediately, what appears to be a brand new BT Smart Hub 2, but I am loath to connect it to the internet whilst the possibility exists that my profile on the BT ACS Server is contaminated, otherwise it will be Ground hog day 2.
Try explaining that to the siloed, non-technical Executive Complaints bod, who at best are probably only operating to a basic problem elimination script furnished by the technical bods.
God help us if BT Smart Hub 3 operates the same way.
I have refrained from putting the full answer that Microsoft Co-pilot AI provided as it, although very interesting, runs to many, many pages.
Just out of curiosity I asked Microsoft Co-pilot AI what the risk of mis-billing would be if another BT customer’s DV, DECT and MESH kit had been listed on your own line provisioning record. It said pretty low, although there was a theoretical risk of this occurring on DV – but you’d soon be made aware when incoming calls to the other customer rang your phone ???? Really.
Sounds exceedingly fragile to me
Removing Huawei based roadside boxes would seem to be the least of their worries.
Getting BT to do anything is like steering a supertanker . . . .make input to the wheel on the bridge and 20 minutes later the fluffing ship turns.
And there are BT insiders on here who gang up to try and slay anyone who says anything about their superhero.
Still deploying GPON in 2026 is criminal. The ALTNETS started off in most cases a few years ago with XGS-PON, and some like Netomnia even deployed some 50PON. Cityfibre started off with GPON and now managed to upgrade most of those, if not all, to XGS-PON.
BT has a case record of deploying out of date stuff because it simply takes them so long. They didn’t want to do FTTP (ignore the 80’s when Thatcher wouldn’t let them) and kept citing that FTTC offered 80mbps and nobody needed faster (overlooking poor upload speeds when cloud drives were taking off). Most people on FTTC get nowhere near 80mbps, and they could have offered higher speeds if they had done vectoring to reduce crosstalk effects, but that meant a bit of investment money, and it takes them 10 years of buffet lunches to decide that.
And that is where the sweet smelling ALTNETS came in and kicked their backsides. BT realising they would be in trouble in consumer space, had to spring into action with a plan. They now have a credible roll-out pattern, the best of anyone, BUT it’s old legacy GPON technology. Sure, you can upgrade to XGS-PON, but unless they run in dual mode with GPON, you’d have to have an upgrade programme to replace GPON ONT’s.
SO they are just starting the trials for XGS-PON, this will take months, then probably open up to a bigger trial, then ponder, so in about 5 years time, might start upgrading the network/consumer side. Meanwhile the other operators, if Vermin Media doesn’t buy them all, will be on 100PON by then……
The way they operate its always win/win for them and lose/lose for the national economy and infrastructure – because they hold a near monopoly.
They can take as long as they like (Slow boat to China syndrome) with customer complaints and service rectification and feed the customer any old fanny and doing so in an organisation so “Stove-piped” and “Siloed” that resolution of non-standard customer issues have to be presented at CEO level.
Loopy, most organisations transited from the “Stove-piped” model of organisation to a networked/relational one 20 years ago . . especially in the public sector. And, I suspect that the main driving force in maintaining that old structure is twofold, to minimise costs and drive profits to the top and to ensure lots of nugatory work is created in the chimneys i.e. Shareholders/management and labour first and second customer last.
That said, I imagine a lot of the industry are band-wagon-hopping, and doing the same. This is because the broadband introduction schema chosen by the Civil Servants 40 years ago was designed to prolong the agony of introduction in order to prop-up the macro -economy, and not to promote timely and consistent adoption of the technology. Further, the so-called regulatory impetus is well and truly blunted by the chaos of this schema down-in-the-weeds with the customer.
Now, BT are in the situation, where the extension of FTTP to the remaining unconnected contingent, is looking increasing infeasible because of the costs associated with connecting “The last 5 percent” and because they have taken so long to get to the current position that other technology advancements e.g. mobile data connections, especially in urban areas, have overtaken them in terms of service and cost.
In my locality it took over two years from the initial notification that DV is coming, with two false starts, to actually the service starting . . and then a year on, someone has buggered my DV with this exploit – intentional or not.And honestly, the quality of the audio on the DV DECT adapter they’ve issued for use with by BT Decor hand-set in the bedroom is pure Rice Krispy (Snap, crackle and pop) and compares poorly with the cheapo third party DECT adapter I had been using for the same purpose for previous ten years.
And now, with the local improvement of coverage, quality, speed and price of mobile data schemes, its way more advantageous for me to ditch the landline, FTTC + DV, and the substantial saving I will make will assist substantially a positive aspect to the OAP coffers.
And here I am, now 25 days on (That’s five once a week return trips to Sweden for the CEO), still with a profile issue which even the my former employer, the MOD,. used to fix in under a day.
I have tried (spent 75m on the phone) to persuade BT that I, as a long term loyal user of BT broadband, might be given a new Smart Hub 3. BT have told me that they have no intention of offering the SMart Hub 3 either to new or existing customers. They are fully focused on migrating their BT brand customers to the EE brand, which, and I quote, is “technologically superior in every way to the BT offering”.
Smoke and mirrors? Someone somewhere is lying – not sure who!!!
They’re offering it to new residential fibre customers.
“BT Smart Hub 3
Fast WiFi speeds throughout the home
Complete WiFi enabled
Optimised design with the latest WiFi 6 wireless technlogy
Smart Scan technology continually monitors your connection and restarts if it finds a problem
Easy to setup
The next generation of Smart Hub is our smartest hub yet and is designed to help deliver fast WiFi speeds throughout the home.”
As I thought, its the revenue agenda, at play.
“EE – technologically superior in every way” ? So the article indicates all they are doing is selling surplus EE stock to the down-trodden BT customers.No doubt, most of that will have been “Re-furbished” to the best standard the cowboy contractors can manage.
The marketing and customer service law of infinite customer inconvenience applies.
Definitely Revenue superior in every way (sic Like medicinal compound, The Scaffold) with an uplift of 15% on rates in the second year of the contract. Just like the other so-called utility companies . . where the fluffing utility is in dealing on an enduring basis with Dick Turpin unleashed ? Beats me.
If that’s the intent they can kiss goodbye to modest contribution. I have no intention of further subsidising the tosseratti for the minimal use I make of their service.
Banks are doing the same . . same hymm sheet . . they’ve shed ’emselves of unprofitable branches, . .now they are trying to shed unprofitable customers – which means the majority of OAPS.
Be thankful though, uncy Klaus hasn’t made any reference to using DNR skin for lampshades . . yet !