BT is on of the UK’s most well known broadband providers, they have a full selection of options when it comes to broadband, TV and Phone services, not to mention the extras and customer service that they offer. While it is a household name, we should look at whether it stands up to the new competition. BT serves around 18 Million customers in the UK, when it comes to broadband in 2021 they served 9.2 millions customers making them the largest broadband provided in the UK.
The suite of BT Broadband products stretches from ADSL right up to Gigafast Full Fibre, and can include TV and partnered products with the likes of Sky.
According to Ofcom, their UK Home Broadband Performance reports states that BT is not as strong when compared with BT’s direct competitors. The main issue highlighted in the report was that the advertised speed and the actual speed where among the lowest in the group, meaning the advertised speeds is not always the speed you will receive. That said the main competitors use the same service provider as BT so the difference will be miniscule.
BT is one of the only providers still offering ADSL as a service, this can be accessed by their BT Fibre Essentials package.
- Fibre is standard with the majority of packages
- BT is not the cheapest on the market
- ADSL to 900Mbs options are available
- The speed advertised will not be the speed you get through your devices
- Plenty of Extras with the mid to high tier packages
- Fibre to the Premises is becoming more accessible (FTTP)
- Wide range of TV options can be added at an additional cost
- Money back and emergency call outs are available for poor service
There are multiple options with BT: BT Fibre Essentials, Fibre 1, Fibre 2, Fibre 100, Fibre 250, Fibre 500, Fibre 900. These can all be accessed without a landline and use BT’s Openreach network. Fibre 100 to 900 use the Fibre to the premises to ensure the fastest connection right to your home. One thing to watch out for with BT is that at the end of your 24 month contract, prices will increase and you could be paying the top amount for a much lower speed. The BT Smart Hub 2 is included with most Fibre packages and BT claims is future proofed so you won’t need to worry about speeds changing over time. If you go with the BT Hybrid Connect (formerly known as BT Halo), the “unbreakable Wifi”, you will get an EE 4G router that acts as a back up connection if you main broadband goes down.
With their services, BT offers so many extras, you can get cash rewards, year long subscriptions to Xbox Live (sorry, no Playstation Live), extra cloud storage, Network Security features and free access to BT Wifi Hotspots. We will look at these all in detail further down.
BT is good value for money, each service is well priced and offers reliability, good customer service as well as plenty of extras but let’s dig deeper.
With BT broadband you have one of the widest choices of download speeds on the market, each are priced competitively and BT promise that they will make adjustments to your service to help increase speeds if they have dropped off.
BT has BT Sport which can be accessed on the BT Sport app, online with the monthly pass or with your TV. You can access their publisher Wifi hotspots if you have a BT broadband contract without limits. They may not be the ultimate but if you want a service that does what you want, BT is a brilliant provider to go with. It may not be the cheapest on the market though.
BT Broadbands speed and prices have a fairly similar level to competitors.
The prices don’t change based on where you are located but the speeds may vary depending on location, your devices, the building, wiring in your house, and many other factors including the time of day you use your broadband but let’s look at what BT claims is delivered to their customers homes. BT should let you know what speeds you can expect to receive before you buy.
The slowest option is BT Fibre Essentials. The fastest option is BT Fibre 900. The three main options are ADSL, BT Fibre and Ultrafast (FTTP).
BT Broadband is the most basic ADSL broadband connection BT offer. The price is very low but we wouldn’t recommend this service to anyone except people who may only use their accommodation occasionally.
Download speeds are 10Mb.
Upload speeds are 1Mb.
BT Fibre Essential is another ADSL service that BT offer and this is slightly faster but only really for low level usage, it wouldn’t be good for more than one person living alone.
Download speeds are 36Mb.
Upload speeds are 9Mb.
BT Full Fibre 1
BT Full Fibre 1 is good for streaming and browsing, it will sustain multiple devices but not very good for gaming and fast downloads. It’s a similar price to Fibre 100 so with a little more money you can get a better connection.
Download speeds are 50Mb.
Upload speed are 10Mb.
BT Full Fibre 2 is reliable and good for browsing, streaming and sharing. It’s fast enough to prevent lag but it isn’t good for fast speed gaming or big downloads. A family could use this and it would be enough to support most of their activities all at the same time.
Download speeds are 74Mb
Upload speeds are 20Mb
BT Full Fibre 100 is fast, reliable and can do pretty much everything you want. It will cover most activities simultaneously. If you work from home or have many smart home applications this will cover that too and the price point is brilliant.
Download speeds are 150Mb
Upload speeds are 30Mb
BT Full Fibre 250 is start to move into the higher end. Heavy use families who do not want to opt for the super fast speeds can look to this as the option for them. The price is not really great because it’s not much better than BT Full Fibre 100 and it’s slower than BT Full Fibre 500 and you may as well just go for BT Fibre 500 which comes with lots more extras.
Download speeds are 250Mb
Upload speeds are 50Mb
BT Full Fibre 500 is one of the best services BT offers. It is the second fastest service. You get very high speeds, great connection, minimal waiting for pages and videos to load, fast gaming is easily possible with this connection and you family can do whatever they want without affecting the broadband’s performance. Perfect for the modern family with multiple devices.
Download speeds are 500Mb
Upload speeds are 73Mb
BT Full Fibre 900 is BT ultimate broadband service, it has their fastest speeds and with each contract there are lots of additional extras thrown in. It comes at a reasonable price when compared with the rest of the market and there are no additional hidden costs. If you want to do anything you want without worrying about connection issues, this is an absolute must have. Of course it’s not necessary for most people but having that extra speed is never a bad thing unless the cost of your broadband is a more important factor.
Download speeds are 910Mb
Upload speeds are 110Mb
BT Broadband Routers are called the Smart Hub 2 and BT confidently say it’s one of the best, if not the best consumer router available. This can be backed up by it’s antenna set up giving you a stable connection and making sure it has full coverage.
BT have a few routers available but the Smart Hub 2 is the new router they are pushing for their broadband connections. If you want to see the full technical specifications of the different routers please click here.
You can combine the Smart Hub 2 with the new Hybrid Connect to get the unbreakable broadband connection, using a 4G or 5G EE router to ensure you are always online.
It is important to note that if you go for BT Fibre Essentials, Fibre 1 or Fibre 2, you will receive the BT Smart Hub, click here for more information about BT routers.
BT Broadband installation and setup is really quick and easy, it can take a couple of weeks but they will call you to book a time, send an engineer around and deliver your kit. They may need to send someone from Openreach to connect your house up to the phone lines, but most houses are already connected so this shouldn’t be an issue. If you have had a BT connection in the past this will not be necessary because your home will already be BT broadband ready.
When the engineer comes round, they will connect your house up, often prepare the router and other kit for you and run a few tests. When they leave they will inform you that you need to keep checking the speeds for a few days to two weeks and if there is a significant drop off in speed, that you should call customer services. Finally using the BT app, you can work with their easy to use interface to register and access your router.
BT Broadband Packages Review
BT Broadband Extras & Rewards
BT broadband extras and rewards are a real benefit of choosing BT. These change every week or every month but you can get £100 cashback reward in the form of a pre-paid credit card, 6 months or a years full subscription to Xbox Live, free access to BT Sport for a limited time and many other offers. We post these up on our BT Deals page but we have shared them below at the end of this post. BT will offer money back if they cannot cover every room of your house with wifi and that offer is a guarantee that their service is very reliable.
A great extra with BT Broadband is free unlimited internet access to over 5 million hotspots in the UK. To access this, simply download the BT Wifi app and login. On the BT Sport app you can access BT Sport, having the BT broadband makes this easier to do, certainly much easier than Sky Sports, take a look at our post comparing the two.
These rewards and extras can really help to reduce the overall cost of your BT broadband.
BT Broadband Customer Service
BT Customer service is one of the best on the market. This is particularly important when we rely so much on our ability to connect with the world through our broadband. BT Customer service understands how important this is and this is clear through customer feedback.
Customer service will support you with all BT products and services and their Smart Hub 2 will provide on-going updates on what has gone wrong if your service does go down. Call outs and emergency call outs tend to be very quick, so you will not have a period of time where you have no internet. If you are with the higher tier data contracts, they will send a new router out to get you connected.
BT are very quick to diagnose and fix issues even if it’s just over the phone. Their phone staff are friendly and polite and you will not be put on hold for extended periods or sent round multiple call centres around the world. There’s even forums where other people’s questions and answers who may have similar issues as you are available to read online.
While Technical support is available 24/7, typically you can get hold of a BT Customer Service Rep between the hours of 8am and 8pm weekends and bank holidays and 8am to 9pm on weekdays. If you’re reading this and you are already a customer but just need the contact number, call 0800 800 150. For messaging, text HELP to 61998.
For the full Ofcom report on customer services for each broadband provider, please click here.
Hybrid Connect is a 4G or 5G EE router which acts as a fall back connection to your main broadband connection. If you lose your broadband connection for any reason, your broadband will switch over to the Hybrid Connect service until you can re-establish your standard broadband connection. This is perfect for those working from home or if your area is prone to really bad weather conditions.
BT Halo 3 is package that offers additional support, connectivity promises and extra features for your broadband. One of these is the Home Tech Experts who offer technical support and visit your house once a year to make sure everything is up and running.
The Keep Connected promise is a free 4G mini hub in case you lose your connection. If you have a BT Mobile contract, they will give you a data boost during down times. Double Mobile Data is another boost if you are a BT Mobile contract holder.
BT price promise means you will never pay more than a new customer when you renew your contract. This can be a frustrating part of renewing contracts with broadband providers, often they give the best discounts to new customers but BT is keeping it fair and rewarding their loyal customers.
BT Halo 3+ offer everything that BT Halo does but also Hybrid Connect, Smart Hub 2 if you don’t already have these, Complete Wifi and Full Fibre Promise, which gives you a free upgrade when a new service level is possible in your area.
BT coverage and availability is very large because they use the Openreach network which covers the entire country. They use this to offer Fibre to the Premises (FTTP).
FTTP is only available to 7-8 million homes which is about 24% of the UK but they are aiming to expand this. Check to see if you home can access FTTP connections with BT by clicking here.
Frequently Asked Questions
We will do our best to answer all your questions about BT Broadband.
What is the cost of BT full fibre?
The cost of BT Full Fibre depends on the speeds and what deals they have on at the time you buy, but it can range from £25 – £70 a month.
How good is BT full fibre?
BT Full Fibre is very good, it’s used by millions of people in the UK and BT is largest broadband provider in the country.
What is full fibre with BT?
Full Fibre with BT is Fibre to the premise, meaning you get a full fibre connection right to your house without the need for copper wires which slow down the speeds.
What is the difference between fibre and full fibre?
The difference between Fibre and Full Fibre is that with Fibre, your connection may be delivered to your area with fibre but then it will go across copper wiring to reach your house. Full Fibre will be a fibre connection direct to your buiding.
How long does it take to install BT full fibre?
If you already have BT connection, it can take 2 weeks. If the engineer needs to provide fibre to your house this can take longer and will depend on Openreach. In some case you may not be able to access it. Please check to see if you can get it to your house with this link.
Can I use any router with BT full fibre?
No, you need to use a router that is able to use fibre. The BT Smart Hubs are able to work with Fibre.
Is BT full fibre better than virgin?
BT Full Fibre is a great service and it is different to Virgin.
Is full fibre more reliable?
Yes, Full Fibre is very reliable.
Does BT Fibre use Virgin cable?
No, BT do not use Virgin Cable, they use the Openreach network.
Do I need an engineer to install BT Broadband?
Yes, you do need an engineer to install BT Broadband.
What's better broadband or fibre?
Fibre is better than standard broadband because it is faster and more reliable.
What speed should I get with BT fibre?
The speed you should get with BT Fibre depends on what your needs are. If you only want to browse and read emails get a lower speed, if you want to play games and download big files get a fast speed.
What speed is full fibre?
Full Fibre speeds can range from 50Mb to 900Mb.
Can I get Full Fibre in my area?
What does 150mb fibre mean?
150Mb Fibre means you can get downloads speeds of 150Mb with full fibre.
What happens when Openreach install fibre?
When Openreach install fibre an engineer will come to your house and connect your house to the grid.
Is BT Fibre 100 full fibre?
Yes, BT Fibre 100 is full fibre.
