Unsolicited BT Mini Hub

Vern1961 · 14 Apr 2019 at 08:20

Had a BT Broadband outage yesterday from 1030 for about 4 hours. Rang them at about 1130 to enquire as to what was going on, pleasantly surprised to get through to a UK call centre who without any of the usual faffing about pulling leads in and out etc. confirmed there were major problems in the area. Initial estimate was all day though came back as noted mid-afternoon.

Open up my emails yesterday afternoon then, to find a note from BT advising they are sending me a mini-hub, swiftly followed by a DPD tracking note. At a bit of a loss as to why they are sending this as our existing hub is working perfectly okay and the fault was obviously at the exchange end. Anyone else with BT been on the end of some unexpected generosity?

Guess it can join the rest of the redundant computer parts in the IT graveyard at the back of the garage!

builder22 · 14 Apr 2019 at 08:31

Maybe it has a SIM card slot?

Vern1961 · 14 Apr 2019 at 08:33

Good point, albeit I've only got an old PAYG mobile so not much good as a backup.

Kenai · 14 Apr 2019 at 08:36

It's a 4G hub, they advertised quite heavily about this, they send you a 4G connection if there is chance your wired connection will be down a while so you still have a connection to use

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/int...ep-connected-promise-broadband-11364307203613

Dirk Diggler · 14 Apr 2019 at 09:11

Yea, it's a pretty damning assessment of their own service up-time when they have to put a 4G backup in place and roll it out nationally. You're one of the lucky ones OP, I got told it could be 3 days for a fix and that this was acceptable.

~Divine~Wind~ · 14 Apr 2019 at 09:50

Adsl and fibre services with any residential provider do not have uptime guarantees. Bt, sky, talk talk and the vast swathes of other isps all rent lines from open reach.

I had to use a 4g modem and must say the speeds were awesome, coming close to my. 80mbps fttc line.

In one breathe you complain about a 3 day fix but then in another complain that they're at least trying to keep people connected? These call centre staff must have it hard, some people are just never pleased lol

Dirk Diggler · 14 Apr 2019 at 10:18

~Divine~Wind~ said:
In one breathe you complain about a 3 day fix but then in another complain that they're at least trying to keep people connected? These call centre staff must have it hard, some people are just never pleased lol

I had Virgin fibre for years, and never had to accept a 3 day outage as normal. Maybe your expectations are low?

Tek81 · 14 Apr 2019 at 10:20

I was sent one a few months back following an outage. Came in very useful.

wildest_jjk · 14 Apr 2019 at 10:33

Presumably you are signed up to BT Plus? That's the product that this usually comes under.

If you have a BT Mobile SIM under the same account then they will also give unlimited data on that for the duration of the outage.

peterwalkley · 14 Apr 2019 at 10:59

Outages lasting days on BT's infrastructure are often down to them needing to dig holes in pavements and roads to do repairs. Sending you a 4G access point is good business sense, they can give you an alternative working service quickly so you are far less likely to leave. Customer churn is a huge cost in the industry and all service providers are doing what they can to reduce it.

wildest_jjk · 14 Apr 2019 at 12:40

peterwalkley said:
Outages lasting days on BT's infrastructure are often down to them needing to dig holes in pavements and roads to do repairs. Sending you a 4G access point is good business sense, they can give you an alternative working service quickly so you are far less likely to leave. Customer churn is a huge cost in the industry and all service providers are doing what they can to reduce it.

Yep this is part of it and the other element is the potential that BT now has for converging fixed and mobile networks since the acquisition of EE. It gives them distinct advantages that other providers won't have.

Rroff · 14 Apr 2019 at 12:52

If you are paying for a certain level of package the 4G backup and Wifi disc (extender) are standard features now and they will send them out as appropriate.

TheVoice · 14 Apr 2019 at 16:45

String said:
Yea, it's a pretty damning assessment of their own service up-time when they have to put a 4G backup in place and roll it out nationally.

They already have their own mobile network in the form of BT Mobile, so it makes sense to use it.

Malevolence · 14 Apr 2019 at 17:38

I'll tell you what's a damning assessment of **** show that is BT. The fact that I live in a large City and yet have no access to fibre of any sort because BT still won't give a date for them activating it at my cabinet.

Vern1961 · 14 Apr 2019 at 17:48

Arrived today and quite correct, it's a 4G backup box which they enable if the land line connection goes out.

To be fair to BT, other than the price which requires an annual haggle, we haven't had too many issues with the service. Copes with Netflix 4K etc. while I'm downloading to the PC and no bottlenecking.

a1ex2001 · 15 Apr 2019 at 10:13

peterwalkley said:
Outages lasting days on BT's infrastructure are often down to them needing to dig holes in pavements and roads to do repairs. Sending you a 4G access point is good business sense, they can give you an alternative working service quickly so you are far less likely to leave. Customer churn is a huge cost in the industry and all service providers are doing what they can to reduce it.

Yet every provider still offers better deals an incentives to new customers rather than existing ones?

Janesy B · 15 Apr 2019 at 13:53

This has come about because they want to avoid paying compensation for outages. Don't know why anyone would complain about being sent a 4G router for free though.

Malevolence said:
I'll tell you what's a damning assessment of **** show that is BT. The fact that I live in a large City and yet have no access to fibre of any sort because BT still won't give a date for them activating it at my cabinet.

It's not always BT's fault, more likely down to the local authority. BT don't have the right to rip up roads etc at will to bring their fibre network to cabs.

I've had fibre lines for businesses down for days due to restrictions on road closures or limited access areas.

~Divine~Wind~ · 15 Apr 2019 at 14:10

Malevolence said:
I'll tell you what's a damning assessment of **** show that is BT. The fact that I live in a large City and yet have no access to fibre of any sort because BT still won't give a date for them activating it at my cabinet.

So No ISP's in your area offer FTTC as they're waiting on Openreach?

moogle · 15 Apr 2019 at 14:14

String said:
Yea, it's a pretty damning assessment of their own service up-time when they have to put a 4G backup in place and roll it out nationally. You're one of the lucky ones OP, I got told it could be 3 days for a fix and that this was acceptable.

In my own experience BT have been very reliable (although I am FTTP). Was with them from 2013 to 2018 March until I switched over to Virgin.

I've had a few outages with Virgin last year but they thankfully occured when I was at work and were only an hour or two (have a ThinkBroadband Monitor on the line to show outages) which in the grand scheme of things isn't so bad.

Never had an outage with BT in all those years, but I've stayed with Virgin as I got a good contract price and a decent renewal contract price this year. BT could only offer me Ultrafast 2 for £46 which I thought was a lot since Virgin was able to offer 350MB for £30.

UTmaniac · 15 Apr 2019 at 14:16

Will these BT 4G routers allow you to put other company 4G sim cards in them? For example, that unlimited 4G broadband deal by Three for ~£20pcm for 12 months?

Unsolicited BT Mini Hub

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