On 22/11/2017 14:51, Martin Brown wrote:
On 22/11/2017 14:40, Andrew wrote:
My latest BT bill shows broadband and line rental charged at £35.99
after many years of separate line rental and bband charges and
various discount, all of which have now vanished.

They have been nagging me with freeÂ* infinity activation for
ages so out of interest I had a look at what their so-called
offers are :-

costÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* typeÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â* speedÂ*Â*Â*Â* limitÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* cloud
35.99 (now)Â*Â*Â* adsl2+Â*Â*Â* ~20Mb (*)Â* 15GBÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* not sure

29.99 (42.99)Â* adsl2+Â*Â*Â* ~20MbÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* noneÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* 200GB

34.99 (??)Â*Â*Â*Â* infÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* ~38MbÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â* 30GBÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* 10GB +£50 activation
36.99 (49.99)Â* infÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* ~52MbÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â* noneÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* 200GB
40.99 (56.49)Â* infÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* ~76MbÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â* noneÂ*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â*Â* 1000GB

Figures in backets are presumably what will be charged in 18
months time after contract expiry.

I suggest you feed your postcode into uSwitch and see what Black Friday
deals they have on there. It looks like if you insist on BT then

29.99 pcm 18 month contract will get you fibre 50Gbps with the optional
sports package free for a while if you want it (extra setup charge).

Plusnet is considerably cheaper and works better IME.

In other words, I could double my monthly allowance, and get
a small speed increase while paying £1 a month less than I pay
now for Option 1 normal broadband. Odd for BT to give anything
away !.

Does anyone know any hidden catches ?. I notice that there is no
mention of an 18 month contract for their offer for Infinity
'Lite' as they call it, though they do charge a £50 activation
fee.

(*) Although they claim 'up to 17 Mb' I actually get about 20Mb
download where I live.

I don't use WifI, so all the claims about the performance of their
Smart Hub are pointless.

Wifi is now perfectly reliable and secure. It was not always true.

It was only last month that they announced a vulnerability in the WPA2
protocol that almost everybody uses, so definitely not perfectly secure.

It's not stopping me using it though - too many hand-held devices in
this household and too much convenience when using the laptop. Although
we do use a wired network for (almost) all the non-mobile stuff.

If I can find the enthusiasm to run another couple of cables in under
the floors, only the mobile stuff will remain on wi-fi.

Hopefully patches for the router and devices will become available soon.

SteveW