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BT Broadband Review - Which?

5-6 minutes

BT is the UK's biggest broadband provider. But how did it compare

with other providers in our latest broadband satisfaction survey?

Pros Widely available network, free access to five million wi-fi

hotspots

Cons Expensive, poor value for money, difficult to get in touch with

Which? verdict Popular, but not the best option

BT broadband satisfaction survey results

BT's results show that popularity isn't everything as, once again, the
company failed to soar in our recent survey.

While BT had the highest number of respondents of any provider in

our survey, some of them voiced their frustrations with the
broadband service they get. Value for money was a major issue for
many: 17% of respondents said the price of their deal had risen in
the past 12 months and only 12% rated BT as offering excellent
value for money, giving BT a two-star rating in this category.

Otherwise, BT mainly received passable three-star ratings,

although it was deemed difficult to get in touch with,

Use Which? Switch Broadband to find the best BT broadband

deal for you.

What BT customers told us

'It's good, but there's much room for improvement over price and
customer service.'

'Reliable service without dropouts. The speed is sufficient. The cost

is reasonable, but I had to contactit to get a discount - if I hadn't
done this, it would have been very expensive.'

'It takes a long time to get through to the right person when
something goes wrong.'

'Reputable company and customer service, but it's expensive and it

hikes prices mid contract.'

Supplied BT equipment

BT supplies customers with either the Home Hub 4 router if they

have a standard speed package, its Smart Hub (launched in July
2016) for superfast fibre customers or the Smart Hub 2 for Ultrafast
Fibre Plus customers. All are free, apart from a £9.99 postage and
packaging charge.

We've tested the BT Smart Hub and Smart Hub 2 and were
impressed. They're some of the best ISP-supplied routers currently
available. Find out more in our BT Smart Hub review and BT Smart
Hub 2 review.

BT broadband deals

BT offers broadband and home phone deals, or broadband, home

phone and pay TV. You have to pay for a BT phone line and can't
buy a broadband-only deal. BT line rental costs £20.20 a month.
You can pay it monthly or quarterly with no discount. However, if
you pay for 12 months as a lump sum, which would cost £219.84,
you can make a slight annual saving of £22.56 over the standard
monthly cost.

All broadband deals have an 18-month contract, which may be too

long for some.

BT broadband users can enjoy access to TV sports content through

the BT app or by streaming it online. This costs £10 a month if you
have a BT broadband package, although free offers can also be
taken up if available. BT's deals also give free and unlimited access
to the company's wi-fi network. This comprises five million hotspots
in public places across the UK.

If you want a package that includes a pay-TV service, read our

BT TV and broadband provider review.

BT broadband speed

BT has the best broadband availability in the country. The chances

are that if any company can supply broadband to your house, it will
be BT.

BT offers standard ADSL speeds (average speed 10Mbps) or a

fibre-optic connection (average speeds between 36Mbps and
67Mbps, depending on the package you take). A small number of
homes can also access ultrafast BT broadband via fibre optic
technology called 'G.fast' or 'fibre to the premises' (FTTP). BT's
G.fast offerings have average speeds of 145Mbps and 300Mbps,
while its full-fibre FTTP broadband has a speed of 300Mbps.

BT’s ultrafast Fibre 100 and Fibre 250 packages also come with a
speed guarantee, whereby you can claim £20 if your speed falls
below 100Mbps or 150Mbps, respectively.

To compare prices and see more details on each package, read

our BT broadband package reviews.

Ofcom complaints information

The telecoms regulator Ofcom publishes information on the number

of complaints it gets about the biggest internet service providers.

Ofcom received 13 complaints per 100,000 BT customers during

the third quarter of 2019. That's slightly below the industry average
of 14 complaints per 100,000 customers. By contrast, Sky
generated just five complaints per 100,000 customers.
Need to get in touch with BT?

Bookmark our BT customer contact page, which contains helpful

links to service status updates, customer service phone numbers
and social media accounts.