BT I-Plate promises to speed up ADSL connections by up to 60%; will it work for you?

Former_MSE_Lawrence

What's the deal?

The 'I-Plate' made by BT sits inside your master phone socket, and speeds up your broadband by reducing interference to increase data flow. It can boost speeds by up to 60%, but for it to work, your house needs to have the right type of master socket (see pic below).

How to get one cheaply:

• Having connection issues? If you've been consistently suffering with a slow web connection while you're paying for a fast one, then your ISP should be your first port of call. Phone its helpdesk, say you've heard about the I-Plate and ask if it'll send you one to help improve your connection.

• Don't mind paying? If you just want one now, or your ISP's not playing ball, it's also possible to buy it yourself from web retailer Broadband buyer for £13.85 inc VAT & delivery. This is the best price I could find, do post if you've found it cheaper.

• Don't mind waiting? It's likely that we'll see more and more I-Plates given away for free in future, since the faster ADSL 2+ standard (24 Mbps) which is slowly being introduced is even more sensitive to electrical interference than the current standard, meaning the I-Plate will be more a necessity than a speed-boosting accessory.

How does it work?

Modern phones have no need for the bell wire which provided old phones their inimitable ringing sound, yet it remains a part of the telecoms infrastructure, so it's likely your phone line has it in spades.

Unfortunately, bell wire is also an especially good conductor of electrical interference in the home, and the I-Plate seeks to quell this by filtering out the interference.

If you've had a line (ie the line itself, not broadband on an existing line) installed in the last few years, then it'll already be bell wire free, meaning the I-Plate won't make a difference. If you're not sure, it may be worth running the gauntlet that is BT's customer service to find out before buying one.

But does it work well?

So far, feedback from techie forums, blogs and magazines has been very positive on the whole, with many reporting a boost of more than 1Mbps. Yet as ever there's a small contingent for whom it either hasn't worked at all, or has actually had a detrimental effect.

It seems to work best for people who have their router plugged into a phone socket other than the main one (this is what it was primarily designed for). And not very well at all for people who have a front plate which already separates telephone and broadband signals or a BT Openreach socket.

If your set-up seems to fit the bill, how much extra speed you can get will depend on plenty of other factors, such as distance from the nearest exchange, line quality etc... Thus, the only way to find out once and for all is to try it.

Already got an I-Plate? Please let us know how it's working out by posting below.

Installing the I-Plate

First check your socket looks like this picture (in the top right corner there should be either a BT logo, or if it's older, the old rounded 'T' logo):

If you don't have the NTE5 socket with the horizontal split pictured, the I-Plate's not for you. If you do have it installation is simple matter of unscrewing the two faceplate screws, putting the device in, and then screwing the front plate back on with the two longer screws included in the packet.

Be very careful when moving the delicate phone wires around though; you'll need an engineer round if they break. So only attempt this if you're SURE you know what you're doing.

BE CAREFUL IF YOU'RE NOT SURE WHAT YOU'RE DOING. DON'T DO IT

How quickly will I see a speed increase?

While you may notice an instant, slight speed boost, it'll actually take around a week to see the real results. This is because BT's system limits all connections automatically to what your modem tells it is the maximum attainable speed on the line, to improve connection quality.

While your router should notice an increase in the attainable speed, BT won't pick it up and extend your limit for a few days (when it notices the maximum attainable, or sync, speed is consistently higher than your current limit). So, if it doesn't work immediately don't be disheartened; it's not supposed to.

For more info on sync speeds, and how they translate to actual (Mbps) speeds, read Plusnet's useful support page.

Anything else?

For a rundown of the cheapest broadband packages, read the Cheap Broadband article.

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penrhyn

An alternative, which does involve some wiring is to replace the existing faceplate with one with a built in ADSL filter. It does require the user to remove and reattach their extension wiring though.
The one I have was purchased from ADSL Nation, however there are others on the market.

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

I just noticed that at the bottom of the page in Lawrences link they have the ADSL Nation faceplate, cheaper than the iplate, and IMHO gives a neater result.

thebyp

Does the NTE5 iplate work? - YES!

The installation is very simple, and generally can be done by most. It really is a simple two screw job, however a note of warning.

Many people will not 'notice' a change, and if you do, it will be progressive as the line cleans up. So don't expect mirracles.

Secondly be careful, although its simple, it still requires care. BT will not hesitate in charging you £140 to reattach the 5 bell wire or any of the other cables.. this especially applies to new housing where the installation is sketchy in the first place.

Well worth the £15 for most.

sike222

or just disconnect the bell wire from your master socket. this can also be done with the older style lju master sockets. The bell wire will always be the wire connected to number three on the socket.

As long as you have an adsl filter plugged into the rest of your sockets this provides the bell circuitry to make your phones ring.

stinky

Take a photo of where the wires go in the box - before you start. If you do happen to get a loose wire, at least you know where its supposed to go back. As for calling an engineer to do that - NO WAY. This isn't rocket science, they are simply small wires that push into the box and make contact via the two metal sides which cut through the plastic sheath into the metal wire. I've rewired my phone system more times than I care to remember. Its really easy to do. Its not like you're going to get electrocuted or something is it!

capejaro

I've just ordered an i-plate for my Dad from here

http://www.tamarshop.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=109_108&products_id=691

He has problems with his broadband dropping out, so hopefully the i-plate will cure his problems and increase his download speed at the same time.

RE: The ADSL Nation face plate mentioned in an earlier post. I think that you will find that this face plate is just a replacement for a normal filter and does not do the same job as the i-plate bell wire filter.

Jennifer

As mentioned above - simply remove the bell wire - why pay ££ for a gadget that gives the same result?
J

Cougar

As sike222 says, all the iPlate does is isolate the bell wire. The bell wire was used historically to make the old-style dial phones ring, and is still used today by some fax machines and analogue (dial-up) modems.

The problem is that on modern ADSL-enabled connections, the bell wire acts like a dirty great big aerial for all the electricial interference kicking about in your house. If you don't have any of the devices above then you're safe to disconnect it. This will have exactly the same effect as buying the iPlate, and saves you fourteen quid.

The bell wire is connected to pin 3 on the back of the Master socket, and should be coloured orange with a white stripe unless your phone cabling was fitted by someone other than BT or is really old. (Hit Google for more in-depth instructions).

The caveat here is if you mess it up, BT will charge you the soul of your first born in order to come and sort it out. This is why the iPlate exists, it's to stop the enthusiastically ham-fisted from trashing their wiring and then complaining to BT that "you told me to do this and now it doesn't work." If the thought of having to wire a plug used to give you a cold sweat, you're probably best off paying for the plate as it's nice and reversable. On the other hand, if you're quite comfortable with a screwdriver, can count to three and aren't orange-green-blue colour blind then there's absolutely no reason to spend money on the iPlate.

harryhound

When the concept of snipping my spare wires was suggested to me on the Mad As A Fish thread, I wondered if I was a victim of a prankster - sorry - espresso & Quentin
(In the days of free "press button B" phone boxes, all sorts of strange offers were made to the unsuspecting).

Broadband, like a modern automatic car, is a complicated piece of engineering BUT the sellers won't tell you that for fear of scaring you off.
Just like a car, it can be used without any idea of what goes on under the bonnet, and just like a car you get ripped off if it needs servicing, when you know nothing about how it works.
Bits of my journey to enlightenment can be found below, or by doing an advanced search in thread tools on my name when already in the thread..
Harry.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=5074918#post5074918

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=174289&page=55

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=6976191#post6976191

paulfoel

penrhyn wrote: »

An alternative, which does involve some wiring is to replace the existing faceplate with one with a built in ADSL filter. It does require the user to remove and reattach their extension wiring though.
The one I have was purchased from ADSL Nation, however there are others on the market.

http://www.adslnation.com/products/xte2005.php

I just noticed that at the bottom of the page in Lawrences link they have the ADSL Nation faceplate, cheaper than the iplate, and IMHO gives a neater result.

Got one of these. Made a bit of a difference but not a huge amount.

g6zru

As previously stated just cut the bell wire at the master socket. Also be aware that any increase in speed will only be in increments of 500kbps, i.e unless you get a speed increase of over 500kbps (for at least 3 days), your IP Profile, which determines the actual speed, will remain the same.
Fred