BT Wifi disks question

wenger08

Hi, i have BT broadband with the wifi disks which provide more wifi coverage around my house. I think the package im on is called BT halo.

My current package runs out very soon, and im trying to haggle a better price/deal. The guy said to me if i cancel, i have to return the disks. He said he can put me on a lower price deal (i think he said its called the fibre 1 package) but this doesn't make use of the disks (and i think i still have to return them, i think)

My question is, can't i just buy these disks from amazon, for example, and then go on the fibre 1 package etc and still get the improved wifi coverage around my house? Or won't BT send the signal to these disks (somehow?)

Equally, can i just buy the sky broadband superfast package, which is on offer for £25 a month right now, and then buy the BT wifi disks from amazon separately and it would still work and connect together to provide an improved wifi signal around the house?

I feel like BT are trying it on with me here....

matelodave

The wifi disks that come with Halo are specific to BT and only work with the BT router.

The BT router and disks are basically on loan and have to be returned if you don't have the appropriate package with BT. They arent "trying it on" that's  what you signed up for when you  took out the contract - if you dont want to pay then you have the prerogative to go somewhere else. The benefit of Halo is that you dont have to worry too much about setting it all up

However, there's nothing to stop you going with another provider and setting up your own mesh network using other providers eguipment.
 Have a look here on how to do it and then trawl t'interweb to see what's available How to Set Up a Wi-Fi Mesh Network | PCMag. There's lots and lots of info around as well as quite a few video's

HaroldWren5

matelodave said:

The wifi disks that come with Halo are specific to BT and only work with the BT router.

The BT router and disks are basically on loan and have to be returned if you don't have the appropriate package with BT. They arent "trying it on" that's  what you signed up for when you  took out the contract - if you dont want to pay then you have the prerogative to go somewhere else. The benefit of Halo is that you dont have to worry too much about setting it all up

However, there's nothing to stop you going with another provider and setting up your own mesh network using other providers eguipment.
 Have a look here on how to do it and then trawl t'interweb to see what's available  There's lots and lots of info around as well as quite a few video's

Exactly right. If you buy your own Mesh network (including BT's Home Wifi ones if that's what you like), you can use them with any broadband provider. That's a good article that matelodave shared. From what I understand the BT Home Wifi Discs are decent, though their own forums show the Premium and Wifi 6 version of that product are struggling with software glitches. So depending on the speed you get for your broadband (e.g. high speed FTTP), you may wish to go with an ASUS, Netgear, Linksys etc Mesh system instead. 

If you still want to use BT Home Discs, you can still buy them as a separate product from Amazon, or BT's own consumer shop and use them. The difference is that instead of the BT Smart Hub forming part of the Mesh, you connect one of the new discs into the Smart Hub and that disc forms the main node with the others being satellites. The ones you get with a broadband package are rented and not the same.