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BT Home Hub 3 to launch at end of February
Monday 07 February 2011 16:04:25 by John Hunt

BT are launching the third generation of their Home Hub, the 'BT Home Hub 3' at the end of February and are touting it as offering users an incredibly reliable wireless connection. The new version includes 802.11n technology which gives fast connectivity speeds, and using a feature called 'smart wireless' the home hub will detect interference and automatically choose the strongest wireless channel to use for your connection. A monitoring system will switch it over to a different channel should it find this will offer better service. Also included in the box are a gigabit network connection and an uplink for both an ADSL service and Ethernet, allowing users to use the hub with BT's Infinity fibre-based products.

"With its smart wireless technology, the new BT Home Hub 3 always looks for the best wireless channel available, giving customers the strongest connection, combined with exceptionally long range, compared to all other broadband providers. It’s at the heart of our broadband packages, making them the most complete in the UK. This, coupled with its significantly improved energy-saving feature and beautiful new design, makes the BT Home Hub 3 the most useful and desirable router on the market today."

Jon Hurry, (Commercial Director) BT Retail

The new Home Hub will also bring about the demise of BT's "Broadband Talk", Voice-over-IP (VoIP) service which launched in 2006. The new hub does not include a connection for a standard phone or a hub phone so new users or those who upgrade to the Home Hub 3 will not be able to use the service. Users have been switching to services like Skype which offer free phone calls, as they are not generally interested in how the call is made, but more generally, the cost.

ISPreview report that the new home hub is IPv6 compatible, supporting both tunnelled IPv4 and native support through a software upgrade. There is, as yet, no information on when BT are intending to turn on IPv6 support within the network.

The new Home Hub will be available for all new BT broadband customers from 28th February. Existing customers can opt to upgrade to the new model for £46 (half price).

[ Topic: Hardware | 30 comments | link to this item ]

Comments

Posted by herdwick about 1 year ago
"3 always looks for the best wireless channel available"

usually smack in between two non-overlapping channels in order to mess with both.

Posted by themanstan about 1 year ago
And what's the bets there will be no QoS on this hub aswell... the biggest flaw of all BT Homehubs...

Posted by undecidedadrian about 1 year ago
Existing customers can opt to upgrade to the new model for £46 (half price).

Or wait until I order FTTC and get it free I suppose. :)

Posted by BJS1951 about 1 year ago
Existing customers can opt to upgrade to the new model for £46 (half price).

And no longer have access to BT Broadband Talk!

Posted by rasczak about 1 year ago
Just because this hub doesn't have the BB Talk service built in doesn't mean you can't use that service. I don't use a BT Home Hub at all and still have BB Talk working. I use the softphone software on a netbook, and it works from any internet connection, so handy if away from home, but of course using a PC for calls is not ideal day to day.

Posted by rasczak about 1 year ago
cont.. I also have a Voyager 10v which plugs into a spare ethernet connection, well not even a spare on as it has ethernet pass through, and plugging a phone into that means I can use either BB Talk or landline from that handset. Of course the trick is finding a 10v as they seem to be getting like hen's teeth, so yes a bit of messing around but it can be done.

Posted by Dixinormous about 1 year ago
Whoopie, it's a wireless DSL router. Thrilling stuff.

Posted by m0aur about 1 year ago
I doubt this gizmo will tempt me back to a £50+ per month bill for BT Option 3 Broadband & Option 3 phone, instead of the £26 I now pay with NO phone contract tie-in.
http://www2.postoffice.co.uk/broadband-phone/home-phone-broadband/compare-home-phone-broadband?intcampaignid=PI0014&campaignid=PI0014
Let alone drop by Draytek Vigor 2710n with it's 4 SSID's each with independant protocol & encryption

Posted by planetf1 about 1 year ago
I signed up with BTInfinity on 18th January. The Home Hub 2 I was provided was totally useless as a wireless router. I did have another AP but did lots of debugging and convinced Bt support (who were actually good!) that the HH2 was just incompetent.

They sent me a new HH3 about a week ago assuring me it would be better. It is -- by far. It now "just works". It's been totally reliable for the week, including on 802.11n and also supports 40Mhz/dual channel (if local spectrum use allows).

Posted by planetf1 about 1 year ago
Sadly only one port is gigabit, and it doesn't have the user managed control some desire, but it's going IMO to be a big step forward in wireless reliability. Not necessarily because it's so much better than anything else, but because the HH2 was so so very poor!

Posted by Blognorton about 1 year ago
One port is gigabit. Why do big organisations like BT ALWAYS do stupid things like that? It is obvious that all four should be the same speed. They will never ever get my broadband business peddling crap like this.

Posted by brianzion about 1 year ago
does anyone no what GHz the bt homehub 3 is ? the HUB2 was 2.4GHz be nice if its 5GHz? im willing to upgrade for £46 that's not bad for a router if it works well i have been through 3 BT HomeHubs in a year due to faults. maybe we will see HomeHub 3 on ebay soon if clients dont want them because the voip service is not included?

Posted by brianzion about 1 year ago
here is a link to a decent review >>> http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/bt-home-hub-3-cures-your-wireless-interference-woes-50002550/

Posted by doowles about 1 year ago
Its actually a really big step forward.

Posted by infinidim about 1 year ago
Looks good. Mine is coming tomorrow.

Posted by planetf1 about 1 year ago
@brianzion It's 2.4Ghz only :-(

I expect the only reason there's (at least) one gigabit port (in addition to the WAN port) is to support their 110 Mbps FTTP service (I wish...., mere FTTC here.)

It is a little odd though - I wonder if it's just sw configuration rather than HW

Posted by dilus about 1 year ago
I'm surprised so many have had issues with the HH2. Mine has been rock solid for over 12 months with excellent wireless connection and that's with it stood on the microwave oven.
I won't be paying £46 to upgrade! You would think they would give a free upgrade to long term customers (say over three years) if they felt it was so much better, if only to encourage you to remain with them. Whatever happened to rewarding customer loyalty? Sky are just as guilty

Posted by russianmonkey about 1 year ago
Dilus - maybe they sent out too many home hub version 2's and it cost too much money.

If they charge for new customers to get it, then it puts them off getting new equipment when the current equipment like yours works just fine.

Posted by chrysalis about 1 year ago
looks huge, like VM, BT seem to think bigger = better.

Posted by chrysalis about 1 year ago
WOW only one gigabit port, hahaha I thought VM were dump with their superhub but how dumb a design decision is that.

Posted by dilus about 1 year ago
russianmonkey I guess you are right, it's just annoying that once they have you they do nothing to keep you. Having said that I have had no problems with BT in 3 years, I guess I'll just have to get another reduction in price at my next renewal date or ask for a HH3 after all you don't get unless you ask :)

Posted by offcs about 1 year ago
"makes the BT Home Hub 3 the most useful and desirable router on the market today.". I think that Draytek might have something to say about that.

Posted by rkimber about 1 year ago
What happens when it automatically changes channel? Does the user notice anything? Would there be disruption to music being streamed?

Posted by meanirene about 1 year ago
Thinking of switching to BT but don't want HH2. Do I really need to wait until after 28th February to order if they are already replacing faulty units with HH3?

Posted by gavinthain about 1 year ago
It's a shame that stupid logo is on the front. Looks ok but that BT things makes it look like cheap rubbish. Epic fail.

Posted by davejfoster about 1 year ago
I've been a triallist with this hub since last December. Much better connection, uses less power and a better range. Only downside is the lack of softphone connectivity.

Posted by StarNamer about 1 year ago
Does the HH3 have a USB port? And can it be used for a remote (LPD) printer?

I've been using this feature on my HH2 for a couple of years and would miss it.

Posted by StarNamer about 1 year ago
OK. I found the spec here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BT_Home_Hub#Technical_specifications which indicates that it does have a USB port and it's now "enabled for use", which presumably means remote printing would work.

Wonder if they support network scanning? :)

Posted by brianzion about 1 year ago
i have been using this hub for 7 days now the *smart wireless* does work ok the hub management works fine the best feature is switching it just to *wireless N* mode ok if you don't use b or g. overall a big improvement on hub 2.

Posted by itsfine 10 months ago
Port Forwarding does not work in Homehub 3. Bt know about it but have not fixed it in 5 months - beware!! See thread http://community.bt.com/t5/BB-Speed-Connection-Issues/Home-Hub-3-Port-Forwarding-NOT/m-p/247195#M88461