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EE has become the first nationwide broadband provider to unleash superfast Wi-Fi 7 speeds into homes. The telecom, which BT acquired in early 2015 for £12.5 billion, has re-engineered its Wi-Fi router from the ground up to enable faster wireless speeds and improved reliability.
If you're already paying for the flagship 1.6Gbps broadband plan from EE, the company can send out the cutting-edge Wi-Fi 7 router for free — although you'll need to give them a ring to get the process started. The only catch? EE will ask you to recontract, signing you up for another 24-months to unlock the free router upgrade.
If you're signed-up with any other full-fibre plan from EE, it'll just cost £10 a month to upgrade to the faster Wi-Fi router. For that, you'll also get up to 4 extenders to make sure every corner of your home has full-bars of signal. As this is an optional add-on, there's no need to recontract.
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Despite being owned by BT, if you want access to the next-generation Wi-Fi router, you'll need to switch to an EE broadband contract. It's worth noting that Wi-Fi 7 is only available in areas that have been upgraded to full-fibre connections. This is something by speaking to the customer service team, or checking out the deals on the BT and EE website, which both list BT-branded and EE Wi-Fi 7 packages.
It's all part of a massive shake-up across the company, rolled out last year, that puts EE front-and-centre.
Openreach, also owned and operated by BT, is steadily upgrading 26 million homes ahead of its 2026 deadline. Back in April, Ofcom data confirmed that 8 out of 10 homes across the UK can now access eye-wateringly fast gigabit broadband speeds. That's plenty of people who can enjoy the all-new EE Wi-Fi 7 router.
EE will include its next-generation Wi-Fi 7 router, the Smart Hub Pro, and up to four Smart Wi-Fi Pro extenders at no extra cost with its maxed-out broadband plans, dubbed Busiest Home Bundle and Made For Gamers, which include download speeds of 1.6Gbps
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If you want to unlock the fast new speeds, existing EE customers need to spend an extra £10 each month. For that, EE broadband customers will take delivery of the new Smart Hub Pro that delivers some of the fastest download speeds currently possible on Wi-Fi.
If you've already signed-up for the fastest broadband package from EE, which broke records as the fastest download speeds available anywhere in the UK when it debuted last year, it'll send the next-generation Wi-Fi router to your address at no extra cost.
EE has teamed up with Qualcomm — the US manufacturer behind the chipsets inside the latest smartphones from Samsung, Motorola, and OnePlus, to name just a few — for the internals inside its new Wi-Fi 7 Smart Hub Pro.
On the back, there's four 2.5 gigabit ethernet ports to unlock the fastest speeds over a wired connection.
There's also a smaller Smart Wi-Fi Pro to extend Wi-Fi coverage throughout the home and eliminate any dead zones that might exist, like at the bottom of the garden or attic.
As standard, EE will mail-out one Wi-Fi 7 Smart Hub Pro and one Smart Wi-Fi Pro extender to every customer who upgrades to the Wi-Fi 7 standard. If you're struggling to achieve top-end speeds throughout your home, EE can offer a maximum of four Smart Wi-Fi Pro extenders.
With the new kit installed, EE says you'll benefit from gigabit-capable Wi-Fi throughout the home. If you're using both of the all-new EE hubs together together in your home, the BT-owned brand will include a minimum of 100Mbps connection in every room — with a money back guarantee.
This newest Wi-Fi standard works by using three different bands — 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz — to reduce interference from neighbours' Wi-Fi networks and increase capacity so busy households with dozens of devices can be evenly distributed across the wireless spectrum.
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Speaking about the announcement, EE CEO Marc Allera said: "Wi-Fi 7 for the home is another first for EE customers, giving households higher speeds and better capacity to support devices in every corner of their home. Together, these new technologies bring EE customers the best networks in and out of the home."
EE's Smart Wi-Fi Pro is designed to extend the Wi-Fi 7 network throughout your home with a mesh network. It also has additional ethernet ports, if you prefer a wired connection at your desk, or a gaming den in the attic, for example
EE PRESS OFFICE
EE's Wi-Fi 7 Smart Hub Pro and Smart Wi-Fi Pro extender will only be available with broadband packages that run on full-fibre connections. These start from £33.99 per month for the EE Full Fibre 150 Essentials plan, which offers download speeds of 149Mbps. Doubling that speed to the Full Fibre 300 Essentials will cost £37.99.
- View Deal | Switch to EE full-fibre broadband, starting from £33.99 a month
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EE home broadband plans max-out with download speeds of 1.6Gbps, while the guaranteed minimum speed will be 1.3Gbps. Upload speeds will top out at 115Mbps. For context, the average download speed for UK household broadband was measured at 69.4Mbps by Ofcom last year.
EE's flagship full-fibre package is 23x faster than the average home broadband connection in the UK. Yes, it's that fast. Those who subscribe to the 1.6Gbps service will be able to download a one-hour television show in Standard Definition (SD) in under 2 seconds. For comparison, that same show would take around one minute on a standard home broadband connection.