Are Hey Broadband any good?

Hello,

I currently have BT FTTP but Hey Broadband have come to my area and their pricing is so much cheaper than BT for the same service (900mbps) - has anyone used Hey Broadband and what are they like for reliability - I work from home and am totally reliant on the internet so its vital their service is stable.

Be really interested to hear peoples thoughts.

Thanks.

I've had it for 2 weeks, and it's plenty fast. However, it has gone down twice in that time. First time was a stuck PPP connection, and I had to call them. Second time it sorted itself out in a couple of minutes.

I'm not entirely sure if it's my (very) old router, so I've ordered a new one to try.

Hopefully others will be along with their experiences for balance.

Been with them for over a year. They are a young company who are fast growing and have experienced some minor growing pains along the way.

Installation was good for me. Very polite installation team. I explained I was precious about routing wires in the most hidden way possible and they accommodated me without fuss or extra charge. Their symmetrical gigabit service for £40/month is excellent value and it all performs as expected. Personally I use my own kit on the connection as I have more advanced requirements so I can't really comment on their supplied CPE in the manner most people will use it.

I've had 2 minor service issues with them in 12 months. The IP block used for my area appears to have been incorrectly labelled as owned by a Russian entity by some IP Whois services (not all). Therefore some sites incorrectly set default languages/currency to Russian (AliExpress is one such example). My second issue was a routing issue to certain US sites. Not sure if that was a HB or a backbone provider issue but it was quickly resolved.

My only real criticism is the lack of a Web Portal for order tracking, customer services & technical support - that's the main point when I alluded to the fact they are a young company. It is coming though I'm told. That said the CS & Technical staff are all very customer focused and responsive via email and phone.

Like you, I WFH 99.9% of the time and a highly available performant internet connection is a must for me. I have a Dual WAN Draytek Router and I was running my £20/month Plusnet VDSL connection in parallel as a backup as I too was concerned with HB's reliability at the beginning. The Draytek only cut over to the VDSL connection once due to the Routing issue mention above and never has since so I will be cancelling with the Plusnet contract is up for renewal as its not needed.

Than you so much for the reply - very helpful and has settled my nerves a little about moving to them - they have an offer on at themoment for their 900mbps service for £30 a month for 24 months and it really was too good an offer to turn away - especially as my BT contract is up for renewal.

I plan on using my Orbi router and satellites I have around the house - so do you have to use thier supplied router in bridge mode or, like BT, can I just use the orbi straight from the wall (they kind of gave me the impression I had to have thier router even if in bridge mode to my Oribi one).

My gretaest fear with them will be reliablitiy of service - I cannot afford long periods of dropped connection.

That is a great deal. My contract is up for renewal in a few months so I hope that deal will be available for me

Back when I joined, the CPE HB provided was a TP-Link GPON router that they put into Bridge mode so I could use my own Draytek kit. That's changed now as I see from their website they now offer a ADTRAN GPON Router by default. I've seen posts from other HB customers that they offer a ADTRAN ONT too upon request. You may wish to discuss this with the CS team when you place your order. See here on the Equipment Tab.

That went a little over my head! Not sure what the advantages or difference between the two would be?

I ended up getting the new router, and the service has been stable ever since. I asked for "bridge mode" before the install, and they installed the little Adtran 621 ONT (so no router in bridge mode).

You got a good price! They offered me £35 a month, and I bit their hand off. Should have bargained a bit, but I got a static IP thrown in for free, so can't complain.

Thanks for the reply! - good to know they are reliable.

The ONT is small, and simply provides an ethernet connection for your own router, which logs in with PPPoE.

Their router is bigger, and from what I've heard very locked down. It can be put into bridge mode, allowing you to use your own router in much the same way as an ONT, but then you have an expensive router from them that you aren't making use of.

From Hey!'s point of view, supplying an ONT is cheaper if the customer is going to use their own equipment.

In the context of HB's service, if you want to take their VoIP package, you'll want their GPON Router option as that has an RJ11 port on it for your 'landline' phone. If you don't care about porting your phone number to HB's VoIP service and are happy to support your own Router / whatever the ONT is all you need.