If you’ve been a BT Broadband customer for some time, you’re almost certainly using one of the company’s routers. And when the inevitable day (weeks and months) come when you need to contact the company’s support line, you’re going to need to know which model of the BT Hub you own.
It’s also handy information to have at contract upgrade time, letting you barter for new equipment when they’re trying to hook you to another year’s deal. “Which BT Hub do I have?” you might wonder. Here’s our guide to identifying the BT Hubs, starting with the most modern router first.
BT Smart Hub
The latest iteration of BT’s router is called the BT Smart Hub (sometimes referred to as the BT Smart Hub 6). It’s similar in design to the previous Home Hub 5 and 4, but the plastic band containing its coloured LED lights runs across the middle of the router instead of the base. Here at BTQ Towers (the posh name for Barry’s house), we’ve had problems with the Smart Hub randomly disconnecting and have actually reverted to a Home Hub 5. Your mileage may vary.
BT Home Hub 5 and BT Home Hub 4
BT customers who’ve upgraded to fibre over the past few years will most likely have been issued with a BT Home Hub 4 or 5. How do you know which you’ve got? It’s almost impossible to tell just by looking at them, as they’re cosmetically identical.
The easiest way to tell them apart is to flip them over and look at the sticker on the base of the unit:
The black box in the top left-hand corner of the sticker will reveal which generation of the Home Hub you have.
BT Home Hub 3
The BT Home Hub 3 has a completely different design, making it easily distinguishable from the modern set of routers. The Home Hub 3 was released way back in 2011, so if you’ve still got one of these attached to your phone line, you should definitely be having a word with BT about a (free) upgrade to the latest equipment, as you’re certainly not getting the best Wi-Fi speeds and range possible.
Now read this: What do the coloured lights on my BT Home Hub mean?
Clearest advice I have had on ‘how to identify the model of my BT router’. The info isn’t included on my contract details. The BT ‘help’ info shows pictures of the routers, but doesn’t mention just look at the label on the base. Is that disingenuous? Thanks for your advice. May I be a bit cheeky to ask? I renewed to a 24 month BT Fibre 1 contract at the beginning of May 2020. Am I entitled to the delivety of a BT Smart Hub router. I didn’t ask when I renewed although I did haggle successfully on price of the contract!
Certainly, the best time to haggle for a router upgrade would be at the point of contract renewal. I fear they may try and charge you now, unless your current router is faulty.