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 2
The Smart Hub 2 is the device currently being issued to new customers at the time of writing (April 2023). It’s starting to show its age now, as it doesn’t support even Wi-Fi 6, let alone the very latest Wi-Fi 7 standard. We expect BT is looking to replace this model some time in 2023.
On the back, you’ll find four gigabit Ethernet ports as well as a USB port, for connecting devices such as USB disks. If you can’t get Wi-Fi in every room in the home, BT may try and upsell you to its Complete Wi-Fi package, which includes extra disc-shaped wireless extenders that work with the Smart Hub 2.
BT Smart Hub
The BT Smart Hub (sometimes referred to as the BT Smart Hub 6) will still be installed in many homes. 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.
BT Home Hub 5 and BT Home Hub 4
The older BT Home Hub 4 and 5 are almost impossible to tell apart 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.
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.