BT Complete WiFi Plus

BT Complete Wi-Fi Plus is a whole-home WiFi guarantee designed to improve wireless coverage in rooms where the Smart Hub 3 alone struggles to reach.

For £10 per month, customers get up to three WiFi 6 extenders to boost coverage around the home.

BT's Complete Wi-Fi Guarantee promises a 'strong' signal in every room or £100 back, but the 24-month minimum contract can't be cancelled early.

Illustration: Choose.co.uk

What does BT Complete WiFi Plus offer?

BT Complete Wi-Fi Plus is a £10 per month whole-home WiFi service for customers using the WiFi 6 Smart Hub 3. It extends the router's wireless signal into areas of the home where coverage would otherwise be weak, while keeping devices connected to the same WiFi network.

Customers initially receive one Complete Wi-Fi Plus Extender, with up to two additional extenders available if they're needed to provide coverage throughout the home.

Complete Wi-Fi Plus includes:

• One WiFi 6 Complete Wi-Fi Plus Extender
• Up to two additional extenders where required
• One seamless WiFi network across the hub and extenders
• Automatic connection to the strongest available signal
• Dual-band WiFi 6 connectivity
• One Gigabit Ethernet port on each extender
• Setup and management through the My BT app
• Complete Wi-Fi Guarantee, backed by £100 bill credit

Unlike a basic WiFi booster, Complete Wi-Fi Plus works with the Smart Hub 3 as part of the same wireless network. Devices can therefore move between the hub and extenders without manually changing WiFi networks, with the system connecting them to the strongest available signal.

Each extender supports dual-band WiFi 6, with 2x2 connectivity at 2.4GHz and 4x4 at 5GHz. There's also a 1Gbps Ethernet port, which can be used to connect a device such as a desktop PC, games console or TV directly to an extender. The extender itself can also be connected back to the Smart Hub 3 using Ethernet rather than relying on a wireless connection.

The main advantage of paying for Complete Wi-Fi Plus rather than simply buying an extender is BT's whole-home WiFi guarantee. BT will provide additional extenders where they're needed and, if it still can't provide reliable WiFi throughout the main home, customers can claim a £100 bill credit.

The guarantee applies to rooms within the main property rather than gardens, sheds or other outbuildings, and covers WiFi coverage rather than faults with the underlying broadband connection.

How does Complete Wi-Fi Plus work?

Complete Wi-Fi Plus uses mesh networking to extend the Smart Hub 3's wireless network further around the home.

This is different to a conventional WiFi range extender, which typically receives the router's signal and rebroadcasts it as a separate wireless network. With mesh, the Smart Hub 3 and Complete Wi-Fi Plus extenders work together as one network, allowing devices to move between them without having to manually reconnect.

That makes the biggest difference in larger homes. A phone, for example, can remain on the same network while moving from a room covered directly by the Smart Hub 3 to one better served by an extender.

However, adding an extender doesn't simply reproduce the broadband connection at full speed in another part of the house. When connected wirelessly, the extender still needs a sufficiently good connection back to the Smart Hub 3, or another extender, to pass data between the device and broadband connection.

Placement therefore matters. BT recommends positioning the first extender around halfway between the Smart Hub 3 and the area with poor coverage, with the My BT app helping customers find a suitable location.

Putting an extender directly in a WiFi blackspot is unlikely to work well because there's little signal there for it to extend. In practice, the aim is to place it somewhere that still has a good connection to the Smart Hub 3, but is close enough to carry that connection into the problem area.

Additional Complete Wi-Fi Plus extenders can also connect to one another over WiFi, which can help extend the network into more difficult areas of a property.

For homes with Ethernet cabling, there's also a Gigabit Ethernet port on the extender. This can be used to connect a wired device, while BT also supports connecting an extender back to the Smart Hub 3 over Ethernet where necessary.

Overall, Complete Wi-Fi Plus should be viewed primarily as a solution to coverage problems rather than broadband speed problems. It can make a substantial difference where devices currently struggle to maintain a connection, but it won't turn a weakly positioned wireless extender into a 900Mbps connection simply because the customer has Full Fibre 900.

Complete Wi-Fi Plus Guarantee

Complete Wi-Fi Plus costs £10 per month, with much of its value coming from BT taking responsibility for getting WiFi coverage around the home rather than simply supplying an extender.

Customers receive one Complete Wi-Fi Plus extender initially. If the My BT app still reports a weak signal in parts of the property, BT can provide up to two more, for a maximum of three extenders.

If BT ultimately can't provide a reliable WiFi connection in every room, customers can claim a £100 bill credit.

There are some important limitations, however. The guarantee only applies within the main home, so gardens, sheds and other outbuildings aren't covered. It also doesn't apply to faults with the underlying broadband connection.

More importantly, BT doesn't currently promise a specific minimum download speed in every room. Instead, the guarantee is based on whether the wireless connection is considered sufficiently strong by BT and the My BT app.

That's considerably less precise than some rival WiFi guarantees. Virgin Media, for example, guarantees at least 30Mbps with WiFi Max, while other providers also attach specific minimum download speeds to their guarantees.

It matters particularly on BT's faster broadband packages. Someone paying for Full Fibre 900 could satisfy BT's Complete Wi-Fi Guarantee while getting only a fraction of their 900Mbps broadband speed in a distant room.

That doesn't necessarily make Complete Wi-Fi Plus ineffective: getting a stable connection where there was previously little or no WiFi could be exactly what a customer needs. But the guarantee should be understood as a coverage guarantee, not a whole-home speed guarantee.

There's another downside to consider. Complete Wi-Fi costs £10 per month on a 24-month minimum term, or £240 over the contract. Even if BT can't fulfil the guarantee, the £100 bill credit doesn't cover the full cost of the service and customers aren't automatically released from the remaining minimum term.

That makes BT's guarantee reassuring, but not especially generous. The real value of Complete Wi-Fi Plus is therefore the provision of up to three compatible mesh extenders and BT's support in getting them working effectively, rather than the £100 guarantee alone.

Complete Wi-Fi Plus vs Complete Wi-Fi

Complete Wi-Fi Plus is an important hardware upgrade over BT's original Complete Wi-Fi service, although the underlying idea is much the same.

The older system pairs the WiFi 5 Smart Hub 2 with BT's Complete Wi-Fi discs. Complete Wi-Fi Plus instead works with the WiFi 6 Smart Hub 3 and uses new WiFi 6 extenders.

Both systems create a single wireless network around the home and can use up to three additional units to improve coverage. The £100 whole-home WiFi guarantee also remains broadly unchanged.

The significant improvement is therefore performance rather than coverage in principle.

Complete Wi-Fi Plus supports WiFi 6, with each extender using a 2x2 configuration at 2.4GHz and 4x4 at 5GHz. WiFi 6 is more efficient when handling multiple connected devices and offers substantially more wireless capacity than the WiFi 5 technology used by the older Smart Hub 2 system.

That matters more now that BT sells broadband connections considerably faster than the wireless technology in its older equipment was designed to accommodate. On Full Fibre 500 and Full Fibre 900 in particular, using WiFi 6 throughout the mesh gives customers a better chance of retaining higher speeds away from the main router.

It still doesn't mean Full Fibre 900 customers should expect 900Mbps from a distant Complete Wi-Fi Plus extender. Distance, walls, interference, device capabilities and the quality of the wireless connection between the extender and Smart Hub 3 all affect the speed ultimately available.

But the upgrade does address one of the weaknesses of the old Complete Wi-Fi setup: BT is no longer pairing its fastest broadband packages with a whole-home WiFi system based on the previous-generation WiFi 5 standard.

For new BT customers receiving the Smart Hub 3, Complete Wi-Fi Plus is therefore the version to have. Existing Complete Wi-Fi customers with a Smart Hub 2 and discs have less reason to upgrade purely for coverage if their current system already reaches everywhere they need it to, but WiFi 6 makes the newer system considerably more relevant for customers trying to make better use of faster Full Fibre connections.

How does BT Complete Wi-Fi Plus compare?

BT Complete Wi-Fi Plus is at the more expensive end of whole-home WiFi add-ons. Sky WiFi Max costs £6 per month and Virgin Media WiFi Max £8, while EE WiFi Extender 6 Plus matches BT at £10. Virgin also includes WiFi Max at no extra cost with Gig1, Gig2 and Volt, while EE has a higher-spec WiFi 7 Pro option for £15 per month.

The guarantees aren't directly comparable either. BT and EE's standard service promise reliable WiFi coverage without committing to a minimum speed, while Virgin guarantees 30Mbps in every room and Sky guarantees up to 25Mbps. EE goes considerably further with WiFi Extender 7 Pro, guaranteeing 100Mbps in every room.

BT fares better when it comes to compensation. Its £100 bill credit matches Virgin Media and EE and is more generous than Sky's refund of one month's broadband and WiFi Max charges. However, receiving the £100 doesn't release BT customers from the remaining minimum term.

That's where the alternatives become more attractive. Virgin Media WiFi Max runs on a 30-day term, so customers can simply cancel it, while Sky allows customers to cancel WiFi Max without early termination charges if it can't fulfil the guarantee. Virgin's offer is particularly strong on Gig1, Gig2 and Volt, where customers pay nothing extra for WiFi Max but can still receive £100 if Virgin fails to provide the guaranteed 30Mbps.

EE WiFi Extender 6 Plus is the most direct alternative to BT, with the same £10 price, WiFi 6 hardware and £100 coverage guarantee. For another £5 per month, however, EE WiFi Extender 7 Pro moves to WiFi 7 and replaces the unspecified coverage promise with a 100Mbps minimum speed guarantee.

BT's £100 compensation is therefore strong, but the underlying guarantee is less demanding than Virgin Media's and EE's premium option, while its 24-month commitment is less flexible than Virgin Media and offers no equivalent to Sky's right to cancel the add-on if the guarantee can't be met.

Verdict: Is BT Complete Wi-Fi Plus worth it?

BT Complete Wi-Fi Plus is a useful add-on, but whether it's good value depends heavily on how much additional hardware BT ends up supplying.

For £10 per month, customers can receive up to three WiFi 6 extenders, with BT supplying additional units if the first doesn't provide whole-home coverage. That makes the fixed monthly price increasingly good value as more extenders are required, particularly with the £100 guarantee sitting behind it.

The guarantee itself is generous in cash terms, but less impressive in what BT actually promises. There's no minimum speed in each room, only a reliable WiFi connection. That's a fairly modest commitment when BT sells broadband at up to 900Mbps, and both Virgin Media and EE offer guarantees tied to measurable speeds.

The 24-month minimum term is the other drawback. If BT can't provide the promised coverage, customers can claim £100 but aren't released from the contract. That's difficult to defend when Sky allows customers to cancel WiFi Max if its own guarantee can't be met.

At £240 over two years, Complete Wi-Fi Plus looks poor value if one extender fixes the problem, but considerably better if BT has to provide two or three. We'd also like to see BT put an actual speed behind its guarantee. As it stands, the service offers plenty of hardware and good compensation, but asks customers to make a longer commitment than the guarantee itself deserves.