iPlate/Broadband Accelerator now free for BT customers

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

I first wrote about the BT iPlate (now renamed Broadband Accelerator) back in September 2008, and the blog post still gets thousands of hits per month from people desperately trying to eke more Mbits/sec out of their ADSL connections.

In case you’ve never heard of it, the Broadband Accelerator effectively cancels out potential interference from the now redundant bell wire, and can improve the speed of your connection by as much as 60% in our limited tests. It’ll only work on connections where the router is running off extension wiring, and even then it won’t work for everyone (indeed, some people have reported a drop in speed). And, yes, if you’re handy with a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, you can achieve much the same effect by removing the BT socket faceplate and snipping the bell wire yourself.

However, as PC Pro blog reader ‘weeds season 4′ (don’t ask, just nod politely) pointed out this week, it’s probably not even worth the hassle if you’re a BT Total Broadband customer, as the company’s now giving away the easy-to-fit devices for free, bar £1.20 postage and packing. You can order one from the BT Broadband Accelerator website.

Let’s hope other ISPs follow suit.

Broadband-boosting iPlate now less than a tenner

Monday, March 9th, 2009

My blog post last September on the broadband-boosting iPlate generated huge interest from people looking for a cheap way to increase their internet speeds. The good news is that it’s now even cheaper. Last autumn the device cost £14.81 inc VAT and delivery. Now, it can be bought from for only £9.29 on Broadbandbuyer.co.uk, making it an even more tempting gamble.  

Why’s it a gamble? Because the iPlate won’t improve the speeds of every ADSL connection. Jonathan Bray and I both saw speed boosts of between 53%-63%, but unless your connection is suffering from electrical interference, it might not have an effect. Of the people who commented on the last blog post, four saw an improvement (one of almost 100%), one saw no difference and two reported actual drops in speed after fitting the iPlate (for reasons that aren’t entirely clear).

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iPlate boosts broadband connections by 60%

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

BT was quietly confident earlier this year when it told me that a £10 device would significantly increase the speed of many people’s broadband connections – and judging by our tests, it’s absolutely right.

The iPlate (or interstitial plate, as its mother would call it) has boosted the speed of my home ADSL connection by a staggering 63%. Before I connected the easy-to-install device over the weekend, the actual throughput of my ADSL Max connection was averaging around 1.9Mb/sec, according to repeated tests at Speedtest.net. Now, that same speed test is reporting an average download speed of 3.1Mb/sec. All for doing nothing more than spending 10 minutes undoing a couple of screws and popping the plate in my master phone socket.

I should explain, for those that now rush to Broadbandbuyer.co.uk (who supplied our iPlates) and order an iPlate for themselves, that the speed increase didn’t happen instantly. In fact, straight after I’d installed the iPlate I rushed on to Speedtest.net and was crestfallen to find it had made absolutely bugger all difference to my download speed. However, I did notice whilst rifling my router’s settings that my modem’s synch speed – the maximum theoretical speed your physical connection can achieve – had risen from a paltry 2Mb/sec to a far healthier 3.6Mb/sec.

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