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.

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).

Those extremely anecdotal figures are backed-up by BT’s far more comprehensive research. I asked the company if it had any more up-to-date figure on iPlate success rates last week, and it told me that “recent trials involving one UK ISP found that over 70% of their trialists benefited from speed increases, with two triallists achieving speed increases of between 300% and 330%.”

One thing that wasn’t made clear in the original blog post was whether the iPlate worked with non-BT lines or ADSL2+ connections. The answer in both cases is yes, the iPlate should work with any type of ADSL connection (with the exceptions mentioned in the previous post). In fact, as ADSL2+ connections are more sensitive to interference than standard ADSL Max lines, the speed improvements could be even greater.

Let us know how you get on if you decide to wager a tenner on one.

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.

So why wasn’t I feeling the immediate benefit? Because BT automatically chokes the speed of your line to match your synch speed to improve connection stability – something which is known as your BRAS profile. A quick check on Zen Internet’s brilliant online customer portal confirmed that my BRAS profile was indeed stuck at 2Mb/sec. It can take up to three days for BT’s automated equipment to adjust your BRAS profile once your synch speed improves, but within 36 hours my BRAS had been adjusted to 3.6Mb/sec and I was surfing at vastly improved speeds.

And just to check it wasn’t a complete fluke, my colleague Jonathan Bray has been testing another iPlate on his home connection and has seen his actual throughput improve from 3.2Mb/sec to 4.9Mb/sec – an increase of 53%. In Jon’s words, it’s “gobsmacking”. I wholeheartedly agree.

How does it work?

The iPlate essentially dispenses with the bell wire – the wire that used to make old phones make that glorious, old-school ringing noise that morons now pay for as a ringtone on their mobile. Modern phones don’t need the bell wire, meaning it now does nothing more than inconveniently act as a conductor for any electrical interference in your home. Dodgy light fittings, central heating, microwave ovens, the old telly used by the family next door: all of them can generate electrical interference, creating “noise” on your line and subsequently hampering broadband speeds.

It’s perfectly possible to disconnect the bell wire yourself (a quick Google search will reveal several walkthrough guides) but this involves snipping wires. Get that wrong and you face not only a hefty bill for a BT engineer, but the indignity of having said engineer turn up at your house, take one look, suck his teeth and ask “what cowboy’s been meddling with this?”. The iPlate is a far safer choice for those who don’t know exactly what they’re doing.

Will it work for you?

There’s no guarantee, which is why you won’t be seeing this product given a full review in PC Pro. All we can report is our anecdotal evidence, which is very encouraging indeed, but others may get little or no improvement at all. Broadbandbuyer.co.uk claims that seven out of ten homes are likely to benefit from the device.

BT claims its trials showed speed increases of up to 3Mb/sec, with an average improvement of 1.5Mb/sec. We asked Zen Internet if it had any experience of customers using iPlates, and Neil Scott, from the ISP’s fault-management team told us: “In a small scale trial we performed with early test iPlates, the results where varied from no increase up to 1Mb/sec”. But if our experience is anything to go by, Zen may be a little on the pessimistic side.

The iPlate really only comes into its own for people who have their router plugged into an extension socket, rather than the NTE5 master socket. Scott also warns of several other instances of where the iPlate will have little or no effect, including:

- Where there is already an SSFP (Service Specific Front Plate) installed that separates the broadband and telephone signals

- Where the socket is a newly installed BT Openreach socket (with BT Openreach Logo)

- Where the line is newly installed, without the ringer wire included

How do I fit the iPlate?

The device really couldn’t be much simpler to install. An idiot could it. (An idiot arguably did do it, in fact). You merely unscrew the front plate on your NTE5 master socket, pop the iPlate into the socket, and then rescrew the front plate back on, using the (now necessarily) longer screws that are supplied in the packet.

The only potential pitfall is the rather delicate wiring that is exposed when you unscrew the plate. Take great care not to yank any of those wires out, or you’ll probably be needing a visit from the same smug engineer that the DIY bell wire wreckers will.

Where do I get one?

Broadbandbuyer.co.uk is selling the iPlate for £10.80 (£14.81 inc VAT and delivery). BT also hinted that it and other ISPs might decide to dish these devices out to customers who are having problems with connection speeds and reliability, so it’s well worth phoning your ISP’s helpdesk first.