BT Compatible I-Plate Interstitial Plate - ADSL

My 'up to 8.0 Mbps' BT Anytime Broadband package performance has always been a little lacklustre. I live 2Km from my local telephone exchange, and I was achieving a maximum of 2.9 Mbps during large file downloads. This is certainly usable, but the ADSL standard theoretically supports up to 8.0 Mbps at 2Km range under ideal conditions. I recently heard about the BT i-Plate, and its ability to improve the quality of signal on remote telephone sockets by filtering the 'bell' wire on the master socket. I have to admit to being somewhat skeptical, but given its minimal price, I thought there wasn't much to risk by buying an i-Plate. Well I did so, and after fitting it (which took literally 2 minutes with the aid of a small, flat-bladed screwdriver) my maximum download peak speed instantly went from 2.9 Mbps up to 4.2 Mbps. I certainly wasn't expecting such a dramatic improvement, but I'm very pleased I decided to try it, and would recommend that anyone who can make use of the i-Plate try one. Note that there are some who won't benefit, depending on the type of master socket you have (later ones already have the technology integrated) and whether or not you connect your ADSL router to the master socket (it will apparently only help if connected to a remote socket) so check the BT website for full details before purchasing. Highly recommended!

Firstly i will set out my position, i live in a rural village about 3 miles from the exchange and BT say our speed should be between 3-5mb. Needless to say the most we ever got was about 2.9mb on a wired connection, even less through wireless. We have been suffering this for years as well as drop outs every now and then and i have always wondered if there is anything i could do.

So i took a gamble and bought this Iplate which comes with the screws to fit it. It works by isolating the bell wire on your phone line and removing interference from all manner of electronic interference that may be around your house! This has the effect "supposedly" of allowing for a faster connection.

To fit the Iplate you remove the face of the master socket and simply slide the Iplate between the face plate and socket box (careful not to snag the thin and delicate cables that are found in these boxes which you don't need to disconnect!!) note. the Iplate only works with certain master sockets so you can check on BT website for compatibility but as a quick guide if there is a split across your box and has either the BT logo in the top left or right then it should work...if on the other hand your master socket says "open-reach" then the socket already has a "interference filter" built in

I ordered on Wednesday and it arrived on Saturday using amazons free delivery (i am very impressed by amazons speed at dispatching my order and royal mail at delivering it)

I instantly fitted the Iplate using the screws provided, which in total shouldn't take more than 5 minutes unless it's in a hard to reach place! Now BT themselves say that it may take a few days for your internet speed to increase (they say the average is 3 days with an average increase of 1.5mb)

Well within 5 minutes i conducted a speed test online and my speed had dropped to 1mb (at this point i was worried but i kept in mind what BT said, to wait a few days) needless to say a few hours later .... i did another test and i was amazed that my speed had increased to 4.95mb on a wired connection and around 4.2mb on wireless 30ft away.

That was a few days ago now and our speed has remained around 5mb (sometimes 5.5mb) on a wired connection and over 4 on our wireless (we use the BT home hub 2.0)... Now apparently after the Iplate is fitted BT test your connection to see what optimal speed can be constantly sent down you phone line (they do this over a few hours and days)...so with the interference removed from our line BT was able to increase are USABLE speed from 2.9mb up to 5mb.

(contrary to what people think the Iplate does not increase your broadband speed directly, Internet suppliers limit your broadband to a level which is sustainable taking into account any interference there may be on your phone line, when the Iplate is fitted it removes that interference which allows your broadband supplier to increase your speed)

PROS: Very impressed at how effective the Iplate is at removing interference, easy to fit, cheap to buy, will enable your internet to be as fast as possible!

CONS: It might not increase your speed if you already get the maximum speed you are allowed but it will reduce drop outs at the very least

VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, the best £4 i have spent in a long time!

I installed this to try and get a more stable termination on our DSL line, service provided by o2 over BT copper. We have recently moved house to somewhere that is quite a way from the exchange and were only getting 1.2MB/s downstream and 256kb/s up (despite o2 telling me we would get approx 3 meg).

Just before I bought this I rewired the house and replaced all the old nasty BT cable with nice quality modern cable - I also removed the ringer wire from 'pin 3' on the NTE5 and to all of the extensions as modern phones just don't need it. I also rang o2 and asked them if they could 'turn the wick up' on my DSL - which they promptly did. Suddenly my Netgear router was giving me 2.7Mb/s - much more like it.

I bought the Iplate to see if we could get any further improvement, and should have done a little more homework on what this box actually does. Basically it isolates the ringer wire from the cabling, to stop crosstalk from that wire affecting the sensitive DSL signals on the voice pair... as I had already done this the Iplate didn't help much - except that actually my speed went down!! Not only that but since we installed it our DECT phones sometimes refuse to ring at all.

As a result I have removed the iplate and gone back to a vanilla NTE5 with no ringer wire. All is back to normal and the speed has crept back to nearly 3Mb/s.

I would therefore ONLY buy this if you know your wiring is old and includes a ringer wire which may affect your DSL - if you have newer wiring it is not likely to make any difference. It is not a universal panacea - as usual the laws of physics always apply!