Blame has often been placed by BT on lights, electrical cables, and TVs to name but a few as interference that causes poor broadband access speeds throughout the UK.

The Telco has claimed that all of the noise these things cause may get in the way of the broadband signal as they move round the home through the wiring of the phone extensions. The phone cable consists of three wires, two wires carrying the broadband and telephony signal and the third wire called the bell wire, which is the cable where the interference is normally picked up. It has also been found by BT that the more phone extensions and electrical devices there are around the house the more problems there will be with interference.

BT has the answer and that is to filter it out, and in order to do this it has introduced the I-Plate. The device fits onto any BT NTE 5 master socket and is a clip on filter for the outlet. It will be shipping these devices out to broadband providers nationally who in turn will send them to any broadband users, of which there are an estimated 9 million with these sockets, who request them. The sole purpose of these I-plates is to isolate the bell wire which causes the interference problems.
The Telco has advised that fitting the device doesn’t require an engineer visit and is as simple as unscrewing the face plate of the NTE 5 master socket, clipping the I-Plate in place, and then replacing the cover.

Claims have been made by BT that based on “a benchmark survey of  36,000 lines” which has been ongoing since the introduction of the device in March this year, a speed increase of up to 1.5Mbps could be achieved by most users with some cases even showing improvements of anything up to 4Mpbs.This, however, is a claim made by BT and has yet to be independently tested.

One of the key factors that BT is keen to point out is that the speed increase you can achieve using the device is dependant mainly on the electrical conditions in each home: The provider you are with, the things you have running, and the broadband package you are using are just a few of the affecting factors. An example of this is if you don’t use an ADSL connection you won’t benefit from the device.