iPlate BT Accelerator

What is the BT i-Plate & how does it work?
The i-Plate (iPlate) is a filter for use on ADSL Broadband lines to improve the speed & stability of the connection. Since they're easy to install yourself, (see YouTube video below) there are no costly engineer visits required. When connected to the master socket, the iPlate filters the 'bell wire' which used to be needed to make our old-fashioned analogue telephones ring. However, with today's touch-tone phones, this bell wire is now redundant and its presence in a master socket actually causes digital interference on the ADSL line.

Please note that with an iPlate, you will still need to use micro filters.

Increased speeds:
Some lines have seen up to 4Mb increases in speed although improvements of 1.5Mb were found to be more typical in a benchmark survey of 36,000 filtered lines. This indicates a potential 10Db extension in reach meaning iPlates can also help with poor performing ‘Long lines’. These benefits were realized on ADSL lines and they'll be at least as good, if not better, on ADSL2+ lines.

Improved stability:
Since the iPlate also helps to make ADSL connections more stable, there can be Broadband performance benefits even when line speed is not noticeably increased. The same benchmark study of 36,000 lines showed that filtered lines typically had 20% fewer re-trains (denoting lost connections) and a 45% reduction in error rate.

Who can use the iPlate?
7 out of 10 UK homes will benefit to some extent – that’s approximately 9m Broadband lines. You must have a BT NTE5 type Master Socket (does your socket look like the picture below?).

Will I benefit from an iPlate?
A good way to tell if your line is likely to benefit from bell wire filtering is to compare Broadband performance test results when the modem is plugged into the master socket, versus plugging it into an extension socket. If you see an improvement in broadband performance when the master socket is used, this is a good indication that an iPlate will help.

PLEASE NOTE:
1) Although 7 out of 10 homes can benefit to some extent, line speed improvements cannot be guaranteed in every case as the level of interference present on different ADSL lines can vary greatly.

2) The instances below indicate where the iPlate will have little or no effect:
- Where there is already an SSFP (Service Specific Front Plate) installed, thus separating 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 bell ringer wire included

To fit your i-plate
Simply unscrew the lower section of your master socket, fix the i-plate into the socket remaining on the wall, and then replace the lower section over the i-plate.