The router you thought was free

Every British hallway eventually contains a plastic trapezoid with a name like Hub, Super Hub, or something involving the letter X. The advert called it free. The contract called it equipment. The reminder email, six weeks after you switched, called it £65 if not returned.

Four ways a hub can cost money

1. Delivery or courier on the way in.
2. A deposit held until return.
3. A purchase you did not notice in the extras.
4. A non-return or damaged-kit charge on the way out.

Our first-year cost includes listed upfront kit charges. It cannot include a future non-return fee you have not incurred. That one is on you, and on a calendar reminder.

Using your own router

On many Openreach lines you can. You will need the login details, a willingness to read a page about PPPoE or IPv6, and the humility to put the provider hub back if support will not talk to a third-party box. Some alt-nets and some cable products want their own stack. Ask before you order if that is a deal-breaker, not after you have a graveyard of trapezoids.

Return is the rest of ‘free’

The hub is a loan with a courier at the end. Non-return charges are how ‘free kit’ becomes a line on a cease invoice. Photograph serials the morning the new line works. The returning-kit piece in this issue is the procedure. This piece is the reminder that the loan was always in the PDF.