BT

BT Group traces its origins to the Electric Telegraph Company founded in 1846, predating most technology companies by over a century. Today BT is the UK's largest integrated telecommunications company, operating consumer broadband and phone services through BT Broadband, mobile services through EE (which it acquired in 2016), enterprise and government network services through BT Business, and the Openreach division that maintains the UK's wholesale fixed-line network infrastructure used by all broadband providers. This structural position — both as a retail ISP and as the wholesale network that competitors depend on — gives BT unusual breadth in the UK telecoms landscape.

BT Broadband consumer services include DSL, FTTC (fiber to the cabinet), and full-fiber FTTP products in areas where Openreach has deployed Ultrafast fiber. The My BT app provides account management, bill payment, broadband speed testing, and Smart Hub router management including Wi-Fi settings. BT Sport streaming (now rebranded as TNT Sports) runs on a separate but related digital platform. BT's Halo service adds technical reliability guarantees including mobile backup when fixed broadband is disrupted. The Smart Hub 2 router management features depend on cloud connectivity to BT's device management platform.

BT service disruptions span the full range of broadband failure modes. Complete line faults — the BT-specific exchange-to-premises copper or fiber circuit failing — affect individual addresses and typically require an Openreach engineer visit. Broader exchange or node issues affect neighborhoods or exchange areas. The My BT app becomes unable to connect when BT's backend services are degraded, leaving customers unable to report a fault or schedule an engineer. Broadband speed degradation — particularly on FTTC connections — sometimes points to cabinet or backhaul issues upstream of the premises. BT Sport and TNT Sports streaming fails separately when the content platform has issues unrelated to broadband availability.

Outage.gg tracks BT broadband and service disruptions using community reports from customers across the UK. If your BT broadband is down, the My BT app is not working, or your line has faulted, the live status page shows whether others nearby are affected.