An Update On Bell’s Gigahub Rollout Issues…. It’s Not You, It’s Them
You might recall that I wrote about the new Bell Gigahub which is part of their 8 Gbps fibre rollout, and the troubles that some people have had with it when it comes to using their own gear with the Gigahub. And I asked for people who were in the Greater Toronto Area who were having trouble with to ping me so that I could see these issues first hand. First of all, I’d like to thank the people who’ve I met over the last couple of weeks to look at this, and it’s allowed me to conclude that this Gigahub has issues. And what’s really good about this situation is that Bell has confirmed that there are issues with the Gigahub via this thread on DSLReports.com and that a firmware fix is coming (click to enlarge):
Bell_Dom is a Bell employee who really goes above and beyond to help Bell customers on DSLReports.com. Thus if he says it, it’s fact. Though I would love to know when this firmware is rolling out so that I can be ready to assist the people that I’ve met further.
In any case, here’s what the issue is:
- If you have a Bell service that uses XGS-PON, then the Gigahub will work fine. Bell’s 8 Gbps service uses XGS-PON.
- If you have a Bell service that uses GPON, then the Gigshub doesn’t work with your own hardware properly. Every other Bell service uses GPON.
Thus I have to assume that that Bell or Sagecomm who makes the Gigahub screwed something up with their GPON support when it is used with a third party router. I’m kind of not surprised by this as people using their own gear are an edge case to Bell. Thus I can see that they would not spend any time testing that scenario.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this and I will provide updates as I become aware of them.
UPDATE: I was asked in the comments below if one should change their Gigahub to XGS-PON to GPON to fix this issue. The answer is NO. Absolutely NOT. This is a setting for the Bell hardware that Bell’s hardware has to communicate to the Bell network depending on the use case. By that I mean that depending on what Bell speed tier you have, this setting might change. Changing this will break access to the Internet. So you should not touch this. Again, Bell will address this issue in a firmware update.
UPDATE #2: Bell has updated firmware that seems to address this issue. Details here.
November 4, 2022 at 10:58 am
Hello,
Just out of curiosity, my GigaHub router is on Auto for the selection of XGS-PON or GPON and you are saying :
If you have a Bell service that uses XGS-PON, then the Gigahub will work fine. Bell’s 8 Gbps service uses XGS-PON.
If you have a Bell service that uses GPON, then the Gigshub doesn’t work with your own hardware properly. Every other Bell service uses GPON.
Does this meen if I change my selection to XGS-PON, I will be able use my own hardware?
Regards,
November 4, 2022 at 11:04 am
You should NOT change that setting as that will break access to the Internet. Thanks for asking that question and I will update my post to reflect this.
November 7, 2022 at 8:43 pm
I’ve just “upgraded” to the Giga Hub with 3G service from a HH3000 with 500Mb service connected to a Ubiquiti home network (USW lite 8 poe switch, cloud key controller and 4 U6 lite APs.) I’m a technical novice but have gathered through your notes and various forums that the persistent and debilitating network issues that I’m now encountering are common with similar setups. I don’t really need the 3G service (it was a low cost upgrade offer) so would you recommend switching back to the prior modem/service or waiting for the firmware update? I do have band-aid solutions in place for home connectivity but they are painful and a mutiny may ensue!
Thanks
Simon
November 8, 2022 at 7:40 am
Hello.
You could try calling Bell to see if they will put you back to an HH4000. But from what I am hearing, it’s difficult to get them to do that. But it doesn’t hurt to try I suppose. That may force you to wait for a firmware update.
You want to keep an eye on this thread on DSL Reports: https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r33502228-Internet-Bell-Giga-Hub-4000-PPPoE-passthru-not-working
November 8, 2022 at 11:56 am
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your guidance and earlier helpful posts on the issue. I’ll try to get the old hardware and setup back … fingers crossed!
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