In the UK there are two main fibre broadband connection types, FTTC and FTTP. We’ll take a look at the two and what the benefits of having FTTP to your home or business.
FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet) broadband uses a full fibre optic connection from provider to the cabinets (the green ones you see in many streets), and copper wire from that to your home from the cabinet. This is the most common setup for fast broadband in the UK using the existing street cabinets and infrastructure without digging up the roads and streets. FTTP is more expensive to install and deploy as you need to replace the copper wires going from the green cabinet to the premises with fibre optic cabling.
FFTP (Fibre to the premises) – it’s also sometimes called FTTH (Fibre to the home). Rather than reach your home via the green cabinet at the end of your street, FTTP travels directly from your internet provider to your home or office with fibre optics all the way. In other words, ultra fast broadband speeds up to 1Gbps.
In terms of pure speed, FTTP is better. For example, if your family uses several devices at once – laptops, game consoles, iPads, streaming films, etc – then FTTP will be that much faster than FTTC, and won’t slow down any of your gadgets.
And if you run a business, you’ll almost certainly benefit from a FTTP connection, not only because the speeds are a lot quicker, but also because there’s less chance the internet will cut out half-way through an important email to a client. A lot of businesses rely on cloud services like Office 365 emails, OneDrive, offsite backup and even VoIP telephony. All this will benefit from fast upload speeds as well as download speeds on an FTTP connection.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each:
How do FTTC and FTTP compare?
- Speed – FTTP is a lot faster than FFTC, reaching speeds of 330Mb and in some cases even 1Gbps. If you’re worried about losing connection, and you don’t mind forking out a little more cash, then FTTP will be the best option for you.
- Cost – Although FTTP broadband is ultra-fast, it’s also super expensive to install. That’s because, unlike FFTC broadband, FTTP relies on there being new infrastructure in your area to work properly – which is why it isn’t available across large parts of the UK. If you’re on a budget, FTTC is the best option for you.
- Availability – Unfortunately, FTTP broadband coverage is extremely limited. Still, demand is going nowhere but up. Right now, over two million premises in the UK can get access it, with the Government planning to roll it out to four million homes and businesses by March 2021. FTTP will be the broadband of the future – but if you want fast speeds now, you may have to go for FTTC.
How do I get FTTP?
Getting FTTP deals can be a little trickier than FTTC because it’s not widely available. We’ve partnered with Zen to offer a complete FTTP package. The benefits of using Zen are:
Run a broadband speed test using our easy to use too here > https://testbroadband.co.uk/
Email us at info@dovecomputers.com with your contact details and telephone landline number, we’ll check availability on your behalf.