Jenny Dallas | Customer Experience Squad Product Manager
Full fibre broadband (also known as FTTP: Fibre to the Premises) is currently being installed across the whole of the UK. That’s great, but what does it mean? Discover what it actually is in the guide.
Full fibre is a brand spanking-new broadband connection which gives you a dedicated full fibre connection direct into your home.
Essentially, full-fibre broadband changes the way that your broadband connection is taken into your home. It offers faster speeds and a more reliable connection and is a key part of the Governments plans to get more homes and businesses better connected.
If you don’t already have full-fibre broadband installed in your home, you’re probably either using an FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) or ASDL (Asymmetric Digital Subscribe Line) broadband connection. These connections get you online using copper cables, either the whole way from the exchange to your home, this is how an ASDL connection works. Or through a fibre-optic cable from the exchange to the cabinet closest to you (the green box in the street) and then a copper cable from there to your home, this is how FTTC broadband works.
With full-fibre broadband, a fibre-optic cable will be connecting you from your home directly to the exchange, no copper whatsoever. We’ve put together an eggy visual to help this make sense….
Full fibre uses fibre-optic cables all the way from the exchange to your house, and fibre-optic cables are an amazing piece of technology. They’re so great because they can transmit superfast speeds and are incredibly reliable, they’re difficult to damage and can last decades, unlike copper cables which can last just a few years. That means next to no dropouts or buffering!
If you want to get really high-tech, one of the reasons they’re so amazing is because they are made of glass (or sometimes plastic) which is no thicker than a strand of hair and than wrapped tightly to keep it protected.
The biggest thing you’ll notice when you upgrade to full fibre is the speed that you’ll get, when we say it’s fast, it’s realllllly fast!
For starters, if you’re using FTTC broadband at the moment, the best speeds you’ll get will be able to get will be80 Mb/s, no matter what provider you use. This can also vary dramatically depending on how close you live to the green cabinet on your street. But, full fibre can deliver speeds of up to 1,000Mb/s (1Gbs/), more than 10 times as fast, and it doesn’t matter how far away you live.
You’ll be able to download a film in under a minute. Whoosh!
As full-fibre broadband is being rolled out, your current connection may be turned off as it will be an old & outdated technology. This may not be for a few years, but it will happen at some point in the future but this will be different for every house. There’s nothing we can do about this unfortunately, it’s just the way it is. It’s a bit like mobile phones; eventually everyone will use it!
When you’re told about full fibre being available to your home, the best thing you can do is upgrade when you can. You’ll notice the prices won’t be too dissimilar from what you’re currently paying and the reliability will be considerably better.
We know what you’re thinking, is full-fibre broadband really all it’s cracked up to be? Check out this guide where we’ve given you the real full fibre low-down.
There are a number of different companies who are building the infrastructure to connect homes across the country to full-fibre broadband. At Cuckoo, we’re working with multiple companies who build the infrastructure so we can connect you as quickly as we can.
If you’re ready to make the upgrade or switch to Cuckoo, hit “ Sign Up ” in the top right and you can see if full-fibre is available. If it’s not, you can sign-up for notifications and we’ll let you know when it is!
Full-fibre broadband (also known as FTTP: Fibre to the Premises) is a brand-spanking new technology, but is it all it’s cracked up to be? In this guide, we’ll reveal all you need to know about full fibre.
Is your Wi-Fi signal annoyingly unreliable? Fear not. There are loads of ways to give it a boost. Of course, what you need to do depends on the problem you have and the home you’re living in. All will be revealed in our handy guide.
Think ‘environmentally friendly’ and you’ll probably picture solar panels, electric cars, paper straws and all the other usual green suspects. So it might surprise you to learn that switching to full fibre broadband can also be added to the list of ways to be kinder to the planet.