No matter where you live or what you do, everyone needs a Gigabit ready internet connection service today.  Having full -fibre ultrafast broadband connected directly to your premises will give you internet speed and performance around 10 times greater than all other options. But what is full -fibre broadband really?  In this article we’ll explain full -fibre broadband in simple terms and demonstrate why it’s so important to keep your own service up-to-date.

Why you need full fibre broadband

  So much of our daily life depends on internet connectivity. From shopping, to smart-metres, to relaxing in front of Netflix.  The trend for remote and home working has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and any poor performance or slow internet speeds are disruptive and frustrating. For work or play, we all need fast & reliable broadband and the best solution is full-fibre broadband. 

What is Full Fibre Broadband… Really? 

Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP)

Full fibre broadband is the best way for you to get ultrafast internet connectivity into your home or office. You’ll have fibre-optic cables connected directly into your premises and it's called FTTP (Fibre to the Premises). FTTP provides a Gigabit-ready connection that is up to 10 times faster, more reliable and can flex to accommodate increasing data demands.  
To learn more about how full-fibre broadband works in our local area, read our related article here. 

Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) 

FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) is the older style of fibre broadband and was the pre-cursor to FTTP.  FTTC still uses copper cables to connect properties from a  hared cabinet in the street so the fibre-optic cables only go as far as an exchange outside your house. The exchange is shared with all the residents connected via that part of the network. You gain your connection through copper wires from the exchange into your premises, which significantly reduces the Internet speed and performance. To summarise, an FTTC internet connection is fibre to the shared cabinet in the street BUT the connection into the individual premises is copper. So you have fibre to a point, but it is not the true full fibre connection. FTTC copper connections are outdated and are NOT Gigabit ready. Therefore FTTC delivers an inferior broadband service compared to true full fibre to the premises (FTTP).  You may well be under the impression that you have full fibre broadband but actually have FTTC. National internet service providers often set this up without explaining the difference to customers. We encourage you to ask the question to your current provider and demand clarity! 

Are you being mis-sold fibre as full fibre? 

You, like many residents in the UK may believe you already have full fibre broadband. However, it often turns out to be FTTC. There is a lack of consumer education around the difference between this older version of 'fibre' and the real 'full fibre' (FTTP) broadband.  Most of the large national internet service providers use the term “full fibre” as a blanket term to describe both FTTP and fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) which is misleading. The speed and performance of an FTTC connection is far inferior compared to Gigabit ready  FTTP.

The benefits of full fibre broadband

It’s likely that you currently have broadband through FTTC, which means you’re not receiving a real full fibre Gigabit ready connection.  If that’s the case, you’re missing out on a range of benefits that the far better option of FTTP offers to residents and businesses alike, including: 

• • - Up to 10 times faster speeds
  • - Reliable performance
  • - Resilience to external factors like weather 
  • - Unaffected by internet usage in neighbouring properties
  • - Ability to scale up data capability and speed as needed

Having full fibre broadband is also important as it will future-proof your home in readiness for other digital services. For example, VoIP, which will replace traditional phone lines by 2025. More and more services will become difficult to access in the coming years if you’re still stuck with an internet connection that is not Gigabit ready.  

Don’t settle for average speed - go faster! 

FTTC packages may be labelled with a speed BUT if you look at the small print you will find that speed is the maximum your tariff will go to and it NOT guaranteed. Usually it is the MINIMUM speed that is guaranteed and delivered. Look carefully!  This is because providers of FTTC can’t control your speed  because of the weaker and shared nature of the connection. In contrast an FTTP full fibre connection is wired directly to your premises and speeds can be controlled with precision. 

Working with a local broadband provider 

Working with the national internet service providers always comes with the risk of impersonal customer service. However, there are smaller providers such as Country Connect working hard to provide homes and businesses in our local communities with the very best full fibre connection.  Here at Country Connect, we build our own network in our local areas and deliver true full-fibre broadband directly to your premises with a guaranteed speeds up to 10 times better than your current FTTC connection!  We are the only company who can provide FTTP in Caerleon and Ponthir as the network is ours. Having full control of our own network, purpose-built for this area, also means:

• - Far lower risk of outages and disruption 
• - A personalised, local service you can depend on
• - A connection not affected by adverse weather 
• - No dip in performance even in high internet traffic times
• - Guaranteed speeds with full transparency 
• - Upload and download speeds matched to optimise performance. 

We do not increase prices mid-contract which is something you’ll find happens regularly with most of the national internet service providers. 

Questions to ask your current provider or when you’re shopping for your next contract 

If you’re shopping around for full fibre broadband, there are the key questions to ask providers: 

• - Is the fibre connection directly to my premises (FTTP), or is it FTTC?
• - What is the minimum guaranteed speed and does it match the label!
• - Is my speed guaranteed or my money back?
• - Are the upload and download speeds matched? 
• - What contention ratio will I be getting? 
• - Is there a chance the provider will raise prices mid-contract?

Find out more about FTTP 

Real full-fibre broadband is delivered directly to your premises, giving you much faster speed, better performance, and far more reliability. If you’re currently settling for an FTTC connection, it’s time for a change. 

To find out if we offer the real full fibre FTTP broadband in your street use our handy online postcode checker!