Openreach and CirtyFibre are the main companies running the UK's digital network. They are both installing fibre across the UK for the Big Switch-Off happening in 2025. They are going to be switching off all copper lines permanently and changing over to fibre to create faster broadband across the UK. This is to meet the aim of unlocking the digital potential of entire communities across the UK.
Why is a fibre optic connection better for your business?
No one wants their internet connections to slow down, especially at busy points of the day. Your business should have fast responses from our applications and search browsers, throughout the entire working day.
Fibre broadband will provide much faster download and upload speeds than an ADSL service that uses copper wires. On average ADSL2+, which is currently available to most businesses and homes, provides a download speed of around 10Mbps, and 1Mbps for uploads. The speed is affected by the quality of your lines and the distance from the exchange which is why in remote locations, the speed can be much slower than average.
Fibre broadband for your business
Fibre cables have a glass core, allowing information to be transmitted using light. This makes it thousands of times faster, less affected by distance, and more durable than the electrical signals used in copper cables. (read more about fibre cable here)
There are two main types of fibre broadband service; fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP).
- FTTC - fibre links the telephone exchange to the roadside cabinet, but copper cable provides the last step of the connection to your business premises. This can deliver speeds of up to 76Mbps for downloads and 19Mbps for uploads.
- FTTP - fibre connects the exchange directly to your business’s premises. Without any copper lines, this will deliver a much faster internet speed of up to 1000Mbps for downloads and 115Mbps for uploads.
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The future of ultrafast broadband
FTTP is expected to become the new ‘standard’ business broadband option.
BTT believes that full fibre will help local businesses to thrive and unlock their digital potential. We are a City Champion partner with CityFibre in Northampton, one of only a small number of City Champions across the UK. We are strategically aligned with CityFibre’s goal to create over 60 Gigabit Cities in the UK, which they estimate will cost of £2.5 billion.
What’s the difference between Openreach and CityFibre?
Openreach’s migration of the country’s national network of legacy copper cables to fibre broadband has been the focus of attention.
Openreach controls most of the UK’s existing copper cable infrastructure and is expected to have the largest single FTTP network for around 15 million premises by 2025. With around 2.5 million premises already reached, there’s an ambitious plan to achieve the next milestone of 4 million premises by March 2021.
CityFibre is an alternative network (AltNet) provider and aims to have FTTP cover 8 million premises by 2025. In some parts of the country, CityFibre will be the only choice for FTTP, although in other areas several FTTP providers could all operate in the same area. (read more)
In November 2019 CityFibre launched an industry-wide consultation about the role of the alternative FTTP infrastructure, especially emphasising the need to make it easy for users to switch between networks.
CityFibre wants internet service providers (ISPs) of all sizes to have a say in what will be needed to support legacy services on the new networks, the process for mass migration of customers, and how to help customers to change providers.
This month CityFibre announced a further £1.5 billion investment, with construction contracts for FTTP in 27 towns and cities and around three million premises. CityFibre says that it is moving ahead with construction plans for more than five million premises in 66 towns and cities, all of which are expected to be underway by summer 2021. There are also plans for another round of tenders for contracts to cover further 3 million premises that would keep the programme on track to achieve its Gigabit City target by 2025.
This month has also seen Ofcom launch a further consultation about plans for the regulation of broadband, mobile and business connections from April 2021 to March 2026. The government’s communications watchdog says its aim is to create an environment that will encourage investment in ultrafast broadband for all parts of the UK as well as protect customers.