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What is FTTC?
FTTC stands for Fibre to the Cabinet. FTTC uses a mix of fibre optic and traditional copper telephone lines to connect businesses to service providers to provide a fast and affordable business class service.
What is the cabinet?
The cabinet is the street level distribution point sometimes referred to as BT green box, or green cabinet. Fibre is installed to the BT Openreach cabinet, and the final part of the FTTC is delivered over the copper cables from the cabinet, to your business premises.
What's different about FTTC?
Instead of paying to have fibre optic installed directly into your premises (FTTP), FTTC takes advantage of existing local exchanges or street cabinets. Fibre optic cable runs from the provider to the exchange where it then connects to your home or business by copper wire.
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How is FTTC better than ADSL?
FTTC provides a much faster and more stable connection than DSL. The added reliability and improved SLAs that come with FTTC make it a good choice for businesses that need reliable uptime and better download and upload speeds.
How does FTTC work?
FTTC works by using a hybrid fibre/copper combination of data delivery
FTTC uses the telecom carrier's fibre network to transport data to distribution points or Openreach cabinets. The PSTN or traditional copper telephone network, is then used to transport data over shorter distance than a broadband connection typically requires. The data degredation rate is high over copper wires, so by shortening the distance the data travels over copper, the speed that can be delivered is much faster.
What FTTC speeds are available?
Just one FTTC connection can deliver up to 76Mbps on the downstream and around 20Mbps for uploads - much faster than ADSL technology. Improved speeds and bandwidth means your business can support more users so that your business can scale.
What is the speed capability of fibre to the cabinet?
FTTC is capable of delivering 76 Mbps download, but not all businesses get the fastest speed. Your speed is impacted by the length of the phone line connection between your premises and the cabinet. The shorter the distance to the cabinet, the better potential speeds you can expect.
How does distance affect FTTC speed?
If your business is within 300m of the distriubution cabinet you should receive 73 Mbps download / 19 Mbps upload FTTC offers. If your business is 500m from the cabinet you should receive 63 Mbps download / 16Mbps upload, and if your business is 1km away you should receive 32Mb download / 10Mb upload.
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Comparing FTTC speeds with ADSL & FTTP
While ADSL typically offers up to 50 Mbps, FTTC can easily give you double this download speed. FTTP has almost unlimited download speeds (up to 1Gbps). While the speed of FTTP might be alluting, the costs of installation can make it prohibitive for small and mid-sized businesses. It really depends on the speed your business needs as to whether FTTP or FTTC will provide you the best ROI.
What's the difference FTTC vs FTTP?
In an FTTC network, fibre is installed from the carrier network to the distribution point.
This is why FTTC is known as "to the cabinet" (the street level cabinet or distribution point). The FTTC product uses high-speed fibre to the street level cabinet but then uses copper to reach the business. The use of copper in the "last mile" significantly reduces the bandwidth speed that can is achieved over the FTTC service. The data signal degrades over copper, so the longer the copper wire from the cabinet to the business premises, the slower the speed a business will get from the FTTC service.
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FTTP: Fibre To The Premises
Unlike FTTC, FTTP connects the last part of the network, between the distribution point and the business premises by fibre.
Replacing the copper in the "last mile" with fibre has the effect of removing the bandwidth bottleneck that traditionally copper networks have caused.
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FTTC rollout & availability
Fibre To The Cabinet is widely available. 86% of the UK has coverage and most UK cities have 100% business coverage.
FTTC coverage
Openreach, is the business which owns and operates BT's fibre network. It has reported that 86% of the UK can now access FTTC. The areas which aren't covered by FTTC are very remote, as can be seen in the coverage heatmap below.
Service Availability
FTTC uses existing duct infrastructure which makes for widespread availability throughout the UK. With over 30 million connected lines and premises in the UK your chances of finding a network connection within range are considerably high.
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Availability Heat Map
To demonstrate just how widely available FTTC is, we have created a heatmap of UK coverage. As you can see most of the UK is covered. If your business is in any of the areas covered by green, amber or red, FTTC is available. To check your specific location enter your landline number into the Amvia FTTC checker.
FTTC checker - how to check for FTTC availability
FTTC has a high availability rate in the UK with BT over 86% coverage. To check availability and pricing in your location, all you need is your landline telephone number.
FTTC is widely available for businesses
If you have decided you want to get an FTTC service the first thing you need to check is if it is available at your business presises. The easiest wat to do this is enter your landline telephone number into an FTTC checker.
Who is the best?
Most of the FTTC suppliers have an FTTC checker for their business services. Amvia is different. Amvia is a wholesale FTTC provider and by using our FTTC checker we don't just check availability, you'll also get a comparison of all available providers and their prices at your location. You'll also get free advice on choosing the right service suited to your business needs. Just complete the FTTC checker and we'll get you all the information you need.
BT FTTC
BT's FTTC product is called BT Infinity
It is delivered using fibre to the distribution box, then VDSL over the final copper loop. There are two variants of BT Infinity, Unlimited Infinity and Premium Infinity. Unlimited Infinity & Premium Infinity only offer guaranteed speeds of up to 22Mbps download and 3Mbps upload. These speeds are considerably less than the capability of FTTC. The only difference between Unlimited and Premium is that Premium has PC support and Symantec security protection for your desktop devices.
If speed is important to you, you should compare BT with other available options at your business premises.
BT Unlimited Infinity FTTC
£36.40/month
Up to 22Mbps Download / 3Mbps Download
Unlimited data
Guest WiFi
BT Sport App
Minimum Speed Guaranteed
BT has signed up to OFCOM's voluntary business broadband speeds code of practice.
Wireless
Connect all of your office devices using the BT Business Smarthub.
Free BT WiFi Unlimited Subscription
You can connect to 1 named user to any BT enabled WiFi hotspot for free.
24 x 7 Support
Free telephone support 24 hoursa day 7 days a week, also live chat available 8am - 8pm Monday - Friday.
BT Premium Infinity FTTC
£44.70/month
Up to 22Mbps Download / 3Mbps Upload
Unlimited Data
Guest WiFi
BT Sport, PC Support, Symantec Security
Minimum Speed Guaranteed
BT has signed up to OFCOM's voluntary business broadband speeds code of practice.
Wireless
Connect all of your office devices using the BT Business Smarthub.
Free BT WiFi Unlimited Subscription
You can connect 1 named user to any BT enabled WiFi hotspot for free.
Broadband & Desktop Support
Free telephone support for broadband and your desktop PCs, also Symantec security to protect your devices.
Other major FTTC providers
TalkTalk Business FTTC
TalkTalk's FTTC business product is called Business Broadband. They offer up to 76Mbps download and up to 20Mbps upload. You can get our detialed insight into TalkTalk FTTC here.
Virgin Media FTTC
Virgin Media have a slightly different network architecture called a coax-fibre network. The network is similar, fibre is built to the street level distribution box and then the final service is run over coaxial cable. Coaxial cable is faster than copper. This allows Virgin Media to offer download speeds ranging from 50 Mbps up to 152 Mbps. You can get a detialed overview of Virgin FTTC here.