How it works
Super-fast Fibre Access comes in two flavours:
Fibre to the Cabinet offers downloads at up to 40Mb and uploads at up to 10Mb.
Fibre to the Premises offers downloads at up to 100Mb and uploads
at up to 10Mb.
Fibre to the Cabinet
How it works
Fibre to the Cabinet is a part fibre, part copper infrastructure. It’s capable of delivering download speeds of up to 40Mb and upload speeds of up to 10Mb. Here’s how it works:
We’re overlaying part of our copper network with fibre – the part that runs from the local telephone exchange to Openreach’s street cabinets. A single fibre can carry great deal more information than copper wiring and do so in a far shorter space of time with minimal loss of signal power.
Even though the final link with Fibre to the Cabinet is still copper (i.e. from the Openreach street cabinet to homes and offices), the distance is comparatively short; typically no more than two or three hundred metres, and often much less, meaning any speed lost because of copper is substantially reduced.
We’re also replacing the electronics at exchange with miniaturised cards and installing them in our street cabinets. Putting it another way, Fibre to the Cabinet is moving the exchange much closer to the doorstep.
Fibre to the Premises
How it works
Unpowered optical splitters enable a single fibre pair to serve up to 32 homes and businesses. The splitter itself is buried underground, fairly close to the premises being served, and is dedicated to that end user. The fibre connection back to the exchange is shared.
From the communications perspective, fibre means that you don’t get the distance-related degradation of service associated with copper. Moreover, as there are no active components with fibre, there’s nothing to go wrong in the normal course of events!