FTTC and FTTP are acronyms referring to the two main types of fibre broadband connections available in the UK.
What is FTTC?
FTTC stands for Fibre to the cabinet. This is when fibre optic cables are used as far as the cabinet on the street, then copper or coaxial cabling from the cabinet to your house. This is the most common type of fibre broadband you're going to be getting from most UK providers, including Virgin Media.
What is FTTP?
FTTP stands for Fibre to the Premises, or sometimes called fibre to the home (FTTH). This uses fibre optic cables for 100% of the network, all the way to your house, giving the fastest broadband speeds currently available. The downside is it is not widely available.
Who provides FTTC?
FTTC is the most widely available connection in the UK and is available on both the Openreach and Virgin Media networks.
Openreach
Owned by BT, the Openreach network is used by the bulk of providers in the UK to deliver broadband to their customers. This includes providers like Sky, Plusnet, TalkTalk and many more. As they all use the same network, the speeds offered tend to be similar.
BT – BT offer FTTC fibre broadband at a number of different speeds, with top speeds averaging 67Mb.
Sky - Sky Broadband Superfast has average speeds of 59Mb, with the added plus of being able to easily bundle with Sky TV.
Plusnet - Plusnet uses the Openreach network and their packages have a choice of two speeds - 36Mb or 66Mb.
TalkTalk - Also on the Openreach network, TalkTalk offers FTTC broadband at either 38Mb or 67Mb.
Now Broadband - Another on the Openreach network, Now Broadband offers fibre deals on monthly contracts for extra flexibility.
In addition to the above, there are many more providers using the Openreach network who offer FTTC, including EE Broadband, Shell Energy Broadband, John Lewis Broadband, Direct Save Broadband and Vodafone.
Virgin Media
Virgin Media operates on its own network which uses a different type of cabling. This is why they can offer speeds so much faster than providers using the Openreach network.
Who provides FTTP?
FTTP packages are still limited across the UK but the availability is rapidly increasing. In March 2023, Openreach announced they had hit their 10 million Full Fibre milestone, bringing ultrafast, ultra-reliable Full Fibre broadband to 10 million homes, businesses and public services.
Openreach
BT - Offers FTTP broadband up to 900Mb to a very limited number of UK households.
EE - Launched their FTTP packages in September 2020 with speeds up to 900Mb.
Vodafone - August 2020 saw the launch of Vodafone's Gigafast FTTP packages with speeds up to 900Mb.
Sky - In October 2020 Sky officially launched their new FTTP 'Superfast' and 'Ultrafast' packages for new and existing customers. Those customers who are in FTTP areas taking either the Superfast or Ultrafast packages will get FTTP connections as standard.
Plusnet - Plusnet launched their full fibre packages in August 2022, with ultrafast speeds up to 500Mb.
Talktalk - Offers a choice of 3 FTTP packages for those households in their full fibre areas. The fastest is their Full Fibre 900 package with average speeds of 944Mb.
Hyperoptic
Hyperoptic are a small provider which run their own network. Coverage is quite limited, available mainly blocks of flats or new builds, but they continues to expand year on year.
Community Fibre
Community Fibre offers full FTTP broadband packages in a range of speeds. Their coverage is still limited, focusing mainly on London.
FTTC vs FTTP
Which is the best between FTTC and FTTP and which is the right choice for you can depend on a number of factors.
Speed
Aside from cost, speed is probably one of the most important factors when choosing a broadband package. FTTP is faster than FTTC, so you could be forgiven for thinking that FTTP is therefore the best choice. But, FTTC is still more than fast enough for the average broadband user. If you are an average user, that is to say your heaviest usage comes from streaming Netflix or downloading files, then a FTTC package should be more than adequate. For Openreach providers, FTTC speeds start at around 35Mb and go as high as 67Mb. On Virgin Media's network FTTC speeds start at 54Mb and go as high as 516Mb.
Another point to bear in mind is that FTTP package speeds don't necessarily start at speeds higher than those offered on FTTC. As an example, Hyperoptic offer a FTTP package with average speeds of 50Mb, which is less than the 67Mb offered by BT on a FTTC package, and significantly less than the 516Mb from Virgin Media. So just because your broadband connection is FTTP, it doesn't automatically mean it is going to be faster.
Availability
FTTC is the most widely available fibre connection in the UK available to over 95% of homes. FTTP is far more limited at around 14% or 4.2 million premises.
Reliability
No broadband connection is without the occasional outage. But these are rare for FTTP customers. As FTTP goes directly to your house, you are not sharing the connection with others. They also can't be damaged in the way the street cabinets can.
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