Fed up with your broadband speed not being fast enough? Then why not upgrade to ‘fibre broadband’. You may think that if you live in a small town or even out in the countryside that you will never be able to get super fast fibre optic broadband internet connections. Well you might want to check this, because a new technology is now available in the UK and many other places around the world.
How Fast Is This New Broadband Technology?
This new technology can offer speeds of up to 80Mbps download and 20Mbps upload. In the UK the roll out of this technology is expected to reach two thirds of homes by spring 2014 and many homes can already get this service today. Elsewhere in the world ISPs are also rolling this technology out so no matter where you live contact your Internet provider today and ask them if fibre broadband is available in your area. If you live in a big city it’s likely you’ll be able to get even faster connections and possibly fibre optic cable straight into your home.
Will This Improve My Skype and Other Video Connections?
Fibre broadband should increase your video call quality by a factor of 5 or more over standard ADSL type broadband connections. If you want to do HD quality video calls, this sort of connection is probably essential. Whereas your video calls may have cut out occasionally in the past this should not happen if both parties are on Fibre broadband connections.
How does it work?
How do they get fibre to my home? The odd answer is they don’t, but they bring it close enough that the last couple of hundred metres or so is then over standard copper cable which is already installed to your home. This short distance over copper then fibre optic from there back to the exchange can supply much faster broadband speeds than relying on copper all the way back to the exchange. In the UK this is achieved by enabling each telecoms cabinet in each street with the fibre optic connection.
The Technical Jargon
There are a whole host of acronyms that explain this technology such as FTTC (fibre to the cabinet, or fibre to the closet), FTTN (fibre to the node, or fibre to the neighbourhood). There’s also fibre to the building and many other acronyms. They all basically mean the same thing the fibre optic cable is taken from the exchange to close to a number of people then distributed from there over short copper cables to special modem/routers in each home or office.
When Can I Get It?
You may be able to get it now, no matter where you live ask your broadband Internet provider about ‘fibre broadband’ you may also want to look at other broadband suppliers in your area as not all providers may offer this service.
In the UK the cost of fibre broadband is similar to standard ADSL broadband.
To check UK availability of fibre broadband, this is a good place to start -
