Full fibre is a fibre optic cable that runs from the exchange straight into your home. The industry calls it FTTP — fibre to the premises. We just call it full fibre, because it is fibre the whole way.
Most homes in the UK still have something older. Either FTTC, where fibre reaches the green cabinet on your street and copper does the last stretch to your house. Or ADSL, which is copper the whole way.
That last bit of copper is where the trouble starts. It is slow, it does not love British weather, and you are sharing it with up to 74 other homes.
Same broadband bill. Very different cable.
If your home already has full fibre, there is nothing to install — we post you a Hub and you plug it in.
If it does not, an engineer needs to bring the fibre in. Budget about 3 hours.
Renting? The engineer drills a small hole for the ONT, so have a quick word with your landlord first.
You pick the day
Choose a date and a time slot when you sign up. No sitting in for a mystery visit.
The engineer plots a route
The fibre comes in either overhead from a telegraph pole, or underground.
A small box goes on the wall
One outside, about the size of a tablet. One inside — your ONT — where the fibre lands.
They test it, then tidy up
They check you are getting the speed you should be, and leave the place as they found it.
You plug in your Hub
About 5 minutes. Then you are online.
No. Full fibre does not use the old phone line at all, so there is no line rental hiding in your bill.
Up to 900Mbps, and the speed you pick is the speed you get — it does not drop off because you live at the far end of the street.
Which speed you need depends on how many of you there are and what you are all doing. Most homes are grand on the middle one.
On copper, uploads are a fraction of downloads. On full fibre they are much closer together, which is why video calls and big file uploads stop being a chore.
Copper is being retired across the UK. Your current connection will be switched off at some point — the date depends on your address. Moving to full fibre now saves you doing it in a hurry later.
Usually not by much, and often not at all. People tend to be surprised by how close full fibre is to what they were already paying for something a lot slower.
Pop your postcode in and we will tell you in a few seconds. Full fibre is still rolling out, so if it is not at your address yet, it is worth checking back.
Check your postcodeFull fibre is the only kind of broadband we do. Check your postcode and we'll show you what's available at your place.
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