Is full fiber worth it

wigster

wigster

wigster

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As I'm moving into a flat soon I have been looking at different isps etc, I can get FTTP but is it really worth it if you are in a single household.
 
Only you know what value you place on a faster connection and the benefits it offers relative to your usage and its cost. Will your 8Mbit video stream be any better on a gigabit FTP connection over a 80/20 FTTC? No. But if you do a lot of downloading of games/updates and for example do offsite backups, run your own services etc. then it may make more sense.
 
Fibre is great for response in general but FTTP without a specific requirement then you'll probably end up utilising your connection less but pay more for it.

I've got a gigabit leased line at my desk and it's great for replication between 22 training centres overnight.
 
Thanks, the only reason I thought about it because of the distance of my home to the cabinet.

I haven't really looked into full fiber at all, so when I move if I choose to go with bt most probably, then will it come through the cabinet if I choose Fiber 1 50mb or does that still go through the fiber cable that goes straight into my home?
 
Having said the above then yes in rural locations then yes FTTP is the only option but it should be provided by by the ISP/Gov and then you choose the package with a small install fee.

If you have FTTC then the last leg is copper so run a speed check via Open Reach to see what they confirm is available. I can see I have Ultrafast available to me (1000mbps) mainly because I'm only a couple a hundred meters from the cabinet. If you have a bad connection then it won't be worth getting a faster package regardless.
 
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bimbleuk said:
I can see I have Ultrafast available to me (1000mbps) mainly because I'm only a couple a hundred meters from the cabinet. If you have a bad connection then it won't be worth getting a faster package regardless.
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Distance to cabinet has no bearing at all for FTTP (which is the 1gbps service). FTTP goes direct to an exchange and has no interaction with the copper network. The exchange your FTTP goes to might not even be the same exchange as your copper line as the smaller exchanges are being bypassed; Openreach is aiming to shut these smaller exchanges as even with the costs of FTTP rollout to replace the copper it will save them money.
 
I've also wondered about this. I think for the average home user who streams, plays the occasional video game, works from home then FTTC is ideal.

I'm struggling to see the benefits for anyone that fits that category quite frankly. I'd still want it if the price was right, being able to download a game 4-10x as fast is appealing. Outside of that I wouldn't even notice :/

Great for those who do professional work at home i.e. uploading large files, drive replication as others have mentioned
 
You can get FTTC data rates on FTTP connections, the prices Openreach charge are more or less identical. It's absolutely worth having your service provisioned on fibre, there are no downsides over it being delivered on copper, the amount of bandwidth you buy is down to personal preference and a different discussion than the delivery method.
 
As above really, if you have the chance it's worth doing.

You don't have to go silly speeds/costs (FTTP does not mean you have to have a high throughput connection, FTTC speed packages are available), you generally get what you pay for (rather than 'up to' speeds), and you're now setup for the future for faster speeds as and when.
 
This is definitely something worth looking into as I hadn't really looked into what speeds you can get thinking you could only just get ultra fast speeds. Now I know you can get slower speeds then of course it would be silly not to go with fttp.
 
/\ndy said:
I've also wondered about this. I think for the average home user who streams, plays the occasional video game, works from home then FTTC is ideal.

I'm struggling to see the benefits for anyone that fits that category quite franklyy . I'd still want it if the price was right, being able to download a game 4-10x as fast is appealing. Outside of that I wouldn't even notice :/

Great for those who do professional work at home i.e. uploading large files, drive replication as others have mentioned
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I completely agree. The single benefit from the very fast FTTP packages is the significantly higher upload speed. 100Mbps upload makes working with a cloud account totally usable. Bear in mind that some of us are old enough to remember working with 2Mbps IBM Token Ring networks and for years 10Mbps was considered fine, then 100Mbps etc. Now I have a 100Gbps LEAF switch at the top of the office rack.

I love my FTTP line, and I think it’s worth every penny. But if money was a bit tighter I could live perfectly happily with 65/20 FTTC that seems so common in the UK these days.
 
billysielu said:
It's about 20/month more here.
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Eh? BT has the same prices for FTTP as it does FTTC if you are in a FTTP area. There does seem to be this odd misconception that BT doesn't do FTTP below 150. I think the consfusion comes about as they use the same name for the FTTC product as the FTTP product.

For reference there most subscribed package on FTTP (before the 1gbps days) was the 40/50 mbps tier they had over 90% of subscribers on that, and is probably why they priced the 900mbps so low as they were thinking there wouldn't be many takers.
 
apachegoose said:
Eh? BT has the same prices for FTTP as it does FTTC if you are in a FTTP area. There does seem to be this odd misconception that BT doesn't do FTTP below 150. I think the consfusion comes about as they use the same name for the FTTC product as the FTTP product.

For reference there most subscribed package on FTTP (before the 1gbps days) was the 40/50 mbps tier they had over 90% of subscribers on that, and is probably why they priced the 900mbps so low as they were thinking there wouldn't be many takers.
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Not the same here, FTTC packages stop at £31.99 for 67MB Fibre 2, then Full Fibre 100 is £39.99.
 
robj20 said:
Not the same here, FTTC packages stop at £31.99 for 67MB Fibre 2, then Full Fibre 100 is £39.99.
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BT do 50Mb FTTP for £27.99 and 74Mb FTTP for £31.99 which is the same price as the FTTC package. The 50Mb is labelled as their most popular package.

The site isn’t very clear as it calls them Fibre 1 & 2 but they are FTTP packages.
 
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