What the fudge is Full Fibre?

Full disclosure, we broadband types love our abbreviations and acronyms: ADSL, FTTC, FTTP – all designed to make an otherwise simple to grasp concept infinitely more complex than it needs to be (we have a great post on why everything to do with your WiFi router feels so much more complex than it needs to be, but that’s a story for a different day.)

Fibre Broadband is about as much of a bumper sticker term as you can get in the big bad world of the internet. Every ISP, or internet service provider (see, there’s another one…), is competing for your business by trying to show you that they offer the fastest connection in town. That said, not all connections are born equal and even when you see the word ‘fibre’ you still need to watch out.

So what makes Brillband different?

What we have at Brillband is called Full Fibre – and we provide it without any of the jargon or confusion you’ll find elsewhere. One speed, one price. 100% focus on you – the customer. What that means is our network can offer you a 900 Mbps connection speed – download and upload. On top of that, we’ve got direct visibility over your connection, so we can tell you with precise clarity just what’s going on with your router, which devices are soaking up all the bandwidth, and who’s been using your WiFi. How do we have so much insight? Well unlike anyone else, we have something called a software-defined network – the ins and outs of which aren’t overly interesting other than to say it lets us be a much better resource to our customers

Now, in case you are interested in hearing a little more about the evolution of the internet and just how we’ve ended up with a super fast full-fibre connection, then read on below.

ASDL (Asymmetric digital subscriber line)

This is the OG of infrastructure that was rolled out across the UK. Essentially, it involves your connection being sent out across copper wires, and copper wires only.

Notoriously slow, hard to monitor, prone to bugs and breaks; this was very much version 1.0 of how we connected our homes to the internet. Needless to say, we’ve come a long way in terms of how to better connect people but thanks to all these pesky copper wires stuck in the ground, we’ve been left with an infrastructure that’s made progress harder than it needs to be.

FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet)

So to understand this leap forward, we need to explain the concept of a ‘cabinet’

The cabinet is essentially a box on your street that connects a bunch of houses to the internet. One big fat bunch of wires go straight to the cabinet, and every house gets connected from there. Make sense?

This means that the speed to the cabinet is super fast (i.e. fibre) but from that point on, you’re still stuck with an old copper wire to finish the job. Sure it’s a lot faster than it used to be because there’s a lot less copper, but ultimately, you’re still strangling the otherwise super fast full fibre connection with copper…

Scam is a strong word, but for a long time, the term ‘Fibre Broadband’ has been used to promise you connection speeds that just aren’t what you were expecting.

Think of it like spending 9 out of 10 laps in an F1 car, and then spending that last lap on a tricycle… Sure, it’s quicker but it’s not the F1 experience you were promised.

Now don’t get me wrong, when this tech was launched a decade ago it was a huge deal, but in the world of full-fibre broadband, FTTC is being used to sell you old technology, packaged up as something more than it is.

FTTP (Fibre to the premises)

So this brings us up to the shiny new age of broadband ‘FTTP’. Fibre to the premises is exactly what it sounds like. You have a ‘FULL FIBRE’ connection all the way from the supplier to your house.

That means that every part of your connection is being transmitted along extremely thin glass wires using light, rather than using copper – which as we know, are just the worst…

This Full Fibre connection is what we offer at Brillband. It’s fast and easy and we keep it transparent. Full Fibre is what the future of broadband looks like. Combining this with our Software Defined Network we’ve created a truly revolutionary experience for our customers.