4 reasons full fibre outperforms copper every time

The UK is racing towards a full-fibre future, replacing the outdated copper infrastructure with a full fibre network which will provide both businesses and consumers with Ultrafast connectivity.

Copper cables have been used to transmit data and connect traditional telephone lines for the last decade, but copper cables can’t keep up with the UK’s insatiable demand for bandwidth. The time has come to future-proof the UK’s infrastructure with a full fibre network.

While variants of fibre have been around for the last few years, the UK is still relying on legacy copper infrastructure to connect the fibre, such as fibre to the cabinet (FTTC). However, full fibre is a connection that is entirely served by a fibre and is also known as fibre to the premise (FTTP).

Let’s explore some of the reasons why FTTP is superior to copper:

1. Faster speeds

Full fibre has unrivalled speeds of up to 1Gbps (1000Mbps). While this is ideal for consumers looking to stream over-the-top video services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, faster speeds are equally as essential for businesses.

Business can utilise full fibre’s Ultrafast speeds to run critical applications and services, as well as instantly downloading and uploading huge files and making crystal clear VoIP and video calls. Copper is much slower than fibre, with average speeds of up to 24Mbps from products such as MPF, this causes everyday tasks to take longer and could lead to significant downtime.

2. Higher bandwidth

The demand for bandwidth is surging. If your customer’s data connection lacks bandwidth, they may struggle to use cloud applications or communicate through VoIP phones, web conferencing, or other forms of Unified Communications. Although copper products such as ADSL have adequate bandwidth for voice calls, it’s much lower than fibre which will results in poorer quality. Full fibre has a ‘symmetrical bandwidth’ which means that it has the same upload and download speeds and can cope with users’ increasing demand for bandwidth.

3. More reliable

Fibre optic cables are much less susceptible to various environmental factors than copper cables, such as temperature and electro-magnetic fluctuations. Fibre’s durability means that it will last much longer than copper cables, so you won’t have to replace them as often. Fibre has less faults and therefore less maintenance involved, leading to a lower cost to serve overall.

4. Increased customer satisfaction

Our successful FTTP trial in York demonstrated that once customers are on FTTP they don’t want to move to another service. Ultrafast speeds, high bandwidth capability and fewer faults leads to happier customers who will stay with you for life. Your churn rate will significantly decrease with FTTP and your customer satisfaction scores will rocket.