BT Openreach, who are the wholesale telecoms provider arm of BT have been for the past few years trying desperately to catch up with the rest of the world by rolling out Fibre Internet connectivity.
As BT are the UK’s incumbent provider they have to provide all the ADSL cabling from Exchange to Premises for all the UK’s Internet ISP’s, so even if you’re using Plusnet, Demon or Sky, the link to your house or business is provided by BT Openreach. Only once your signal reaches the Exchange does your ISP take over managing the traffic.
Once BT Openreach have launched the service in your area, you can ask your current ISP for the faster service. You do NOT need (or I would recommend want) to move to BT.
There are several different methods that are being rolled out: –
FTTC – Fibre to the Cabinet
In the past your ADSL broadband connection has been delivered via a copper cable to the nearest Exchange. The further away from the Exchange you are the slower your internet will be as the signal degrades over distance (5km is about the maximum). FTTC eliminates a lot of this problem by linking all the Green Cabinets at the end of your street to the Exchange using high speed Fibre cables and then only using a short copper cable to link to your house. The major advantage is significantly increased internet speeds, by a factor of 10!
FTTP – Fibre to the Premises
This takes it one step further and rund the Fibre link directly to the Premises, this is primarily designed for multi-tenant buildings. Offices, Apartment Blocks, etc…
Links
High Speed Broadband for Everyone – BT Openreach
BT Exchange Rollout Schedules – BT Openreach
BT Telephone Number Speed Checker (Will also show your FTTC schedule) – BT
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