Swish Fibre Campaign Targets “Fake Fibre” UK Broadband ISPs

UK ISP Swish Fibre, which is deploying a 10Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network to cover 250,000 premises in England (Home Counties), has launched an entertaining new advertising campaign that aims to highlight the differences between “speed-sapping” copper-mix “Fake Fibre” services and Full Fibre ones.

Generally speaking, full fibre providers, which transmit data directly to your home by using laser light, deliver significantly faster speeds (1Gbps to multi-Gigabit etc.) than copper cables and are much more reliable, particularly over long distances. Experiences do vary, depending upon the network setup and length of the line, but there’s usually a huge difference in performance between FTTP and FTTC (Will the real fibre optic service please stand up?).

As a result of this there has long been a debate about whether it’s right or fair for significantly slower and less reliable services, such as VDSL2 based Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) packages, to be able to also promote themselves as being “fibre” or “fibre broadband” products. Sadly, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has long resisted attempts to change the situation (here).

However, Swish Fibre “believe the practice is hugely damaging to consumer awareness and purchasing decisions” (not unlike most dedicated FTTP ISPs) and so they’ve started putting up new posters, which “playfully” try to set themselves apart by using the “Fake Fibre” phrase.

The campaign comprises several sets of ‘yin and yang’ adverts designed to help consumers differentiate between Full Fibre and copper-mix broadband. Each set taps into “consumer pain-points based on common scenarios including online gaming, hybrid working and long-winded download and upload waiting times.”

Alistair Goulden, CMO of Swish Fibre, said:

“Just as I instinctively pluck a carton of semi-skimmed milk from the supermarket shelf, consumers deserve clear labelling of broadband products so they can make an equally informed choice to suit their needs. We’re hearing from people every day that are struggling with their existing copper-mix broadband but perceive Full Fibre to be a directly comparable product.

When they do move to our Full Fibre service they comment that it is ‘transformative’ and ‘incomparable’. We strongly urge the ASA to re-assess the 2017 review, particularly given how the pandemic has heightened the public’s need for highly reliable and speedy broadband.”

We haven’t seen all of their adverts, so it’s difficult to judge this, but we agree with the principle of what they’re doing. However, the examples given (one is pictured above) don’t do a great job of defining “Fake Fibre,” which could make it difficult for regular consumers to understand the difference. As a result, some people may incorrectly end up viewing the term as extending to rival FTTP ISPs too, which won’t hurt Swish but risks confusion.

On top of that, it’s worth remembering how even some hybrid fibre networks can potentially deliver multi-gigabit speeds, such as with Virgin Media’s HFC DOCSIS 3.1 network upgrade or the part of Hyperoptic’s deployments that involve Fibre-to-the-Building (FTTP) rather than FTTP. At this point the debate over speeds and fibre advertising can start to become more difficult.

Equally, some of Swish’s examples are open to interpretation. For example, while FTTP lines can improve multiplayer gaming vs FTTC (our example, as they haven’t given a base of comparison for “Fake Fibre” in the posters themselves), most of the time the actual benefit to gameplay itself will be unnoticeable to an ordinary consumer. This is because most FTTC ISPs already deliver very fast latency times, which are fine for multiplayer games. But one area where FTTP can help is if your current FTTC speed is quite congested due to a busy home environment (latency can suffer), plus game downloads and updates will obviously be quicker.

The good news is that the Gigabit Take-Up Advisory Group (GigaTAG) recently recommend (here) that Ofcom consider the adoption of a “gigabit-ready” style kite mark (labelling system) for UK broadband packages which, if done correctly, could help to resolve some of the consumer confusion that does tend to exist around this debate.