{"id":2110,"date":"2013-01-02T06:30:18","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T06:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/?p=2110"},"modified":"2018-03-05T10:00:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-05T10:00:25","slug":"will-the-real-fibre-optic-broadband-service-please-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ispreview.co.uk\/index.php\/2013\/01\/will-the-real-fibre-optic-broadband-service-please-stand-up.html","title":{"rendered":"Will the Real Fibre Optic Broadband Service Please Stand Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

When is a \u201cfibre optic<\/em>\u201d broadband service not fibre optic? The answer might seem obvious but if so then it\u2019s not something that the industry appears keen to respect. But just what does the term fibre optic actually mean and why are ISPs so eager to use and in some cases abuse it.<\/p>\n

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The use of common terminology, such as \u201cbroadband<\/em>\u201d, to describe internet connectivity is both useful and fraught\u00a0with difficulties because of the way in which everybody can choose to define the same thing differently. We explored this problem in detail with our 2010 article – The Definition of UK Superfast Next Generation Broadband<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the term \u201cfibre optic<\/em>\u201d is different from traditional service separators like \u201csuper-fast broadband<\/em>\u201d, \u201cultra-fast<\/em>\u201d, \u201chyper-fast<\/em>\u201d or possibly even \u201cmega-awesome-lolcat-fast<\/em>\u201d because it defines a very specific kind of cable and thus, one would hope, should not be as open to misrepresentation<\/strong>. Think you know what fibre optic means? Think again.<\/p>\n

What is a Fibre Optic Cable?<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Hopefully by now most of you should know that fibre optic cables are made of glass<\/strong> (silica<\/em>) or plastic, which allow information to be transmitted in the form of light; usually via a low powered laser beam<\/strong>. At its most simple this is a bit like using a torch to send an SOS message to your friend next door, except the light would be going down a cable. It\u2019s simple,\u00a0fast\u00a0and the cable itself is incredibly cheap to make.<\/p>\n

Naturally this makes optical cables the ideal choice for a new generation of communication services, especially broadband connections with their ever growing capacity demands. Indeed not a month seems to go by without somebody finding a new way to push increasingly incredible amounts of data down a single fibre, such as by splitting light into different wavelengths or twisting it into a vortex.<\/p>\n

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At this point it\u2019s important to recognise that a true fibre optic broadband service is one that takes the optical cable<\/strong> all the way from the telephone exchange and into your home or office, which is technically capable of delivering Gigabit speeds (i.e. 1Gbps is roughly the same as 1000 Megabits).<\/p>\n

Some of the most common examples of such products are Fibre-to-the-Home<\/strong> (FTTH) and Fibre-to-the-Premises<\/strong> (FTTP<\/a>), which are almost identical.<\/p>\n

\"fibre<\/div>\n

Another solution, Fibre-to-the-Building<\/strong> (FTTB), still requires a small amount of internal copper or coax wiring but this usually isn\u2019t enough to cause a huge detriment and the optical fibre itself still reaches your building (e.g. useful for connecting older apartment blocks and, in our opinion, good enough to be called a fibre optic service). You\u2019ll notice FTTC<\/a> in the diagram too but we\u2019ll come back to that.<\/p>\n

The Confusion<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

A quick glance at today\u2019s broadband market shows that almost all of the biggest ISPs now offer some form of \u201csuperfast broadband<\/em>\u201d service, which Ofcom<\/a> loosely defines as any connection able to offer internet download speeds of greater than 24Mbps<\/strong> (Megabits per second). Most providers promote such packages as being \u201cfibre broadband<\/em>\u201d or \u201cfibre optic broadband<\/em>\u201d products.<\/p>\n

The problem is many of the associated \u201cfibre optic<\/em>\u201d packages aren\u2019t true optical connections and some are significantly different. To better illustrate this ISPreview.co.uk has extracted several descriptions for related packages from four of the markets largest broadband providers; BT, Virgin Media<\/a>, Sky Broadband<\/a> (BskyB) and TalkTalk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TalkTalk<\/a> Description<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Superfast Fibre Broadband is made up of Fibre Optic cables, which offer some of the fastest broadband speeds available. Fibre optic cables use thin strands of glass to transmit information at the speed of light. This means your broadband connection will be so much faster and more reliable allowing you to download and stream video content, download files, as well as uploading photos in flash. The whole family can enjoy the internet the same time without your broadband slowing down<\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sky Broadband Description<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Sky Fibre<\/a> Unlimited is a fibre optic broadband product. It uses Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology which is being rolled out across the UK by Openreach<\/a><\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BTInfinity<\/a> Description (FTTC)<\/strong><\/p>\n

“BT Infinity uses the latest in fibre optic broadband technology to deliver the internet at speeds that are eight times faster than the UK average. Instead of sending electric signals through copper wires, BT Infinity sends information down a fibre optic network, giving you a faster, smoother online experience<\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Virgin Media<\/a> Description<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The mega speeds of up to 100Mb that you can get with Virgin Broadband are thanks to fibre optic cable. It\u2019s made from strands of glass as thin as hair, which carry information by light. This is much, much faster than the copper telephone wire used by other providers. And, unlike broadband down your phone line, fibre optic broadband doesn’t get slower the further away your house is from the telephone exchange<\/em>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s interesting to note that most of the descriptions are at least partly accurate because they loosely describe what a fibre optic cable is, yet this often differs from the product being sold. Indeed most of the above packages are in fact based off some form of either Fibre-to-the-Cabinet<\/strong> (FTTC), Fibre-to-the-Node<\/strong> (FTTN) or a similar service.<\/p>\n

Crucially neither FTTN nor FTTC take the fibre optic cable directly to your home or building. For example, FTTC delivers a fast fibre optic cable to BT’s street level cabinets, while the remaining connection (between cabinets and homes) is done using VDSL2<\/a><\/strong> (similar to existing ADSL<\/a> solutions but faster over shorter lines) via existing copper cable; these \u201clast mile<\/em>\u201d runs of copper wire can be as long as several kilometres<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Both FTTC and FTTN are perfectly acceptable solutions and often do deliver superfast broadband speeds but they\u2019re by no means as future proof or capable as a true fibre optic service. FTTC in particular is aggressively distance dependent<\/strong>, which means that those who live furthest from their street cabinet will receive significantly slower speeds<\/strong> (down to around a minimum of just 5Mbps at its furthest reach on BT’s lowest fault level). You won\u2019t see Gigabits from a long FTTC line but those who live closest to the cabinet might be able to receive around 100Mbps<\/strong> (what seems fast today will be slow tomorrow).<\/p>\n

Similarly Virgin Media\u2019s network, which is perhaps closer to FTTN, still uses a lot of coaxial cable<\/strong> and some copper to reach homes. This is a more capable setup than FTTC but suffers from some of the same problems and cannot technically be described as truly fibre optic (emphasis on the word \u201ctruly<\/em>\u201d).<\/p>\n

NOTE: BT’s website does at least refer to its BTInfinity<\/a> service as “fibre-based broadband<\/em>” on several pages, which is at least technically accurate.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

It\u2019s been almost 12 years since Eminem\u2019s legendary hip hop song<\/strong> \u201cThe Real Slim Shady<\/em>\u201d first graced our ears and we\u2019re still finding uses for its clever play on words. Eminem\u2019s rap was a critique of manufactured pop songs that were being churned out at the time and in many ways this echoes in the abuse of terms like \u201cfibre optic<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

ISP marketing departments<\/strong> clearly recognised early on that calling a broadband service \u201csuperfast<\/em>\u201d or \u201cultrafast<\/em>\u201d wasn\u2019t good enough, not least because providers have been describing internet services as superfast ever since the days of dialup<\/a>. So it\u2019s entirely understandable that they would choose \u201cfibre optic<\/em>\u201d as the new term to separate old from new.<\/p>\n

But if history is anything to go by then marketing departments, for good or ill, will invariably win these arguments. ISPs also benefit from the use of a common language; it\u2019s simple, clear and who doesn\u2019t know that the speed of light<\/strong> is fast? Really fast! The problem is that FTTC and FTTN only run at\u00a0full fibre optic speeds up to a certain point, which is\u00a0often some distance from your home, and thus the service cannot match a true fibre optic line.<\/p>\n

Critics would also say that if FTTC is \u201cfibre optic<\/em>\u201d then why not apply the same terminology to ADSL2+, Satellite<\/a>, WiFi<\/a> or even Mobile Broadband? After all, at some point, nearly everything will need to transmit a service over fibre optic cables (i.e. transatlantic undersea cables). Certainly that would make the government\u2019s job a lot easier.<\/p>\n

As it stands\u00a0everybody from the Advertising Standards Authority<\/a><\/strong> (ASA) to the government has now accepted the use of \u201cfibre optic<\/em>\u201d alongside services that\u00a0often can’t deliver\u00a0a\u00a0full fibre\u00a0solution. As a result the battle for sanity has arguably already been lost, which only serves to muddy the waters for those ISPs that do offer true fibre optic connectivity (e.g. IFNL, Hyperoptic<\/a>, B4RN<\/a>, BTInfinity [FTTP<\/a> Package], KC etc.).<\/p>\n

May I have your attention please?<\/em>
\n May I have your attention please?<\/em>
\n Will the real Fibre Optic Line please stand up?<\/em>
\n I repeat, will the real Fibre Optic Line please stand up?<\/em>
\n We’re gonna have a problem here..<\/em><\/p>\n

Suffice to say that using light as a transmission method is massively more efficient than sending electrical signals down old copper wires<\/strong> (e.g. ADSL<\/a>), which is still the most dominant and traditional way of delivering telephone and internet access services. Unfortunately copper lines are considerably more susceptible to interference<\/strong> and signal degradation<\/strong> over distance, which often makes them slow and unreliable (especially if you live a long way from your telephone exchange).<\/p>\n