You probably hear the terms Fibre and Full Fibre banded around a lot – but what do they actually mean? And what is it about Full Fibre broadband that makes it your ultimate superpower when it comes a connected home? At Zzoomm we are here to help clear up any confusion.

 

What is the difference?

There are 3 main types of broadband:

  • Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is the most primitive form of broadband, and it means that all the cables, from the data centre, to the street cabinet, to your home are made from copper (or aluminium).
  • Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) broadband, which is used by many of our competitors, means that although there is a fibre-optic line connecting the data centre to the street cabinet, it is still a copper cable connecting the street cabinet to your home.
  • Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), otherwise known as Full Fibre, means that all the cables in the chain are fibre optic, from the data centre, right into your home.

So it’s all to do with the cables which run from the data centre, to the street cabinet, to your home, and what they are made from.

Back in the early days of broadband, over 100 years ago when the infrastructure was first put in place, these cables were made entirely from copper or aluminium (in other words, ADSL broadband). However, these metals oxidise if they touch air or water, causing the cables to bend, kink and degrade over time. Not to mention the more violent effects of rainstorms and tumultuous weather prone to destroying the old infrastructure! This affects the speed coming into your home.

In contrast, fibre-optic cables are much more durable than copper, meaning they are much better equipped to battle the elements. Many broadband companies out there use FTTC, and although this is faster than ADSL, they are still using copper cables from the street cabinet to your home.

At Zzoomm, we think differently, we think in Full Fibre (FTTP). The beauty of using FTTP is that we build our network in a completely different way, with completely different technology, to those who just offer Fibre broadband. We use optical light transmitters. So instead of firing an analogue signal around it’s all digital, which means this gigafast speed is literally the speed of light.

As FTTP uses fibre-optic cables from the data centre all the way to your home, by the time your connection gets to you, you’ve still got speed of light coming in. No need to worry about pesky kinks in the wire or even think twice about the effects of oxygen and water on metal. Your Full Fibre superpower will have you covered.

 

What does this mean for you?

With Fibre (FTTC) used by other providers, the quality of your broadband is seriously affected by your proximity to your nearest street cabinet. What happens at the cabinet is that the signal is boosted and pushed into your home. However, the further away you are from the cabinet the worse your connection will be. Those unlucky people who live at the end of the street a mile away from the cabinet won’t be getting as good a signal as those who live closer to it – which just isn’t fair.

And it gets worse. The quality of the signal is not only affected by the proximity of your home to that green box, but also by the number of people on your street relying on that green box for their broadband. The more people using the internet at the same time the more you are sharing the speed of the broadband with everyone else.

In contrast, Zzoomm’s Full Fibre (FTTP) is all about reliability.

This is achieved by taking the fibre-optic cable and directly placing it into your home, instead of ending at your street cabinet. Because you aren’t sharing this cable with the rest of your street and beyond, Full Fibre gives you a greater bandwidth which is pretty much just for you, so you can spread the usage across your own devices, instead of your neighbours’.

 

Why should you switch to Full Fibre broadband?

Using Full Fibre broadband will mean that it is less stressful to work from home, easier to play online games, quicker to download films and music, and painless to use streaming services without buffering. Faster connectivity in homes means that you can work, game, browse and watch with no glitching in sight. Keeping all the family happy.

Zzoomm Full Fibre also increases the future-readiness of your home. Allowing more devices to be connected to your broadband and the ability to scale up to 10,000Mbps in the future, without the need for any extra infrastructure work for years to come.

In short, Zzoomm’s Full Fibre broadband is better than your average Fibre broadband because:

  • Full Fibre is faster than Fibre
  • Fill Fibre is more reliable than Fibre
  • Full Fibre is more future-proof than Fibre

 

Want to get the Zzoomm Full Fibre superpower? If so click here to switch or have a chat with one of our experts on 0333 311 9900.