Is FTTP really better than FTTC?

I don't just mean speedwise as sometimes.
I was chatting to someone at work yesterday, and they are saying that they can now order Zzoomm, well when their contract runs out on their broadband they have now. They told me they have a good deal and because they are so close to the cabinet they get 70Mb/s second.

They asked me if there is any advantage from paying more just for a bit of extra speed, all I could think of was maybe reliability, but, I was told they have been with their provider for over 5 years and have had not one problem, and they pay less than I do for 35Mb/s ish

To be honest, I have been thinking the same thing, Zzoomm is not going to get here until the spring next year, but my contract for plusnet runs out a couple of months or so before, that is if Zzoomm is on time. The price for plusnet would rise to about £30 , which is more or less what Zzoomm will cost.

My main problem with Zzoomm is that it is not a simple matter of just changing providers, it involves digging trenches and sticking a box on the wall and that sort of thing, and also if I decide they are not my cup of tea after the contract, it is hassle to get back onto a FTTC network.

The person at work more or less said the same thing

So again, apart from speed, is there any real advantage in going for full fibre?

If you and your friend are both happy with the performance, reliability and cost of FTTC, then stay with it. Doesn’t sound like you’re gagging for gigabit anyway 😉

If the alternative won’t be ready for quite a few months, you have plenty of time to observe and gauge what other local experiences have been like.

For me the push was reliability - FTTC had been reliable for 5 or so years, but then I had issues twice in 6 months, because where the line came in entry wasn't properly sealed, water had got in and corroded the copper and the first time the fix didn't solve this. So with Plusnet's price rises and offers etc. I looked around and decided not a lot more just to go for full FTTP.

The download/upload speeds are obviously much better and the company's laptop with all the cloud/call home to check, seems less likely to freeze/error. But other than that no real difference with most things, so unless speed of link is definitely causing issues I'd just wait it out

The biggest two things with fttp, is lower latency (network dependent though) and getting (in theory) the advertised speeds.

Connection speed will always be the same for the speed you ordered, thruput won't (but that is the same with fttc).

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

you have plenty of time to observe and gauge what other local experiences have been like.

+1

If you don't want extra speed, your connection is reliable and you won't save any money then no point changing at present.

Yes, yes it is better.

It gets one away from the vagaries of a copper line, where distance, conductor gauge, line condition, external signals , etc, etc can all adversely affect the quality and reliability of the service you receive

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

So again, apart from speed, is there any real advantage in going for full fibre?

Yes, you get rid of all the copper (or worse, aluminium) joints in the street between you and the FTTC cabinet, either underground or overground. Those jelly crimps installed in the 70s or even later can gradually disconnect in the last 50 years.

I will reply here for everyone that have replied to my post so far, otherwise there will a lot of replies

First of, the other person is not a friend, just a colleague, I would not pay for gigabit myself, well not for what zzoomm wants for it, and it is not gigabit anyway, it is 90Mb/s and that costs £59 a month, they do have a 2 gigabit connection for £99 a month, I can not see many households going for that or for the 90Mb/s to be honest.
They have a 100Mb/s for £29 a month, but upload is only 10Mb/s and the next one is 400Mb/s and 40 Mb/s upload for £39 a month. It is another tenner a month on top for the last two if there is a need for upload to be the same speed as download.

I don't know what the value is in those prices compared to other FTTP, which is irrelevant here as Zzoomm is the only FTTP most people in the city will be able to get. There is Openreach FTTP in one small part of the city, I think it is just one road, which is very strange.


For me reliability is pretty good, I have not had any problems for a while now, sometimes I have slow-downs, but not sure if fibre would stop that to be honest, if the network become congested. the other person,

A couple of posts say get away from copper wire, which I agree is not a bad thing, the phone lines coming to my house was meant to be replaced when I first moved here, but still have not been sorted, my colleague lives virtually on the doorstep of the cabinet that supplies him, so unless something drastic happens to the cable, he should not have many problems.
My, I live around 500 metres away from the cabinet, that is if the cable goes the direction I measure, if not then it will be even longer, so yes I can understand I may have more problems and I did for a while, but it was not the cable, but something in the cabinet, It was sorted one without me knowing. I could connect with an old Huawei modem, but nothing else, now it will work fine with anything.


Pheasant saying I have plenty of time to observe, that I do, I think the other chappies contract is coming to the end in October if I remember rightly, and he can certainly order FTTP then, I think he can now. Zzoomm have been in Henley on Thames for a while and I have looked at reviews, most seems ok.

I have more time to think about it as have been said, for me the main problems is not being able to change a different provider quckly if things don't work out, like with FTTC, if Plusnet did something that I did not like, or they put their prices up sky-high it is easy to change. i remember changing from my wireless broadband to FTTC, it cost me a reconnection charge since my phone line was disconnected and not used for 2 years. Then I ended up paying for two broadband providers for a month.

the other problem for me is how on earth will they lay the fibre? I have steps and driveway, I do have a small narrow garden alongside the steps, but they will still have to dig out some concrete along by the front door step.
Photo here from my front door.

The other lad have a front garden, so easier for him.


So to sum up, the only real advantage is speed? if plusnet gives me a good deal at the end of my contract, I am in the mind to take it, I don't really want to pay £30 for broadband.
Saying all of that, things could change by next year, I may not even be living here. We will just have to wait and see, I suppose.
the post was more for the other lad than me.

thanks anyway peeps.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

it is not gigabit anyway, it is 90Mb/s and that costs £59 a month

Presumably you mean 900Mb/s, not 90Mb/s.

Most providers label their gigabit packages as 900Mb/s. This is because when presenting a gigabit ethernet (which delivers exactly 1,000,000,000 bits per second), the achievable TCP payload throughput is about 942Mbps on IPv4, or 928Mbps on IPv6, once you've taken into account the overhead of TCP and IP and ethernet headers.

It's clearer to label it as a "900M" service than have customers complain that they paid for 1000Mbps and are only getting 940M according to a speedtest - even though the speedtest only measures the payload data and not the headers.

In reply to a post by zyborg47:

the other problem for me is how on earth will they lay the fibre? I have steps and driveway, I do have a small narrow garden alongside the steps, but they will still have to dig out some concrete along by the front door step.

It varies by provider. How is your BT copper delivered? Many providers will follow the same route (i.e. re-use the BT duct using PIA if you have a duct, use overhead from a pole if the pole exists). If neither option is possible they might lay the cable over the surface, or they might dig.

If you want the service, then talk to them about how they would deliver it. If you don't want the service, then it doesn't matter