Full Fibre

At the moment, most home broadband connections are delivered using a mix of fibre-optic cables and old copper cables, which have been in place for decades, originally to deliver telephone services. This system uses a copper connection between the premise – a home or business – and the nearest green street cabinet. Full Fibre uses a fibre optic cable to connect to households without using any copper cable at all. The other name you might hear this known as is ‘Fibre To The Premises’ or FTTP.

These connections can deliver much higher download speeds than part fibre, part copper-based broadband - up to 1 Gigabit per second. They are also up to five times more reliable and less likely to slow down when lots of people use them at the same time.

Since 2014, we have been a pioneer in developing Full Fibre, driven by a belief that it is critical for the UK’s digital future. We are determined to remain at the forefront of this drive, as we recognise the benefits to the UK economy, society and the environment.

The radically increased reliability and speed offered by Full Fibre will underpin new ways of doing business, delivering public services and added flexibility in the workforce. It can deliver significant benefits to consumers at home too.

However, there is evidence that the technology itself offers substantial direct environmental benefits, particularly in terms of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and increased energy efficiency associated with the delivery of broadband services.

Working with Carnstone, we have created a paper to review the direct environmental benefits arising from a shift to Full Fibre; in particular that such a move may be up to 80% more energy efficient compared to existing copper-based services.

View Report