What is cable broadband?

Unlike the majority of broadband connections in the UK, which use telephone lines or mobile networks, fibre-optic broadband is transferred along special cables under the ground. The signals move a lot faster than they do along copper cables and offer speeds of up to 100Mb.

Find out about Virgin Media at our dedicated Virgin Media page

Find out about BT Infinity at our dedicated BT Infinity page

In the UK, the service is not available everywhere, and is mostly on offer in urban areas. Virgin Media provides approximately 12.6 million UK homes with fibre-optic cable access and offers speeds of up to 100Mb in select areas and 50Mb in all locations served by the network.

BT offer their Infinity service to around another 4 million homes, offering speeds of up to 40Mb. BT aims to have 66 per cent of UK homes covered by 2015.

Fibre-optic speeds

You can expect speeds of up to 40Mb with a regular fibre-optic connection. The fibre-optic line runs from the provider to the junction box outside your house, at which point regular copper cables run it inside your home.

If you are lucky enough to have an FTTH (fibre to the home) connection, the fibre-optic cables run all the way into your house and provide speeds of up to 100Mb.

What does 100Mb broadband mean to the user?

At 50Mb, you can:

• Download a 100MB album in 16 seconds
• Download a 10GB BluRay movie in 27 minutes
• Stream HD video straight to your computer without buffering
• Host multiplayer games with dozens of players
• Download games in under 2 minutes

For more information about speeds and download times, read the uSwitch guide to broadband download times

Types of fibre-optic connection

The speed of your fibre broadband connection can vary between 30Mb and 100Mb. The types of fibre available are:

FTTH (fibre to the home) – fibre-optic cables run all the way to the outside of your house. This is the quickest possible but is not widely available.

FTTB (fibre to the building/basement) – fibre-optic cables run all the way to your premises. If you are a flat in a large building, the fibre terminates at the building, rather than your individual living space.

FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) – fibre-optic cables run all the way to the cabinet in the street, which can be up to 300m away. This is the most common connection.

FTTN (fibre to the node) – roughly the same as above, only the street cabinet can be further away (up to several km away) with the rest of the distance to your house being covered by regular copper wiring.

The benefits of fibre-optic broadband

• A fast, sustained and reliable connection which results from transmission through fibre-optic material rather than ordinary copper wires.
• Options to receive cable TV, phone deals and excellent product bundles with packages such as Virgin Media’s XL and BT’s Infinity.
• Lightning speeds of up to 100Mb downstream

Compare all our fibre deals at our dedicated fibre-optic broadband page.