What is Full-fibre Broadband?

Full fibre broadband provides an extremely fast, reliable Internet signal to your home by eliminating all old copper wires from the connections between your property, the local exchange and the wider UK network. 

This means your data travels at the speed of light through cables with a clear silica or plastic filament core. You don’t suffer the degradation in your digital signal you get with copper wires, leaving you free to stream movies, music and sports, use cloud computing for your business and enjoy online games lag-free.

Why do we need full-fibre broadband?

The modern world has evolved so that almost all our tools or channels for entertainment and business are now serviced online. The amount of data that we need to send through our cables to facilitate our movie watching, gaming, music streaming, video calling, cloud storage and more often exceeds the capacity of the network. 

What may have been acceptable only a few years ago in terms of internet speed is now looking very slow and out of date. The sad truth is that the UK’s existing network is largely based on old copper lines put in place for telephone use. Some of these are up to 100 years old. 

Copper is a practical conductor in many circumstances, but falls down when it comes to transmitting digital data over longer distances. As the signal degrades as it travels through metal, the further it has to go the more it declines, so the signal you finally receive is far weaker than when it began.

While fibre cables have been installed in numerous cities, towns and more densely populated areas, not many of these reach all the way to the property. With copper wires still forming a part of the connection to most homes and businesses, you’re going to suffer from degraded signal strength somewhere along the line, resulting in slow internet, buffering movies, lagging games, fractured video calls and glacial download speeds.

We need full-fibre broadband to be able to have full and free access to all the facilities, services, connectivity and creativity of a twenty-first century world.

What’s the difference between full-fibre and standard broadband?

There’s quite a stark difference in speeds between full-fibre broadband and the two other options you are likely to find on offer to you, especially if you live in a rural location. These are ‘superfast’ broadband (also known as FTTC or ‘fibre to the cabinet’), or standard broadband (a connection still using old copper wires between your local junction cabinet and the exchange, also known as ADSL).

We cover this in more detail in our other article on the technical side of fibre-optic broadband. The long and short of it is, with standard ADSL broadband, you can expect download speeds of anything between 8-24Mbps, and with superfast broadband or FTTC you can usually get around 30-60Mbps. Both figures depend on your distance from the exchange, the ambient temperature, the number of users in the household and the time of day. 

If you have a full-fibre connection to your house, all copper wiring is eliminated (save for any of your own wires between the router and your equipment). With next-to-no degradation, you get a significant jump in speed to at least 300Mbps, with 950Mbps possible in optimum circumstances. This huge difference in performance enables multiple users to stream data for a variety of uses at the same time.

Why upgrade to full-fibre broadband?

Whether using your broadband primarily for business or domestic use, the biggest reason for upgrading to full-fibre will always be the vastly increased capacity to do everything you want online without worrying about buffering, lag or connection failure.

Businesses will be able to make full use of not only cloud computing and cloud-based software for accounting, inventory and ordering, but also improved video calls and conferencing facilities. Full fibre will also allow business systems to operate faster – devices will be fully integrated with equipment allowing free-flowing control and reporting. Personnel will also be able to share documents easily and companies will gain the ability to for faster fulfilment online of physical orders, digital purchases, educational videos, and more. 

At home, fibre broadband brings so many of the same benefits – for example, seamless video calls and shared files that bring families and friends closer together online, something we grew to value a great deal during the pandemic. But it’s entertainment where fibre really shines: fast, uninterrupted gaming, pitch-perfect sports coverage and libraries of your favourite movies available via streaming services – and all in HD. Like business equipment, you’ll be able to control your home devices via the Internet of Things, while also streaming music and surfing social media.

And the best bit? Even in a full, active household with several people online all at the same time, none of their connections will slow down. No-one will be shouting at the other to stop hogging the internet.

Why Jurassic Fibre?

Being based in the South-West ourselves, we understand the frustrations you may have experienced from mainstream providers over the years. We’re determined to improve prospects for everyone in the region, and want our businesses, communities and homes to have the broadband they need and deserve. 

We’re investing in a multi-million-pound fibre network – built by people in the South-West, for people in the South-West. Our service also includes:

• Local support – get looked after by a friendly local team 
• Simple contracts – Fixed-price or monthly rolling contracts, you choose
• Upgrade/downgrade – once per month you can upgrade or downgrade your package

Learn more about what’s in it for you.

Sound good to you?

Full-fibre broadband is now available in many areas across the South-West, and we’re working hard to install the infrastructure in others. If available in your areas it’s a simple process to sign up and get a full-fibre connection installed.

Is your home eligible for an ultrafast broadband upgrade? 

Alternatively, speak to our team on 01392 345600 about getting connected.