Business Fibre to the Cabinet Broadband [FTTC]

Our fibre to the cabinet packages are equivalents to the BT Retail "Infinity" products. These super-fast fast connections see the length of copper cables significantly reduced and replaced with fibre optic cables to your nearest street cabinet. The result is a massive reduction in the losses experienced, and coupled with new technologies, the speeds are that much higher.

How FTTC Works

The Fibre to Cabinet (FTTC) technology sees the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Module) moving from it's traditional location at the local exchange to a street cabinet in your area. Fibre is run to the enabled cabinet, and the remaining connection to your premises is run over the existing copper cables. By replacing a large proportion of the copper cables to the cabinet with fibre, it means the speeds that can be achieved are significantly higher. To demonstrate this here are a couple of diagrams showing the differences.

Traditional ADSL

Fibre to the Cabinet

Installation

Unlike with traditional ADSL, where it is activated remotely, as part of the installation an Openreach engineer will visit your premises to connect the FTTC service. They will complete three tasks:

1. They will replace your master socket with a "Service Specific Front Plate" (SSFP) which essentially splits the delivery of the telephony and DSL signals, each delivering to a separate port on the socket. This terminates the DSL signal at this point meaning the signal is not received on any telephone extension sockets that may exist. Filters are no longer required owing to this setup.
   
   

   Master socket before change

   Master socket once SSFP applied

    
2. They will supply, included in the cost, an Openreach VDSL modem. This is an active model which allows BT to monitor and test the service provided. This modem must be within reach of a power supply, and must remain connected to the power and data port of the service specific front plate at all times. It must be located within 1.5m of the new phone socket.
    
3. If the location of the master phone socket / Openreach Modem isn't suitable to also connect your router to it, then the engineer will supply a data extension kit. This is essentially RJ45 cabling that they will install in your house which can run to where you want your router housed (eg upstairs where the computer is located).

Once setup a router (not supplied) can connect to your new modem to share the connection within your network. The setup will look like this:

Recommended Routers

Netgear N150 (WNR1000) PRICE RANGE: £30-50 A very basic and easy to setup wireless router that can easily connect to the Openreach supplied modem. It has 4 RJ45 ports on the rear to connect to your network, and it has a wireless interface for connecting hundreds of other network devices.		Draytek 2820 PRICE RANGE: £170-250 This is an advanced router that will support not only ADSL 2+ connections, but all you to connect FTTC via its additional WAN port. This can be ideal in an office environment for falling over to ADSL in the event that your fibre to cabinet connection develops a fault. This router also boasts a USB port for use with a 3G dongle as the ultimate backup solution in the event all your lines are down.

Enabled / Planned FTTC Exchanges

Here you can find lists showing the estimated availability dates for exchanges up and down the country, and details of how to get super-fast broadband. If you can't see your exchange on any of the lists keep checking as they are updated regularly and are the single source of information about our national roll out.

NOTE: Click on the icon to download the latest availability lists.

LIVE FTTC EXCHANGES - Already Accepting Orders

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PLANNED FTTC EXCHANGES - Coming Soon

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FUTURE FTTC EXCHANGES - Firm Dates Pending

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Fibre to Cabinet FAQs

1. How will Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) benefit me?
2. What is the minimum contract period?
3. What happens if I wish to move house within the contract period?
4. My exchange doesn't appear on the list. When will I get FTTC?
5. How long does the engineer take to install the service?
6. Will I need additional hardware?
7. What are ICUK's plans for Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)?

1. How will Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) benefit me?

You should see a significant change especially where the speeds are concerned.

• Accessing websites, downloading files, or uploading files externally should be far quicker.
• Off-site backups should complete in a far shorter time scale.
• Lines that have previously been a fair distance from exchange will suffer less from the distance given that a proportion of the circuit is now covered by fibre which doesn't suffer the same losses as copper.
• Faster streaming for video (eg BBC iPlayer or YouTube).
• Additional bandwidth making home working quicker or a even a reality for some. This can be applicable not just for file sharing but when using VoIP or video conference applications.
• More efficient VPN connections between sites.
  

 
2. What is the minimum contract period?

The minimum contract term is 12 months. Following this initial term a 1 month rolling contract applies.

 
3. What happens if I wish to move house within the initial 12 month contract period?

The FTTC service isn't transferrable between sites unfortunately. You would need to order a separate circuit within your new location, whilst paying off the remaining term of the original setup including the cease charge.

 
4. My exchange doesn't appear on the list. When will I get FTTC?

If the exchange fails to appear on the lists we advertise on our site, it is very hard for us to say with any confidence when or if your exchange is included within the roll out. BT Openreach is investing £2.5bn in the deployment of Fibre Optic Broadband across the UK between 2010 and 2015. This will reach 10 million homes and businesses by the summer of 2012 and around 16 million premises by 2015 equal to approximately two-thirds of the UK population.

 
5. How long does the engineer take to install the service?

It takes on average around an hour for the visiting engineer to connect your line to the fibre service. They will need to complete work at the cabinet and at your premises. If you require the data extension kit to locate your router within another room to the master phone socket, then they may require additional time to complete this.

6. Will I need additional hardware?

Included within the installation costs is an Openreach VDSL modem. This isn't suitable to simply connect up to your computer / network. You will need a router which can support the speeds provided by Fibre Broadband and has an Ethernet WAN port with the capability to dial PPPoE. You can find details of our recommended routers on the 'how it works' tab on this page.

 
7. What are ICUK's plans for Fibre to the Premises (FTTP)?

The Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) product is still in beta trials. As soon as we have a firm launch date, and confirmation of the planned exchanges, we will annouce this on our website. Initial estimates of it going live in September 2011 seem to have been pushed back by Openreach following testing issues.

Standard Fibre to the Cabinet Pricing

Below is a list of our standard prices associated with fibre to the cabinet connections. Prices shown EXCLUDE VAT at the current rate.

Canceling and Modify Orders

Hardware Costs

IP Address Options

The following IP address options are available to you. The prices quoted are monthly subscriptions exclusive of VAT. Please note that any allocations larger that 8 need to be justified in accordance with RIPE's rules.

Should you need to change the type or size allocation of your IP addresses you can easily do so online through the control panel at any time.

Enhanced Care Option - £15 Per Month

This solution is indispensable to any business that relies heavily on their broadband connectivity. Likewise if you only have a single broadband feed into your business, you are effectively left with a vulnerable single point of failure. Although this doesn't prevent disruption to your business in the event of a failure, it does ensure the swiftest possible response to resolve it.

Broadband Enhanced Care offers a 20 clock hour clear within BT Wholesale, a 4 hour response time, and is supported by an improved Service Level Guarantee. Out of hours engineering visits to site may be used to complete a repair if unrestricted access is available.

Broadband Enhanced Care offers a four hour response to reported faults and a Service Level Guarantee that an End User Access fault will be cleared within 20 clock hours of the service provider reporting it to the Service Management Centre (SMC). To achieve this, BT will ensure that engineers are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to repair any End User Access fault covered by this product, providing that unrestricted access to the End User's premises is available.

Broadband Enhanced Care enables service providers to offer their customers a guaranteed 24 hour fault clearance promise, differentiating their products by offering an improved level of service. If this target is not met, ICUK will pay compensation of 50 per cent of the monthly End User Access rental. The guarantee will apply to each failure.