Is BT Full Fibre Better Than Fibre?

The short answer is yes, BT Full Fibre is much better than conventional fibre. If you compare the lowest tier fibre package, BT Fibre Essential, with the top package, Full Fibre 900, at 900 Mbps it’s approximately 25 times faster than the average speed of the 36 Mbps offered by BT Fibre Essential. There’s a good reason for this. Full Fibre uses a fibre connection all the way from BT’s servers to your premises where it connects through a 15cm x 13cm external junction box outside your house and feeds into the open reach modem or ONT box. That, in effect, makes the line capable of higher speeds and allows faster package tiers (bear in mind that the line and package limit are separate things – so your package will determine the upper limit you download and upload, while the line may in fact be capable of higher speeds). The older fibre connections use fibre for most of the route and then it transitions to a slower copper connection between the roadside exchange box and your premises. That in effect slows down your connection. That’s the simple explanation, but there’s a lot more to it than that – see below.

Is BT Full Fibre Better than Fibre?

BT Full Fibre vs. Traditional Fibre

The primary difference is in the extent of the fibre optic cabling and the resulting speed and reliability of the internet connection. Full fibre offers the best performance by providing a complete fibre optic connection directly to the premises, whereas standard fibre still relies on some older infrastructure.

BT Full Fibre Explained
Figure 1. How BT Full Fibre Works

How exactly is BT Full Fibre Different to Traditional Fibre?

Figure 1 concisely illustrates the concept of BT Full Fibre vs. BT Fibre. Despite copper’s potential to support broadband speeds of about 1 gigabit per second, its performance degrades over time, leading to a significant reduction in broadband speed. The degradation is more pronounced the longer the copper cable runs to a building, resulting in slower broadband speeds. In contrast, fibre optic cables preserve the quality of the signal across vast distances. However, the setup traditionally used, referred to as “traditional fibre” (or simply just “fibre”) in Figure 1, involves a combination of both copper cable and fibre optic cable. The fibre optic cables typically extend from the local BT exchange to a street cabinet nearby, after which the connection switches to copper cables for the final stretch into a residence, mirroring the speed limitations associated with standard copper broadband. The distinction of BT’s Full Fibre lies in its infrastructure, with the fibre optic line running uninterrupted from the local BT Exchange directly to residential homes, known as FTTH (Fibre to the Home).
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BT Broadband - Full Fibre 100

150Mb ⬇

Estimated download speed

30Mb ⬆

Estimated upload speed (uploading files etc.)

100Mb 🫱🏻‍🫲🏽

Minimum speed guarantee

£0 ✅

Free P&P and no upfront costs

24 month

24 month contract (See more details)

£29.99

per month

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    Costs

  • Monthly Cost: £29.99
  • 1st Year Total Cost: £359.88
  • Total contract cost (for 24 months): £719.76
  • Activation Fee: £0
  • Price after contract: TBC (to be confirmed)

    Broadband Package Details

  • Contract Length: 24 Months.
  • Download Speed: 150Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 30Mbps
  • Connection: Full Fibre (FTTP), no landline phone service required
  • Router: Smart Hub 2 included
  • Additional Features: Truly unlimited broadband without any fair usage policy or traffic management.
  • Truly Unlimited?: Yes, download as much as you like with your broadband speed as the only restricting factor.

    Considerations & Review

  • Is BT Full Fibre 100 Worth It?: For households needing more than typical fibre speeds, with a dedicated fibre connection direct to your home.
  • BT Broadband Router: The Smart Hub 2 allows for faster speeds with no slowdown caused by copper cabling, thanks to the full fibre connection.
  • Is 150 MB Download Speed Good?: Suitable for heavy downloaders, gamers, and streamers in high-definition or 4K.

5 Things That Differentiate BT Full Fibre from Traditional Fibre

BT’s Full Fibre is faster than their standard fibre offering for several reasons:

1. Material Differences:

BT’s Full Fibre uses fibre optic cables all the way to your home. Fibre optics use light to transmit data, which can carry more information at far higher speeds than the electrical signals used in copper wires.

Standard fibre, or Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC), uses fibre optic cables only to the street cabinet, with the remainder of the distance to your home covered by traditional copper wires that are significantly slower.

2. Bandwidth Capacity:

Fibre optic cables have a much higher bandwidth capacity than copper cables. This means that Full Fibre can support a much higher volume of data at any given time, leading to faster speeds.

3. Signal Attenuation:

It sounds like a big word but it’s actually quite important. Signal loss over distance (attenuation) occurs much less in fibre cables compared to copper. Moreover, in Full Fibre connections, the signal can travel long distances without degrading, ensuring high speeds are maintained up to the point of entry into your premises.

With FTTC, the copper section of the journey can cause significant signal degradation, reducing speed, especially as the distance from the cabinet increases.

4. Interference and Crosstalk:

Fibre optic cables are immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI), which can affect the signal in copper cables. This lack of interference in Full Fibre contributes to a more stable and faster connection. Copper cables can suffer from ‘crosstalk’ where signals in adjacent cables interfere with each other. This is not an issue with fibre optics.

5. Upgrade and Future-proofing:

Full Fibre can be thought of as future-proofing your connection, allowing for even faster speeds with technological advancements without needing to replace the infrastructure. It’s much easier for ISPs like BT to upgrade the network at the exchange or push higher speeds through the existing fibre than it is to replace copper wiring.

Because of these factors, BT’s Full Fibre is capable of providing gigabit speeds, which are much faster than the maximum speeds available on their standard fibre offerings.

FAQs on BT Full Fibre Broadband

Full Fibre broadband, also known as Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH), involves a fibre optic cable running directly from the internet service provider to your home, offering superior speeds and reliability. Standard fibre, commonly Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC), uses fibre optic cables to the street cabinet but then relies on copper wires to complete the connection to your home, which can be slower and less reliable.
Full Fibre connections are less susceptible to signal degradation over distance and are not affected by electromagnetic interference that can impact copper cables used in standard fibre connections. This results in a more stable and consistent internet service.
Yes, Full Fibre can significantly outpace standard fibre in terms of internet download and upload speeds. Full Fibre connections can have speeds of up to 1 Gbps or higher, while standard fibre speeds typically cut out at around 80 Mbps due to the limitations of copper cables. Having a full fibre installation also future proofs your home for further upgrades.
Users often notice a significant difference in performance, especially in high-bandwidth activities like streaming 4K videos, online gaming, and uploading/downloading large files. Full Fibre provides a smoother and more responsive experience due to its higher speeds and lower latency.
Upgrading to Full Fibre may require new cabling to be installed in your home if you currently have a standard fibre connection. This is because Full Fibre uses different infrastructure, which needs to extended to your premises to take advantage of the increased speeds and reliability.

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