What is Next Generation Broadband?

The evolution of internet access

 

The way that individuals and businesses access the internet has changed dramatically in recent years. In the years since narrowband or ‘dial-up’ was first introduced to the UK, technology has continually evolved to provide faster and more reliable access to the internet.

99% of individuals and businesses in the UK have access to ‘first generation’ copper broadband from BT which delivers speeds of up to 8Mbps. This form of internet access is predominantly delivered over copper wires. Now, we are rolling out ‘next generation broadband’ to UK homes and businesses.

Next generation broadband is the term used to describe broadband delivered over both advanced copper wires and fibre-optic cables. At BT, we’re also increasing our Ethernet availability, to ensure our customers have the most choice and flexibility available in today’s marketplace. These technologies are described in more detail below.

 Advanced copper broadband

BT is deploying advanced copper ‘ADSL2+’ technology, providing UK homes and businesses with broadband speeds of up to 20Mbps.

 Fibre broadband

Fibre broadband is the term BT uses to describe broadband delivered over fibre-optic cables. It can be delivered in two ways: fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP).

FTTC uses fibre cables throughout the network right up to the street cabinet, and then uses copper wires to connect each premise. It provides download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps.

FTTP means fibre cables run right to the door of each house or business. It provides download speeds of up to 100Mbps and upload speeds of up to 30Mbps.

These faster speeds enable users to enjoy benefits such as downloading a music track in about two seconds or a feature length HD movie in less than 10 minutes.

BT is investing £2.5bn to make fibre broadband available to around two thirds of UK homes and businesses by 2014* - roll-out is well underway..

A combination of FTTC and FTTP will be used in the roll-out. FTTC will be used for the majority of the roll-out.

FTTP is more expensive to deploy and more operationally difficult to roll-out so by deploying a majority of FTTC BT can deliver fibre broadband to its customers more cost effectively and at a much faster pace.

 Ethernet

BT includes Ethernet under the heading of next generation broadband because it provides fast, secure and high capacity networks for businesses.

It is a data service primarily used by businesses to create their own private networks. It can run over copper or fibre. Over copper it provides access at speeds from 1Mbps to 10Mbps and over fibre it provides access at speeds of 10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1Gbps .

View the roll-out plans for next generation broadband.

Further reading

Find out more information about the Government’s plans for next generation broadband.

 

^{*Subject to acceptable investment conditions}