The terms “FTTC” and “FTTP” are often used interchangeably online, even by ISPs. Frequently, you will hear that FTTC is simply an old technology that means fibre to the cabinet, while FTTP is newer for fibre to the premises.

Put, each term stands for a different level of connection to your house. FTTC means fibre to the cabinet, this is delivered by the ISP, and then your old copper line (ADSL) runs into that *fibre* box which then connects to your house.

What is FTTP?

FTTP is an acronym for Fibre to the Premises. It means fiber-optic cables run up to your house, with the old copper cable connecting into them.

The advantage of this is that you can get faster speeds; currently, 100 Mbps is fairly standard with most ISPs if you want it, allowing things like streaming in HD, watching catch-up TV, or playing multiplayer games.

What is FTTC?

FTTC means Fibre to the Cabinet. It means that there’s a fibre optic cable that goes to your local cabinet (which usually sits on the side of the road), which then connects to your house with old copper cables running into your house.

The advantage of this is that it’s less expensive to set up, and speeds are still decent for most people, as most customers only use standard internet speeds. If you want faster speeds (such as 100 Mbps), FTTC is not recommended, and you’ll probably need FTTP instead.

Which is better, FTTC or FTTP?

It will depend on your needs, but FTTC is typically fine for most users unless you have specific needs; click here to find out more about the two.

Factors to consider when getting FTTC or FTTP

There are various factors to consider:

1. Distance

FTTC works well up to around 800m from the kerb, and maybe a little beyond that if signal strength/quality is high enough and if you’re not too much into multi-channel TV. The distance itself is often just a number – what kills FTTC speeds is usually bad wiring in the home (and we’re not even talking about the dreaded telephone exchange issues yet).

FTTP should work magnificently for you if your average distance to your fibre node is within ±500m, but this may be optimistic due to home wiring quality. Don’t forget – FTTP uses two pairs, meaning that one pair runs close to mains electric cables, which can cause interference.

2. Extra wiring in the home

FTTC is a good option if you’re an average consumer with little or no networking skills and you’d like to plug-and-share with little bother.

FTTP is a good option if you’re an advanced user or telecommunications professional or would like to avoid any potential future troubleshooting of your internal NBN wiring – which could be very time-consuming if you need to pull in.

3. Affordability

FTTC is available now, so you can go for it now, knowing that installation is easy and won’t mess with your home too much. You’ll also know that speeds will be predictable – they’ll never exceed the tier you’re paying for (24Mbps or 50Mbps), but there’s no latency guarantee either.

FTTP is available now, but installation is more complex. Also, the highest speed tier you’ll be able to order without having the fastest possible active service installed will be 100Mbps (currently).

Conclusion

FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) is a reasonably up-to-date technology and offers good speeds for most people, while FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) is typically required if you want 100 Mbps or higher.

As mentioned above, it’s worth noting that there may be an issue where you cannot get the speeds required by your ISP. If this is the case, you may need to switch between FTTC and FTTP until an engineer can fix the problem.