Superfast internet direct to your home – everything you need to know about FTTP

At Onestream we’re dedicated to being the provider for everyone – and that means helping customers choose the kind of broadband that works best for them.

Increasingly, customers are choosing FTTP as their preferred connection – in fact, almost one in four Onestream customers are on this type of service.

So…. what is FTTP, how can you have it installed, and why is it such a popular choice? Here’s everything you need to know.

What is FTTP broadband?

Time for a very quick internet history lesson! When the internet first moved into popular use, information was delivered down the landline – if you’re old enough, you might remember the strange sounds of a modem connecting, and not being able to use the phone for calls if someone was surfing the web!

Broadband came in to solve that problem with a faster, dedicated internet connection delivered through electrical systems in copper wires. However, copper degrades over time, especially through weather damage – and, as smartphones, smart TVs, music and video streaming came into our lives, it simply couldn’t cope with the amount of data it needed to carry.

Then came fibre broadband – a durable cable which uses light to carry information much more quickly that copper ever could.

These days, you can get fibre in two flavours. ‘Fibre to the Cabinet’ – FTTC – uses fibre optic cables to carry information to a cabinet in your street, and then traditional copper wires carry it from there into your home.

Fibre to the Premises – FTTP, sometimes called Full Fibre or Fibre to the Home, goes one better by taking the fibre cable straight to the router in your home. That’s what we’re focusing on here.

What are the benefits of FTTP?

Put simply – speed and stability. Fibre direct to the home is faster and more reliable than any other kind of connection.

Onestream customers can access up to 1Gbps – that’s one gigabit of data per second – through FTTP, which is 12.5x faster than our next best connection. This results in awesome speeds for streaming in Ultra HD, downloading large files such as movies and games, accessing cloud-based services and having multiple devices, such as smart home equipment, connected at a time.

Because copper wires aren’t involved at all in an FTTP setup, you suffer none of the downsides of that older technology. The connection doesn’t degrade over time, and isn’t affected in the same way by the good old British weather.

As a result, we find that Onestream customers on FTTP experience a significant reduction in calls to our technical teams about slowdown or outages. If there ever is a problem, our customers benefit from some of the best customer service in the UK – read all about why Onestream is The One for industry-leading customer service here!

Can everyone get FTTP?

Not quite yet. Openreach, which provides the fibre we use, currently has about 50% coverage of the UK – but this is growing all of the time. At the moment, just over 37% of Onestream customers choose one of our FTTP packages.

The vast majority of the remaining customers were not yet in an area covered by FTTP. These tend to go for our SoGEA packages. SoGEA stands for Single Order Generic Ethernet Access, a bit of industry jargon referring to an FTTC connection which enables voice calls to be made through broadband rather than a traditional landline.

Should I always choose FTTP if it’s available in my area?

In almost all cases we’d say yes – go for the best possible connection you can, and FTTP is usually the superior option for home broadband.

A small number of customers, for example those who don’t use data-heavy services and have a limited number of devices to connect, may find they are happy enough with a standard connection. So, while FTTP is the gold standard for most users, we’ll always recommend the one that suits each customer best.

How can I upgrade to Onestream FTTP?

If you’re not a Onestream customer already, you’ll need to switch over to us as your broadband provider. We are members of the One Touch Switch scheme, so this is really easy – you just need to let us know and we will handle the rest, including notifying your existing provider. You can read more about how simple it is to switch here.

If you’re an existing customer and you’d like to upgrade to FTTP, just get in touch with our friendly customer service experts, who will take it from there.

The physical upgrade to FTTP is a very simple process. An engineer from Openreach will come out and replace your old BT socket with a new fibre unit to link the cable to. A small hole will be drilled on the external wall of your house to feed fibre optic cable through.

Where possible, the engineer will make use of your existing cable routings, remove the old copper line and push the fibre through the same ducts. This reduces the amount of disruption on your property.

Would there be any reason why I can’t upgrade to Onestream FTTP?

If your home is in an area served by FTTP, you should find that it’s quick, easy and good value to switch to a Onestream FTTP connection.

If you are in a rented property, you will need permission from your landlord to install the equipment. Currently, we can’t upgrade customers to FTTP (or SoGEA) connections if they have a care alarm system, as these work on copper lines. This may change in the future as alarm systems adapt.

In most cases, if FTTP isn’t available, Onestream will still be able to offer you a fast SoGEA connectivity with up to 80Mbps download and 20Mbps upload speeds. We can also notify you when FTTP does become available – areas are being added all the time!

If you are not in an FTTP area and there are slow speeds on FTTC and SoGEA connections, we can still help you with a 4G router and SIM – just speak to one of our friendly, knowledgeable advisors and they’ll have you connected in no time.

Find out more

It’s easy to switch to Onestream FTTP. You can personalise your wi-fi to set it up exactly as you want it, and even save money and help the planet by reusing the router you already own.

Find out what’s available in your area with our postcode checker.