Fibre Powered Phones Too!

If you're looking into getting a new home phone line, a new home broadband connection or a new cable television service, then you've probably seen companies advertising fibre optic packages like BT Infinity.

You've also probably noticed that these packages are a little more expensive than regular home service packages; however, switching to fibre optic is going to give you some great advantages. Today we're talking all about fibre optics, why you might want to switch, and what you'll get for your money.

What Does Fibre Optic Mean?

Fibre optic is basically just a different kind of cable. The traditional cables used to get phone, television or broadband into your home use copper wiring, and fibre optic cables are simply a better technology, for various reasons.

A fibre optic cable can move data much faster and with less interference. They're also thinner, which means that you can bundle more wires together and have more people using the same connection without slowing speeds down or creating more interference. If you are able to switch to fibre optic, then you'll have a much better phone, broadband or cable service.

What are the Advantages?

The general advantage that's most noticeable when switching to fibre optic is speed. Particularly with home broadband you'll get far faster Internet speeds, which mean faster downloads and web page opening, videos and films that stream more smoothly and online gaming with less lag.

Phone customers will have clearer conversations, and cable television customers will get more channels. By paying a little more to get a fibre optic connection you can get far better services, but that's not to say that fibre optic is perfect, there are some down sides.

What are the Disadvantages?

There are a couple of disadvantages to fibre optic connections. The first, as we've already mentioned, is cost. You will be paying more for a fibre optic connection than you would for a traditional connection, though of course you are getting a better service.

The second main disadvantage is availability. In order to connect to a fibre optic network you need to live physically close to such a network, and not everyone in the UK will be able to connect. Fibre optic networks are growing, but there are still large areas that won't be able to access fibre optic services for some time to come.

Lastly, there can be issues with expected speeds on fibre optic cables, particularly when it comes to broadband, due to differences in kinds of connections. There are two ways of connecting your home to a fibre optic network, and depending on which method you use you will get different levels of service.

How is My Home Connected?

All fibre optic connections are going to need to go through a phone cabinet. This is a switching station that determines which cables go where, and in most residential areas there's a phone cabinet at the end of every street.

Image Credits: www.britannica.com

The most common fibre optic connections will use fibre optic cables up until the phone cabinet, but then will use traditional copper wires from the cabinet to your house. This will slow speeds down a little, however it means that installation is fairly easy, since your house already has these copper wires.

You can also get fibre optic directly to your home, so a fibre optic cable will be used all the way inside you house. This means that you get much faster speeds, but it also means that installation is both difficult and costly. You may be lucky and live in a newly built house that's already connected to a fibre optic network, but not many people will fall into this category.

You can go to the website of any fibre optic provider, Virgin or EE, for example, and input your post code to see if there's a fibre optic network in your local area. You can also find installation fees for extending the fibre optic cable all the way to your home, but these are going to be extremely high.

Which Provider to Choose?

Once you know that you are eligible to connect to a fibre optic network, you'll need to choose a provider and a plan. This is quite simple, you can just go online and find a site like uSwitch.com that allows you to compare packages, and then you can choose a plan that best fits your needs and your budget.

It's well worth combining all of your services into one package if at all possible. Using the same provider for at least home phone and home broadband will significantly lower your monthly costs, and if you can add cable television into the package too, then you'll save even more money.

There will be two main things that you're looking at in a package, both of which involve the broadband connection. Speeds will be noted in Mbps, and you're looking for the fastest speeds that you can afford. Anything over around 20 Mbps will be fine. Secondly, watch out for data limits, these will restrict the amount of Internet usage you can have each month, so it might be worth paying a little more to get a higher limit or an unlimited plan.

How Much Will it Cost?

Fibre optic prices are falling as more providers appear on the market, which is good news for consumers and means that fibre optic connections are much cheaper than they used to be. You'll be spending somewhere around £400 or so for your first year of service, depending on which kind of package you choose.

A good example of a normally priced package from the provider EE for example will cost you £14.75 a month in line rental fees for the phone plus an additional £11 a month for unlimited broadband Internet. This includes free anytime calling. That means that your first year of service will cost you £408.

This is around £100 or so more than you'd pay for a non-fibre optic connection, but the benefits of switching to a faster and better service may outweigh the extra cost that you're paying monthly.

Phil Turner

About the Author:

Phil Turner discovered on uSwitch that he could bundle his broadband and TV package together with options such as BT Infinity.