A guide to broadband terminology used by Glide

Last updated: September 2024

What do we mean by “fibre”?

Fibre, or fibre optic cabling, is made up of thin glass “fibre” threads which carry pulses of data in the form of light.

Glide’s services use only fibre when connecting customers’ homes to our network. We don’t use copper cabling. However, we have detailed copper connections below in order to provide a full comparison with their fibre counterparts.

What is copper broadband?

Traditional copper broadband connects from a local telephone exchange usually to a street cabinet* and then the customer’s premises on an old copper phone line.

Broadband speeds in the home tend to decrease as distance from the exchange increases. The service can also be affected by poor weather and can be more prone to faults. Copper broadband may not be fast enough for a household where lots of people are using the internet at the same time.

*A street cabinet box that is normally only a few hundred metres from the customer’s home.

What is “FTTC”? (“Partial Fibre”)

Fibre-to-the-cabinet has a fibre-optic connection from the local telephone exchange to the street cabinet, like the one shown below.

The final connection from the street cabinet to the customer premises is over a copper wire telephone line. This means that, due to the inherent limitations of copper wire, broadband speeds may decrease the further the customer’s premises is from the street cabinet. In this way, fibre-to-the-cabinet is typically slower than a full fibre connection (see below).

What is “FTTP”? (“Full Fibre”)

Fibre-to-the-premises, as its name suggests, has a fibre-optic connection all the way from the local telephone exchange to the customer’s premises. This might also involve a street cabinet positioned between the fibre and the premises, like the example shown above.

Generally speaking, distance from the exchange (or cabinet) to the customer’s premises does not affect speed.

Fibre to the premises is less prone to faults and is not usually affected by poor weather. This makes it the most reliable technology to deliver broadband and leased lines.