FTTH - It's not just Fibre To The Home...

 

FTTH - So where is it exactly?

                                                                                          

                                                                               

Although the question “What is FTTH?” may be most commonly asked by those unfamiliar with the technology, perhaps asking “where is FTTH” might help more in the understanding of this fibre connectivity method.

There seems to be some “unclarity” – for want of a better word - regarding the terms FTTH (Fibre To The Home) or FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) services, particularly in the UK. Unlike other countries in Europe (like Italy for example, where the installation of fibre cabling is mandatory by law in any commercial or residential new builds,) in the UK, the term FTTH typically refers to the fibre services that being delivered by the providers to the home (or premises.) This on the face of it makes sense – given that it’s the acronym for Fibre To The Home. 

But it doesn’t end there...

So where is it installed?

There is also the FTTH ‘after’ the home element – or more accurately, ‘in’ the home.  That is, the fibre distribution system that exists in the home (or any commercial or residential building) that is also generally referred to as FTTH (or FTTP.) This is the fibre installed throughout the premises that is being used to distribute any number of different services (TV, data, audio, door entry systems etc) over a single fibre cable throughout the building.

And although FTTH (FTTP) services are being rolled out relatively rapidly in most parts of the UK from a service providers side, the FTTH deployments in the buildings seem to be still lagging behind. New buildings and refurbishments of older ones alike are still seeing the installation of copper cabling in many parts of the UK, even, surprisingly, in properties in the larger cities like London. There are still many designs (we see them every week) coming out from building consultants and designers that specify a copper cabling infrastructure for the distribution of these services in these buildings, not only for the individual room, apartment or floor cable runs, but even (slightly concerningly in this day and age) for the central core cabling system of the building.

Cost considerations

Yes, there are of cost issues to consider – but even though copper cabling is considered cheaper in price per metre than fibre cabling, in the long run, (no pun intended) considering things like future-proofing the comms infrastructure of the premises, less labour and installation resource (a single fibre cable can carry far more – and a far more diverse range of – traffic than multiples of copper cabling hence much less cabling overall is required) and other factors such as overall simpler design requirements, make fibre a far more value for money choice than copper.

So although Fibre To The Home (FTTH)  or Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) are terms attributed to the installation of fibre optic cabling from a central point of a certain provider, and distributed to various building or properties for high-speed internet access, it is also used generally to refer to the fibre distribution system within the building, campus or residence. It’s defining characteristic is that it terminates optical fibre directly to these properties….but also provides a fibre infrastructure within them to provide fast-access services to users – so a ‘full-fibre’ end-to-end solution.

We help design and specify FTTH and GPON networks for all sorts of environments that help you optimise and enhance any data, voice, video or converged communications infrastructure.