Through the use of fibre-optic cables, fibre broadband is a method of delivering a faster broadband connection to businesses and homes all across the country. While fibre broadband began as an option that was only available in cities and built up areas, over the years, this network has expanded to support rural locations as well.
There are four main times of fibre connections available today:
- Fibre-To-The-Home
- Fibre-To-The-Building
- Fibre-To-The-Cabinet
Fibre-To-The-Home
FTTH will provide the fastest level of fibre optic broadband speeds today and can reach up to 1000 Mbps. These speeds are only popular where this type of connection is available. Unlike typical fibre setups, in this case, the cables run directly to your home. Due to the level of set up required, this is expensive. However, it will become more common in the future. Over one per cent of Irish homes have subscribed to an FTTH service, and Ireland is part of the European fibre-to-the-home-league. The UK is expected to join in 2019.
Fibre-To-The-Building
Those who live in an apartment or shared building might have an FTTB setup. With this connection, the fibre-optic cables run directly to the building. However, alternate means will be used to provide connections to individual locations throughout the property into apartments or offices.
Fibre-To-The-Cabinet
In this case, the cables for broadband are linked to a network junction box. This is one of the most common setups for high-speed internet in rural areas. Data from this box are then transferred by copper cables to individual buildings in the area. Speeds are severely depleted with this type of set up at just about 100Mbps. However, this is still significantly faster than the speeds you can expect with a typical broadband connection.
Companies That Provide Fibre Broadband
There are many companies that provide fibre broadband throughout Ireland and service rural areas. These include Eir, Sky, Virgin Media and Vodafone. Each company offers different packages and prices on this type of connection. As such, it is best to compare a few companies before selecting the service that you want to use.
Benefits Of Fibre Broadband
As well as significantly faster speeds even with basic levels of fibre broadband, the connection provides various other advantages. You will not see drops in speed when multiple users in the household are using the network with this type of connection. Rural homes and businesses that were previously limited by connection levels can now reach the speeds that cities have been operating on for years.
Is There A Set Up Required?
If your home or business has not used fibre broadband before, it is likely that there will be a manual set up required by the company you are providing the connection from. This will often not require someone entering your premises and can typically be completed remotely. Your service provider will often charge you a fee for this setup.
Fibre networks will also use a different hub from the typical broadband services, designed to handle and support the faster speeds that you will be using.
