FTTP stands for Fibre To The Premises. It’s a new way of providing broadband to customers that addresses most of the shortcomings of older broadband technologies.
Unlike ADSL and FTTC , FTTP does not use a copper phone line, it is instead it uses a technology called GPON which uses Optical Fibre all the way to the customer premises. There is no requirement to take or maintain a telephone line for the life of the FTTP service.
Unlike ADSL and FTTC , FTTP does not lose speed over distance. The speed you order is the speed you will receive.
FTTP is currently sold at speeds of up to up to 330Mbps but the technology allows for much faster speeds. In the future FTTP may be sold at speeds of up to 1000Mbps (1Gbps) .
All new FTTP installations are BT Engineer Installed and this is unlikely to change. Migrations or second installations may not require a BT Visit. Unlike FTTC installations FTTP Installations are all day appointments. In some cases more than one day may be required.
On the day of Installation BT will locate the Pole or Footway Box with the FTTP equipment that serves the customer premises:
Unlike earlier versions of FTTP current FTTP uses a single rugged connector for quick and easy connection.
The fibre is then run to the customer premises where it terminates on a box called a CSP or Customer Splicing Point on the outside of the building. It will look something like this:
From there they run the fibre through the premises wall and then directly into a BT box called an ONT or Optical Network Terminator.
The fibre uses a single connector, and unlike many other fibre connections is bi-directional.
At the moment the BT ONT device must be equipped with second box called a BBU (Battery Backup Unit) This is to support the voice service that may be offered over the FTTP. Even if you are only using the FTTP for data you must still allow BT to fit the BBU. It is thought that the requirement for a BBU may be withdrawn in the future. The BT ONT and BBU are housed within a BT supplied casing that maintains access to the diagnostic LEDs on the ONT even when closed.
Just as with G.Fast and the earlier FTTC the Interface to the BT ONT is via a Gigabit Ethernet port to a customer supplied router that should also have a Gigabit Ethernet WAN port. The customer’s router will talk industry standard PPPoE to the BT ONT.
FTTPoD
FTTPoD is the “On Demand” variant of FTTP. The technology and process are the same, however FTTP has a fixed installation cost and a minimum term of 1 year, whereas FTTPoD has a variable installation cost based on distance and location, and has a minimum term of 3 years.
FTTPoD is available at greater distances from the existing BT equipment than the normal FTTP product. The increased cost of FTTPoD reflects the extra work that BT must do to provide fibre over a greater distance or through difficult obstacles not in scope for the fixed price product.
Currently only the 330/30Mbps variant of FTTP is available as On Demand. Once installed rental pricing is charged at a higher rate than native FTTP for initial the 3 year term.