Modern UK households are no longer run on just gas and electricity, but also connectivity. Streaming over the internet is quickly becoming the dominant way to watch TV (or the only option, should you want to watch a football game on Amazon Prime), while smart devices, from fridge-freezers to baby monitors, require constant Wi-Fi.
Ten years ago, most of us could get away with not having full fibre. But in 2025, is Full Fibre the key to a more efficient and seamless experience? This article looks at whether it’s worth the upgrade.
What is “full fibre”?
Not all fibre broadband is the same, so you need to look carefully through the best full fibre broadband deals with a keen eye. We can think of “Full Fibre” as being ‘Fibre to the Premises‘, which is often shortened to FTTP. This means the fibre optic cables run directly into the home. This differs from older UK broadband, in which ADSL uses copper phone lines. Copper isn’t only slower, but it’s vulnerable to outages in bad weather, which the UK is expected to receive more of.
Importantly, it differs from FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet), which brings fibre closer, but copper wires complete the journey to your house. Ultimately, there is still a copper bottleneck, which is why we are focusing on FTTP.
Hundreds of broadband providers simply use Openreach or CityFibre infrastructure, making them all the same, besides differing routers and customer service. However, there is a growing number of altnets that provide both the service and the infrastructure.
The full fibre advantage
Gigabit-capable speeds (900Mbps and beyond) are only achievable with full fibre. But more important is that the upload speeds are more symmetrical than with copper, which often had terrible upload. This is really important for cloud backups, but also for providing your own video and audio during meetings.
Beyond the speed, fibre optic is simply more reliable. It’s less prone to environmental influences or signal degradation. Ultimately, it’s about consistency, and low-latency for gaming or trading is just the cherry on top. Though, in the future, cloud gaming and other cloud services will mean that latency is going to become more of a broadband battleground than speed.
Full fibre is opening up the job market
The UK is embracing remote work, but it’s still an alien concept to many. While we can think of full fibre as being the key to this revolution, it can also impact those who never considered themselves to be WFH. By having the infrastructure already there, it allows you to react to job openings quickly with the full confidence that you can hold an interview (or share your screen) without stuttering.
Cost and availability
Practically, full fibre broadband does have higher monthly fees than older services, but prices are becoming more competitive with less disparity between them. Given that many only keep their cable TV subscriptions (which are often far more expensive than broadband) because they don’t have great internet, suggests switching to full fibre can save money.
Availability is another obstacle that is out of your hands. But, many online coverage checkers make it easy to see what your options are. Fortunately, full fibre coverage is booming, and new roads are constantly being included.
Is full fibre a sound investment for you?
Whether or not full fibre is truly worth it will depend on your behaviour and reliance on the connected devices. However, don’t just look at your existing setup, because that may be constricted by having unreliable internet. Look at knock-on effects, such as potentially ditching the Sky TV box or even the landline phone, so you can truly assess the net costs. And, with more ordinary furniture staples now requiring connectivity (from our cars and fridges to alarm systems and light bulbs), it may be a matter of jumping before being shoved.
