Fibre Broadband FAQs

FTTC

Q. What is FTTC?

A. FTTC stands for Fibre to the Cabinet. It's commonly known as "superfast broadband" and is the first fibre broadband product available on the mass market in the UK. The technology uses a fibre optic cable between the exchange and your nearest street cabinet which enables much higher upload and download speeds. The line from the cabinet to your home is still copper, but as copper performs just as well as fibre over short distances, you don't suffer any degradation in performance.

Q. Who can get fibre broadband?

A. Fibre broadband is next-generation broadband and is still being rolled out across the UK. You can buy Fibre broadband with Eclipse as soon as your local exchange and street cabinet have been enabled - no-one can provide fibre broadband until then. The roll out should see 40% of households and businesses able to access fibre broadband by the end of 2011, with more to come after that.

Q. How do I know if I can get fibre broadband?

A. You just need to put your phone number into our availability checker and we'll tell you straight away if fibre broadband is available to you, or not. If not, you can give our team of experts a call who will be able to advise you about other ways to get a faster internet connection. Just give them a call on 0800 9155 234..

Q. Why can my neighbour get fibre broadband but I can't?

A. An exchange is considered "FTTC enabled" when 80% of the cabinets it serves (the cabinet is the point on your street where the internet is brought in) are also enabled. Unfortunately that means that 20% of cabinets can't provide FTTC even if your exchange, and most of the area, can get the service.

Q. What happens if I don't get a 12Mbps throughput over a day?

A. If the average throughput measures less than 12Mbps during a 24 hour period, we will raise a fault with BT and get an engineer out to improve your performance.

Q. The availability checker says I can't get fibre broadband now. Can you tell me when I will be able to?

A. Of course. Just call our dedicated team on 0800 9155 234 who will be able to take your phone number and address and look into a more specific estimated delivery date for your area.

Q. Do I need specific hardware?

A. Yes, you'll need an vDSL modem and a WAN router to receive a fibre connection. We will provide the modem on all our fibre broadband packages and may provide the router too, on some packages. Visit our product page or call our team on 0800 9155 234 to find out more about how to get the hardware you need.

Q. Is there an installation process?

A. Yes,fibre broadband needs to be installed separately from your standard ADSL connection. We will book an installation date for an engineer to come to your property between 8am and 8pm. He will fix a wall plate to your current phone port which will enable FTTC. There is no external installation, however, unlike other products which often require expensive cables to be laid specifically to your premises - fibre broadband works across the existing infrastructure, once your area has been enabled. We charge a flat fee of £75 to install fibre broadband, regardless of where you are.

Q. What speeds can I realistically expect from my fibre broadband connection?

A. With fibre broadband, to make sure that you get the fastest possible speed, we will always provide your service using the fastest available technology. Your actual speed will vary according to how far you are from the exchange and cabinet, and the quality of your line. Unlike other broadband connections, however, Eclipse offer a throughput assurance with fibre broadband, meaning you can be certain you can achieve up to 12Mbps of throughput on your line (the actual assured figure will depend on the results of your speed test).
Eclipse also operate our network differently to other providers. This means we don't traffic manage across our lines, giving you the change to reach your maximum potential speeds, all of the time.

Q. Do Fair Usage Policies apply to Eclipse fibre broadband?

A. We don't operate a Fair Usage Policy, but state usage limits clearly. Our products come with a fixed usage limit across a month, for daytime use. Between the hours of 11pm and 9am, however, we offer unlimited usage. This is Truly Unlimited, with no Fair Usage Policy, no throttling and no caps.

Q. What do you mean by 'Up to 12Mb assured throughput'?

A.

Line speed	Between 15Mbps and 40Mbps download throughput	Between 5Mbps and 15Mbps download throughput
Assured rate	Eclipse will provide a throughput level of at least 12Mbps for 90% of the busy 3 hour period	Eclipse will provide a throughput level of at least 70% of the line speed, for 90% of the busy 3 hour period

To provide some reassurance, 90% of our current customers who have fibre activated at their exchange and cabinet, today, have estimated lines speeds of over 15Mbps download throughput.