Burton’s FTTC cabinet
I went away for a short break last week and when we got back a new green box had appeared on The Street. So what is it? Well, as it happens I’ve been waiting for this box to arrive ever since I reported that Burton was in the plans for “Super Fast” broadband. The new green box is a FTTC cabinet. FTTC stands for Fibre To The Cabinet. Our exchange in Badminton has already been enabled for fast broadband. However, for residents in the village to receive the new faster service we need the fibre connection to this cabinet to be installed first. Essentially, internet data signals don’t like travelling over long distances on copper wire. At the moment our broadband travels about 2 km over copper wires to get to our homes. That’s why we can only get broadband speeds of 8 Mbits per second at best. Internet signals love fibre (fibre-optic cables) because vast distances can be traversed with virtually no signal degradation. The most economical way to provide fast broadband speeds to a community is to lay fibre up to a central point and then deliver over copper wires for the last few hundred metres. Once the new cabinet is up and running any home or business within 300 metres of the box (and I think that covers everyone within the limits of the village) will be able to request a new broadband service with a maximum speed of 78 Mbits per second. Conversion to the new service will be relatively simple as it will still be delivered to your house or premises via your phone line. In some cases you may need a new socket cover and your service provider will provide a router if your current one isn’t suitable.
I don’t know the timetable for when our cabinet will be fully commissioned but will be aiming to find out from Wiltshire Online during the coming week. So watch this space for updates.
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