Fibre

Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM)

EFM is a type of Ethernet service that uses multiple copper lines to connect to an office instead of a fibre optic circuit. It’s a low cost leased line technology with huge cost savings over traditional fibre leased lines, providing a dedicated connection to the exchange. EFM provides a much more robust, reliable service than Broadband. The use of multiple lines means that if a fault does occur on one line, the service can continue on the others. EFM is also fully symmetrical – so the upload speed is just as fast as the download speed. If there is a problem the time to fix it is typically an hour more than fibre optic Ethernet. It can also be installed within a month, rather than three months, making it much faster than fibre optic services.

Fibre To the Cabinet (FTTC)

Fibre to the Cabinet involves running fibre optic cables from the local telephone exchange or distribution point to the street cabinets. From here, the connection to your business is via a copper line. Because this short length of copper line can use a Very High Bit Rate Digital Subscriber line) or VDSL technology, higher speeds than Broadband using ADSL can be achieved.

Download speeds can be as high as 80Mbps, but it will be limited by the distance from your business to the cabinet.

A variant of FTTC is FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) where the connection from the exchange all the way to the business premises is fibre optic, eliminating the copper leg entirely. This can create a faster connection still.

Ethernet Over Fibre to the Cabinet (EoFTTC)

The most recent innovation available to business customers is the use of an EoFTTC connection to provide an Ethernet service. The customer’s connection is handed off to a dedicated Ethernet network, rather than a shared Broadband network. This service is provided with the same high performance as fibre optic and EFM Ethernet services and is installed in half the time as EFM.

Are you unsure which connectivity solution is best for your business?

Get in touch and we’ll look at your requirements and tailor each connectivity solution around these needs.

Connectivity plays a pivotal role in every company.

Without it most businesses would grind to a halt, affecting performance and productivity.

Making the right decision on your connectivity is essential and we have a variety of options for you to consider according to the individual business requirements.

What do you need to consider?

Think about how much you need it, not just for your business to function but to function effectively.
Buy the best package your business can afford, but don’t make your decision based on price alone. It could cost you in the long run.
Whichever package you go for, it’s important to make sure it’s backed up by a robust Service Level Agreement, which sets out the response times if the system does go down. Downtime can seriously affect your business, so it’s vital you can get support when you need it most.