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VPNs for ad-blocking Excuse the Americanised spelling in Fibre-to-the-Curb (FTTC)—it totally should be Fibre-to-the-Kerb in Australia, but is still infinitely better than the confusing Fibre-to-the-Distribution-Point—which is likely a hang-up of the original American spelling of the broadband technology. Spelling gripes aside, FTTC brings the fibre network extremely close to home for suburbs serviced by the NBN FTTC rollout, and it’s effectively a fixed-line close-second alternative to the full fibre solution of FTTP. Most of the best NBN providers will hook you up with FTTC if your address is eligible. In the meantime, we’ve rounded up a few popular NBN 100 picks (currently, the maximum speed for FTTC connections) to get an idea of how much they will cost you. The fibre runs all the way to a small Distribution Point Unit (DPU for shortsies) inside the telecommunications box before connecting to existing copper lines to get into the home. For NBN Co, this means saving time and money on not having to dig lead-in conduits to homes. For users, it means there’s a better chance your FTTC home internet connection speeds will be on the better side of average. That is, of course, assuming your provider has high self-reported typical evening download speeds. You should also take into account that copper wiring doesn’t just connect an FTTC home to the NBN’s fibre network; it’s also likely what’s used to connect the outside of your home to internal telecommunications. For houses, this means copper wiring is running from the kerbside telecommunications pit to your house, then through the house to your telephone wall socket (wherever that might be). For apartment buildings, the run of copper wiring is likely even longer, as the initial run of copper wiring connects the kerbside telecommunications pit to the building’s communications room. The communications room then connects to each individual apartment via the building’s existing wiring. If your building is old, then this is likely copper wiring. And the higher the apartment, the longer the run of copper wiring. As you can imagine, VDSL2 does a much better job of this than the older ADSL technology, which means that connection technologies like FTTC can reach theoretical speeds of up to 200Mbps download and 100Mbps upload. NBN consumer plans are currently capped at 100Mbps download and 40Mbps upload max for FTTC and other fixed-line technologies. Even though FTTN, FTTC and Fibre-to-the-Building/Basement (FTTB) all use VDSL2 technology, the latter two NBN connection types drive cable much closer to the home, which is why they can reliably deliver faster download and upload speeds. You can punch in your address on the NBN website to see whether Fibre-to-the-Curb is available in your area. If it is, like any NBN technology type, you can connect by first speaking to a provider. Your provider will liaise with NBN Co for your in-home setup, which may mean an NBN FTTC connection device (or connection box) is sent to your home or an NBN technician is booked to install the connection device. The router may be supplied by your provider, depending on that provider and the plan you sign up to, or you can supply your own. While bringing your own compatible router to use on an FTTC connection doesn’t cost any extra money, below is a list of daily updating plans that either include a router or give you the option to purchase one from a provider. If you’re sent your NBN FTTC connection device, connect the included telephone cable to the telephone wall socket, then the power cable to the power point. Finally, turn on the FTTC connection device. Now wait 20 minutes until the DSL, Connection and Power lights are all blue on your FTTC connection device, then connect your BYO router or the one supplied by your provider. Ensure you connect the Ethernet cable from the FTTC connection box to the correct WAN/NBN/internet port on your router. Connect your devices to the router, either via Ethernet cable or WiFi, and get online. At this point, you should run an internet speed test when no devices are downloading or uploading to give you the best indication of your expected base speeds. This test is best run when no connected devices are download or uploading. Compare the results with what your provider is advertising to ensure your FTTC speeds are in line with what’s advertised. If you’re not happy with your download speeds, talk to your provider. The good news for patient FTTC NBN customers is that the current NBN Co upgrade plan is for all FTTC homes to be upgraded to FTTP connections from 2021 through to the end of 2023. Once an FTTC area has received the necessary technology upgrades, eligible homes can tap into the upgraded speeds by ordering an NBN 250 or NBN 1000 plan. This means the old plan to upgrade FTTC technologies with G.Fast (a copper-acceleration technology) may no longer be on the card. For those in eligible FTTC areas receiving the FTTP upgrade treatment, below is a daily updating list of the most cheap NBN 250 plans. In this respect, FTTB has a slight theoretical edge over FTTC in that it drives fibre directly inside the building, rather than to the telecommunications pit outside the building. That said, top-floor apartments that make use of older wiring will potentially have a longer run of copper cabling than, say, from a telecommunications pit to a house. On the plus side, newer apartment buildings or refurbished ones may also have internal fibre telecommunications wiring, which effectively converts FTTB connections to FTTP because it’s an all-fibre connection from the NBN access network to individual apartments. According to recent ACCC data, FTTC and HFC connections are are close contenders when it comes to the percentage of maximum plan speed delivered during the internet busy period (typically between 7pm and 11pm), with 101% for HFC (up from 90.2%) and 99% for FTTC (up from 90.3%). Also, a lot more homes can be connected to an FTTN node, whereas only a maximum of four homes are connected to the kerbside telecommunications pits used for FTTC, which means fewer shared resources between homes for FTTC. FTTC also has a much shorter run of copper wiring: handful of metres rather than hundreds of metres. In a pure FTTN vs FTTC comparison, FTTC comes out on top. That said, FTTN homes are set to be upgraded to FTTP by the end of 2023, which means eligible premises can order an NBN 100 plan or above to tap into the speed and reliability perks of a full fibre internet connection.
