New Age Broadband for Switched on Businesses
There are always promises being made about faster broadband rolling out to encompass larger swathes of the business community, but for many firms the reality is that a lot of campaigning and patience is required before telecoms firms acquiesce to your requests for high-speed connectivity.
The good news is that FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) technology is becoming more prevalent across the country and it is good for both those who have to invest in the network infrastructure and the businesses it will benefit.
FTTC is new-age broadband for switched on businesses and it offers a multitude of benefits over traditional DSL and ADSL. It even trumps full FTTP (fibre to the property) connections in several areas, so it should never feel as if it is a technology introduced as a compromise.
FTTC works by running those all-important fibre-optic cables to street-level cabinets. From these cabinets, the broadband signal is then transported over the short remaining distance to your property through a copper landline connection, which you will already have in place.
Because fibre-optic cabling is doing most of the work delivering the signal and sending data in both directions, you will not encounter many of the issues associated with traditional broadband services delivered over a landline connection. That means little or no speed degradation over the length of the line, so real-life download and upload rates will come closer to matching the advertised maximums.
While copper connections are easily trumped by FTTC, the main benefit when compared with full FTTP, which runs cables into each and every property, is lower costs. Because the cabling must be buried underground it can be expensive and time consuming to take the FTTP route. But with FTTC there is far less work that needs to be carried out during installation, which means less investment is needed and there will be reduced disruption in your local area.
FTTC is made even more attractive to telecoms firms and investors because it gives them something new to sell to business buyers, with higher speeds and connectivity available across wider areas being made available with much lower upfront costs.
Of course, this type of technology on its own is not enough to revolutionise the way your enterprise operates. Rather it is the services that are made available through a fast FTTC connection that can really highlight why businesses will benefit from increased speeds.
Few firms will be unaware of the growing rate of cloud-computing adoption across the country and the world. Cloud computing can be integrated into a business in a number of ways, allowing you to outsource all of your data storage and processing requirements while also giving you the option to take a more incremental approach.
The cloud will be largely useless to a company if it is unable to access the broadband infrastructure at a decent speed, but with the roll out of FTTC it will be far easier for businesses to harness the power of the various services on offer.
VoIP is another type of contemporary service which will be better appreciated by businesses with a FTTC connection. Being able to make calls via the web, with advanced routing, recording and analysis as well, will be a real bonus for any company that wants to communicate and grow. But it is only with high-speed broadband that the true potential of VoIP services becomes unlocked.
While FTTC is not the endgame for business broadband, it is certainly the next-generation boost that many companies need to get their foot on the ladder of new, more advanced platforms which might otherwise remain out of their grasp.
Daisy Group plc are a dedicated business to business provider of communication infastructures to Uk Businesses. With a range of networking solutions including Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) SDSL, leased lines ethernet and business broadband packages providing business users with a choice of solutions designed to meet their individual requirements.