Split between actual fibre provision and copper/fibre provision: FOI release

FOI reference: FOI/17/01747
Date received: 27 July 2017
Date responded: 18 August 2017

Information requested

"Is fibre actually fibre? Can you provide the split of actual fibre provision to copper/fibre provision."

Response

Please see below the answer to the information you requested.

Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband (DSSB) Programme is rolling out access to Superfast Broadband to 95% of Scotland by the end of 2017 and in doing so uses two main technology types. As you have pointed out, these are Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre to the Premise (FTTP).

The delivery profile for the Programme split by technology is 98% FTTC and 2% FTTP. To date within the Rest of Scotland project the Programme has connected around 618,000 premises to fibre via FTTC and around 2,000 premises using FTTP.

For the Highlands and Islands project; the Programme has connected 162,000 premises to fibre via FTTC and 245 through FTTP.

For your information when we refer to FTTC being deployed, fibre reaches a premise via a local cabinet which are generally roadside. Fibre optic cabling runs from the telephone exchange to one of these cabinets with the copper telephone line associated with a premise,which runs from the cabinet to a premise, used to deliver the final part of this service. A premise can get download speeds of up to 80Mbps using this combination of fibre optic and copper. It should be noted however the actual speeds will be dependent on how close a premise is to the cabinet. FTTP is a less frequently used tech type to deliver superfast broadband as part of this Programme. This is delivered using a fibre optic cable directly connecting a premise to the exchange. Premises connected to fibre broadband via this technology can achieve download speeds up of up to 330Mbps.

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