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FTTH is fiber optic cable that replaces copper wire, providing high-speed broadband services directly to homes or buildings. It offers higher transfer rates and unlimited bandwidth, making it ideal for advanced technologies. FTTH can be expensive but is becoming more common in new-build communities. It can be deployed as a point-to-point architecture or as a passive optical network (PON). FTTH differs from FTTC, which only runs to the sidewalk and uses copper wire for the last leg of wiring to individual buildings.
FTTH, or Fiber To The Home, refers to fiber optic cable that replaces the standard copper wire of your local Telco. Many people prefer it because it can carry high-speed broadband services integrating voice, data and video, and runs directly to the junction box in a home or building. For this reason it is sometimes called Fiber To The Building or FTTB.
Traditional copper telephone cables carry analog signals generated by telephone equipment, including fax machines. Analog technology is, by nature, a less accurate signaling technology than digital technology. Although multiplexing has allowed digital signals to be transmitted over multiple channels over copper lines, fiber optic cable is superior for carrying these signals and allows for higher transfer rates and virtually unlimited bandwidth. This opens the door to better internet speed, video streaming and other demanding applications.
The internet uses a backbone of fiber optic cables that can provide incredible bandwidth. This inherent capability makes it a prime source for advanced networking technologies that can be brought into the home or business. Most subscribers, however, access this network via copper lines with limited capacity. This creates a bottleneck for advanced technologies that require more and more bandwidth. FTTH fills this gap.
Fiber optic cables are made of glass fiber that can carry data at speeds in excess of 2.5 gigabits per second (gbps). FTTH services commonly offer a fleet of plans with different speeds depending on the price. At the lower end of the scale, a service plan might offer speeds of 10 megabits per second (mbps), while typical Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service running on existing copper lines is 1.5 mbps. A more expensive plan might offer data speeds of over 100 mbps, about 66 times faster than typical DSL.
FTTH is in many cases cost-prohibitive. Setup can be expensive, and the monthly cost for subsequent broadband services can also be daunting, although these figures vary widely. The expense is likely to decrease with time as fiber becomes more common.
Due to the cost and logistical difficulty of replacing existing copper lines in some neighborhoods, fiber-optic cable is being installed more often in new-build communities as an added selling feature. Installing it increases the value of the existing property.
FTTH can be deployed as a point-to-point architecture or as a passive optical network (PON). The first requires the supplier to have an optical receiver for every customer in the field. PON uses a central transceiver and splitter to host up to 32 clients. Optical electrical converters, or OECs, are used to convert signals to interface with copper wiring where necessary.
This technology differs from Fiber To The Curb (FTTC) in that FTTC does not work directly at the home or building. Instead it runs all the way to the sidewalk and the last leg of the wiring to individual buildings remains the copper wire.
