What is FTTC broadband?

FTTC meaning: fibre to the cabinet

FTTC stands for fibre to the cabinet. It describes how far the fibre goes:

1. Exchange to cabinet: fibre. Fibre optic cable runs from the telephone exchange to the green street cabinet that serves your area.
2. Cabinet to premises: copper. From the cabinet, the existing copper telephone line carries the broadband signal to your building.
3. Inside: a hub. The copper line ends at the wall socket, where your router or BT Smart Hub connects.

The fibre part is fast. The copper part is what limits speed, because a signal on copper weakens with distance. BT says that with part fibre, the speeds you receive may be reduced the further away your premises is from the exchange. A business close to the cabinet might get close to the top speed, while one a long walk away gets much less on the same product.

FTTC replaced older ADSL broadband, which used copper all the way from the exchange. BT still offers copper broadband (SoADSL), at up to 17Mbps, for premises that cannot get its fibre services.

Is FTTC full fibre?

No. FTTC is part fibre. Full fibre, or FTTP (fibre to the premises), runs fibre into your building with no copper in the connection. BT draws the same line itself: on its business pages it describes its Standard Fibre (FTTC technology) as part fibre and its FTTP service as Full Fibre.

This matters when you compare quotes. "Fibre broadband" can mean either. If the description mentions a street cabinet, a copper line, or speeds up to around 76Mbps, it is part fibre. If it says the fibre reaches your premises, or speeds in the hundreds of megabits, it is BT Business Full Fibre. Our FTTC vs FTTP guide compares them in a table.

FTTC and SOGEA: the same cabinet, no phone line

Historically, FTTC broadband was sold on top of a phone line. You rented an analogue line from your phone company, and the broadband shared the copper with it. Many businesses still have this arrangement, often with a phone line they no longer use for calls.

SOGEA uses exactly the same fibre to the cabinet and copper to the premises, but without the phone line. BT sells it as Standard Fibre:

So when people ask whether FTTC is being switched off, the answer is: the phone line part is, the cabinet broadband is not. It carries on as SOGEA.

How to tell if you have FTTC broadband

Many businesses are not sure what their current connection is. These are the usual signs of FTTC on a phone line:

• You pay line rental for a phone number, with broadband billed on the same line
• Your router plugs into a phone socket on the wall, often through a small filter or a faceplate with two ports
• Your speed is in the tens of megabits, typically somewhere up to around 76Mbps download, and much lower upload
• Your provider calls it fibre, but no engineer has ever fitted an optical box (ONT) in the building

If there is an ONT, a small box where a thin fibre cable comes through the wall, and your router plugs into it with an Ethernet cable, you have full fibre. If the router plugs into a phone socket and you have no phone line rental, you are most likely on SOGEA (or copper SoADSL) already.

If you are not sure, send us a recent bill and the address and we can help you work out what you have and what the premises can get.

FTTC speeds on BT plans

BT now sells fibre-to-the-cabinet broadband as Standard Fibre, in two tiers:

• Standard Fibre 38: up to 38Mbps download and up to 9Mbps upload
• Standard Fibre 76: up to 76Mbps download and up to 19Mbps upload

Your actual speed depends on your line length and condition. Before the service starts, BT gives an estimated speed range and a minimum speed it guarantees for your line; see BT's Minimum Speed Guarantee. Upload is the weak point of FTTC: video calls, cloud backups and sending large files all lean on it, which is often the first sign a business has outgrown the connection. See what broadband speed does my business need.

What the PSTN switch-off means for an FTTC line

The UK's analogue phone network closes on 31 January 2027, and BT stopped selling traditional phone lines in preparation. If your FTTC broadband runs on a phone line, that line will be withdrawn, and the broadband needs to move to SOGEA or Full Fibre.

Before it moves, work through what depends on the phone line:

• The phone number itself. Moving it to a BT Digital Line or BT Cloud Voice keeps it in use.
• Alarms, including intruder, fire and lift alarms, that dial out over the line.
• Card machines and EPOS that use a phone line rather than broadband or mobile data.
• Franking machines, fax, door entry and gate entry.
• Care pendants and telecare, if anyone relies on them at the premises.

BT says existing phone line extensions will not work with a digital line, and that you will not be able to make calls on a digital network in a power cut. Our PSTN switch-off and broadband guide explains what to check, and cloudvoice.cloud covers the PSTN switch-off dates and alarms and special lines in depth.

Staying on part fibre or moving to Full Fibre

When your FTTC line has to change, it is a good moment to ask whether Full Fibre is available. The two routes:

• Move to SOGEA (Standard Fibre). Usually reuses the existing copper, so it is a service change rather than new cabling. Speeds are similar to what you have now.
• Move to Full Fibre. A new fibre connection to the building, with much higher speeds and upload, if the network reaches you. BT describes 0, 1 and 2 stage installs depending on what is already in place; see BT Business Full Fibre.

Either way, the BT plans are the same: Essential, Enhanced, Pro and Ultra. Pro is not available on copper broadband, and Ultra needs Standard Fibre 76 or Full Fibre. If you are an existing BT customer, our upgrade guide covers moving across.

How we help you move off an FTTC line

We can check what your address can get (Full Fibre, Standard Fibre or both), compare BT's speed estimates for each, work out what happens to your number and anything on the old phone line, and quote the BT plan that fits. We do not publish FTTC broadband prices because they depend on the address, access type, plan and contract length, so ask us for a quote.

Contact us and we can check your line.