G.fast: Five myths around the ultrafast broadband service

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With benefits such as ultrafast speeds, improved reliability, fluid streaming videos, increased download and upload, and ultimate confidence in broadband, it’s easy to see why G.fast is being talked about so much.

However, picking any new technology for a business can be time consuming, and can sometimes feel like you are going round in circles with so many facts and statements out there. To help we’d like to help bust a few common myths and help you get the right connection that delivers everything it promises.

“I don’t need ultrafast speeds”

Data usage is growing exponentially year on year. And with more and more devices connected, homes and businesses are more dependent on their connectivity than ever before. Ultrafast connections help to ensure that there is sufficient bandwidth to meet the needs of data-hungry homes and offices.

“There’s no point getting G.fast because we’ll have to move onto FTTP shortly!”

There is very little overlap between FTTP and G.fast today, and it is unlikely in the short to medium term that Openreach will complete FTTP within a G.fast area. Openreach are more likely to prioritise areas with no G.fast coverage. For several years at least, G.fast could remain the only ultrafast broadband offering for premises that have been G.fast enabled.

“We heard Openreach are putting the brakes on G.fast plans.”

Openreach have now completed the rollout of G.fast and put a stop to future G.fast deployment. They are now favouring FTTP and expect to be at circa 20mil premises passed by 2030. That being said, it is very likely that G.fast will be the only Ultrafast broadband product available at these 2.8m G.fast locations for the foreseeable future.

“G.fast could solve my slow FTTC connection.”

There are many factors that can influence FTTC speeds, but the main one is the distance from the premise to the street cabinet. Slow speed FTTC lines will generally be at premises further from the cabinet. As a result, it is unlikely that these premises will be able to benefit from G.fast as they would be too far from the cabinet to achieve the minimum speeds required to order G.fast.

With an estimate of around 25-30% of the workforce will be working-from-home multiple days a week by 2021 and busy households with kids watching countless videos on YouTube, family members sharing connectivity and location can all affect the quality of a remote workers’ connectivity and ability to collaborate efficiently.

G.fast provides speeds of up to 300Mbps. That’s fast enough for any business and household needs, including downloading large files, making VoIP calls, uploading videos and more. G.fast uses new technology to enable ultrafast speeds only for users on short copper lines, of less that 300m, meaning that these speeds are always achieved.

For more information on G.fast and how you can power up your connectivity, speak to a member of our team.