Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport written question – answered at on 11 October 2018.
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the differences in (a) speed and (b) reliability of (i) FTTC and (ii) FTTP broadband connections.
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2018 to Question 167873 on Broadband: Advertising, what steps he is taking to ensure consumers have clear, concise and accurate information to make an informed choice on the differences between (a) FTTC and (b) FTTP broadband.
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to prevent internet service providers from advertising using the term fibre when their network uses copper wiring.
Ofcom’s Connected Nations report states that full fibre networks (FTTP connections) can provide a better quality of broadband than part-fibre connections, such as FTTC. FTTP offers more stable performance, especially at peak times, and can therefore more easily meet advertised headline speeds. Ofcom also states that, compared to copper-based networks (like standard broadband and FTTC connections), full fibre networks are more reliable and resilient and suffer five times fewer faults. Full fibre can also deliver both download and upload speeds of 1Gbps, making it significantly faster than existing services delivered over part-copper networks.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reviewed the use of the term ‘fibre’ to describe part-fibre and full-fibre broadband. As part of its decision in November 2017, it concluded that the term 'fibre' is unlikely to mislead consumers as currently used in the advertising of part-fibre broadband services. In June, the Administrative Court granted CityFibre permission to proceed with its Judicial Review of the ASA's decision.
The ASA also recognised there are differences between broadband services, and said that:
Yes2 people think so
No0 people think not
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