Fibre broadband is a type of broadband connection that uses fibre optic cables to deliver data to homes and businesses. There are several types of fibre connections available in Ireland, including fibre-to-the-home (FTTH), fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) and fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC). Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) connections can deliver lighting fast speeds of up to 1,000Mb.

With FTTC broadband, a network of fibre optic cables runs to your local telephone exchange cabinet. From here data travels through the existing (often old) telephone copper cables for the final few hundred metres or kilometres to your home.

Since copper wires tend to significantly slow down the speed of a connection, FTTC broadband has a maximum speed of 100Mb, and the speed degrades the further the data must travel along a copper wire. So, depending on how far your home is from your local cabinet box, the speed you’re able to get could be far lower than 100Mb.

To get anywhere near the superfast broadband speeds of 1,000Mb that are possible with fibre broadband, you need to live in an area where there are FTTH connections available. In these cases, fibre cables run all the way into your home. Fibre-to-the-home is often called pure fibre as it doesn’t rely on old copper wires for any of the network.

If you live in an apartment building, there might be a FTTB (fibre-to-the-building) connection, where the cable runs all the way to the outside of the building but is then piped via alternative means to your apartment.

Virgin Media offers fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) broadband, which can deliver speeds of up to 500Mb. Unlike some providers such as Sky, who piggyback off Eir’s network, Virgin Media owns and manages its own fibre network.

Virgin Media offers the fastest broadband speed that is widely available in Ireland and the provider is regularly awarded for its broadband speeds. However, the actual speeds achieved by an end user will depend on several factors, including distance from the local cabinet and the number of devices connected to the network at a given time.

To test the speed, you’re getting with your current provider, just visit broadbandspeedtest.ie. And if you’re looking to increase your broadband speed, try these simple tips to speed up your broadband connection or consider switching providers