The difference between FTTH and FTTB
South Africa's rollout of fibre connectivity has accelerated over the last 2 years and it is now a must have for businesses. With a multitude of businesses switching their connectivity to fibre, a question we get asked often, is which internet service should they get for their business FTTH or FTTB?
This blog will detail why FTTB (fibre to the business) is the best connectivity offering for your business needs. Let's start off by understanding the fundamental differences between fibre to the business and fibre to the home:
Home Fibre - FTTH
Fibre to the home (FTTH) is ideal for a private residence, which will have a less demanding internet requirement. Home fibre internet is more cost effective and all that is needed is a basic setup, however this type of fibre internet can experience more downtime and higher contention.
Business Fibre - FTTB:
Fibre to the business (FTTB) provides internet at scale that can manage a high demand on the internet line. Most businesses require video conferencing, streaming, VoIP calls, and cloud software, which are all dependent on a quality internet connection. This type of fibre is more expensive, but is tailored for large numbers of concurrent users with high demands of internet speed, uptime and contention ratio.
Access to a stable, fast, low-latency link for your business is therefore essential to productivity and is no doubt an asset to your organisation.
Here are some reasons why you should consider FTTB over an FTTH link:
Reason 1: Better Contention Ratios
Contention is when various people are connected and competing for the internet on one line. The ideal contention ratio would be 1:1, the lower the contention the better. When your contention ratio is high, it means a lot of people are connecting to the same fibre line as you and this can potentially drag down your broadband speeds.
Most Business fibre products have a 10:1 contention ratio which is significantly better than those offered with home fibre of a 30:1 ratio depending on the FNO. This means more bandwidth will be available to your business at any time.
Reason 2: Better Service Level Agreements
Reason 2: Better Service Level Agreements
SLA's provide certain response and repair time when your fibre is down. FTTH internet products have a best effort SLA resulting in longer turnaround times during unplanned outages.
Business fibre internet products can have a SLA added to it which is called Fibre Plus. Fibre Plus includes removing the FUP, punitive payback for service outages and improved contention ratios. Because of these SLA's business fibre fixes are prioritised over home fibre users, meaning your employees remain online and productive.
Business clients can also opt for a redundancy link, meaning they can choose dual fibre or another connectivity product alongside their business fibre products to ensure automatic failover, should downtime occur.
Reason 3: 99% Uptime Guaranteed
Uptime is the percentage of time that you will have broadband service availability in a month. FTTB internet services offer a 99% uptime guarantee and incur a penalty fees if this is not upheld, giving you the peace of mind in terms of service availability.
Reason 4: Symmetrical Speeds
Fibre to the home is either a GPON or AON technology. These technologies usually offer asynchronous line speeds where the download speed is higher than the upload speed.
Fibre to the business usually offer a full-duplex connection meaning you will have symmetrical line speeds, the same upload and download speeds. This means your employees can upload as fast as they download, which helps eliminate internet bottlenecks, dropped calls, slow uploads and data getting clogged due to lack of available bandwidth in high traffic periods.
In conclusion
Fibre to the business creates a faster, more reliable connection allowing work to flow seamlessly in your business. The right FTTB internet service must come from an FNO and an ISP that can deliver a quality link, provide excellent after sales service, and offer a competitive price.
DSL Telecom is the top Vox and Liquid Intelligent Technologies Partner with over a decade of experience in connecting businesses in SA to the right connectivity solution for their needs. We can offer you a range of FTTB packages to choose from and our coverage covers most metropolitan areas as well as major parts of the country.
Check your business fibre coverage here: www.fibrecheck.co.za
Both Vox and Liquid offer a reliable secure business-grade fibre line at affordable prices.
View Vox FTTB packages here: www.uncappedfibre.co.za/businessfibre
View Liquid Intelligent Technologies business fibre packages here: www.fibrebroadband.co.za