Fibre to the cabinet was quick. Fibre to your premises is a different thing entirely — no copper anywhere, no slowdown with distance, and speed to grow into for a decade.
Rated 5 stars by 271 business customers on Trustpilot.
FTTP — fibre to the premises, usually just called full fibre — is business broadband with the copper taken out entirely. A fibre optic cable runs from the exchange all the way through your wall, and light does the whole journey. That's why it reaches download speeds of up to 1Gbps, why the speed you get doesn't depend on how far you are from the exchange, and why it's the network the UK is moving to as the old copper system is retired. UK Wholesale has supplied business connectivity since 2005 — twenty-one years — on the same Openreach network the big retailers sell, without the retail margin, and with experts you can actually speak to.
What full fibre changes
With FTTC, fibre stops at the street cabinet and the last stretch runs over copper — and that last stretch is where speed goes to die. FTTP brings the fibre through your wall.
- Download speeds up to 1Gbps (availability depending), with far faster uploads than FTTC or ADSL.
- Consistent, not theoretical. Speed doesn’t fall away with your distance from the exchange.
- Unaffected by the 2027 copper switch off. Full fibre is the network the UK is moving to.
- Free static IP included, as with all our business broadband — plus wholesale pricing and UK-based support.
What FTTP actually is
Every broadband technology is really an answer to one question: how much of the journey between the exchange and your premises is fibre, and how much is old copper telephone wire? Copper is the weak link — the longer the copper stretch, the slower and less stable the connection.
ADSL is copper end to end. FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) runs fibre to the green cabinet in your street, then copper the rest of the way. SoGEA uses that same cabinet-and-copper path but drops the phone line underneath, so you stop paying line rental for a dial tone you never use. FTTP removes the copper altogether: a fibre optic cable is brought into your building and terminated on a small wall-mounted box, and your router plugs into that. No copper means no distance penalty and no weather interference — a connection that performs the same on a wet February morning as the day it went live.
The result is the fastest broadband a business can buy — downloads up to 1Gbps where available, with uploads far beyond anything copper manages. The only step above it is a leased line — a different product entirely: a private circuit rather than broadband.
Where each technology tops out
Headline download speeds, indicative — not to scale. FTTC and ADSL real-world speeds also drop with line length; FTTP’s doesn’t.
FTTP vs FTTC vs SoGEA vs leased line
| How it reaches you | Headline speed | Best for | |
|---|---|---|---|
| FTTC | Fibre to the cabinet, copper to you | Up to 80Mbps, less with distance | Everyday use where full fibre hasn’t arrived |
| SoGEA | Same path as FTTC, no phone line underneath | FTTC speeds, without line rental | Broadband-only sites cutting the line cost |
| FTTP | Fibre all the way through your wall | Up to 1Gbps, unaffected by distance | Businesses that want speed, stability and a future-proof line |
| Leased line | Private fibre circuit, built for you alone | 100Mbps–10Gbps, symmetric | Operations that need guaranteed speed and fix-time SLAs |
Being honest against our own interest: FTTP is still broadband — a shared service with “up to” speeds. If you need guaranteed symmetric bandwidth and a written fix-time SLA, the right product is a leased line; and if FTTP would do the job for less, we’ll say so. For everything in between, our business broadband packages cover the whole range.
Why full fibre matters once the copper network goes
The industry deadline for retiring the analogue copper phone network is January 2027. After the copper switch off, phone calls become another thing your internet connection carries: digital phone lines and SIP trunks run over broadband, which quietly promotes your connection from “the thing the emails come in on” to the wire your customers reach you by.
That’s where FTTP earns its keep. Call quality lives and dies on a steady, uncongested connection — exactly what full fibre’s consistency and upload headroom provide. Pairing FTTP with digital phone lines is the clean long-term answer to the switch off: one fibre, carrying your internet and your calls, on the network the UK is standardising on.
And if part of your business isn’t ready to leave analogue behind — alarms, lifts, card machines, a number you daren’t disturb — we’re one of the few providers who can keep your copper line running until 2030: same line, same number, same kit. Run FTTP for the fast things, keep copper for the stubborn things, and move each at your own pace.
When FTTP is the right call
- Your team lives in the cloud. Hosted software, shared files, video calls all day — FTTP’s speed and upload headroom stop the connection being the bottleneck.
- Your phones are going digital. VoIP calls ride on your broadband after 2027. A consistent full fibre line is the best foundation you can give them.
- FTTC has hit its ceiling. If you’re at the end of a long copper run, the jump to FTTP is the single biggest upgrade available to your premises.
- You’re planning ahead, not patching. Full fibre is the network everything is moving to — buying it now means never buying this decision twice.
- You need a dependable backup path. FTTP also makes an excellent failover alongside a leased line, turning “the internet is down” into a non-event.
The honest exceptions: if downtime costs you real money by the minute, a leased line with guaranteed fix times is the better buy. If you just want a solid everyday connection at the lowest cost, SoGEA may be all you need. Either way, we’ll recommend the cheaper option when it fits.
Switching is an appointment, not a project
Because FTTP is a new cable rather than a repurposed old one, going live means a short engineer visit: the fibre is brought into your building and a small termination point is fitted where your router connects. We manage the whole upgrade — from ADSL, FTTC or another provider. The survey, the order, the installation date: handled, and booked around your business hours. Your router arrives pre-configured; in most cases your bit is plugging it in. Existing services and numbers carry on as before — and if you still need an analogue phone line, we’re one of the few providers who can keep your copper line running to 2030 alongside it.
Not in a full fibre area yet? Coverage is growing fast but isn’t everywhere — availability comes down to your postcode, which we’ll check for you. We’ll set you up on SoGEA or FTTC now and upgrade you to FTTP when it arrives — no penalty. Questions first? Contact us.
Same fibre, wholesale price, people who answer
FTTP from us runs on the same Openreach network — same lines, same engineers — as the connections the big retailers sell. What’s missing is the retail margin, and the ticket ping-pong: call Poole or Hyde and you reach someone who knows your connection and can actually fix things. We’ve worked this way since 2005 — it’s why 271 business customers rate us 5 stars on Trustpilot. Browse the full business broadband range, or tell us your postcode and let us do the legwork.
FTTP business broadband FAQs
What is FTTP business broadband?
FTTP stands for fibre to the premises, also called full fibre. Instead of fibre stopping at the street cabinet and copper covering the last stretch, the fibre optic cable runs all the way into your building. That removes the copper bottleneck, so download speeds reach up to 1Gbps where available and performance stays consistent regardless of your distance from the exchange.
What is the difference between FTTP and FTTC?
FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) runs fibre to the green cabinet in your street, then uses the old copper telephone wire from the cabinet to your premises; that copper stretch limits it to around 80Mbps at best, and less the further you are from the cabinet. FTTP replaces the copper entirely, which is why it reaches up to 1Gbps and does not slow down with distance.
What speeds can I get with full fibre business broadband?
FTTP supports download speeds of up to 1Gbps, depending on availability at your premises, with far faster uploads than FTTC or ADSL can manage. Tell us your postcode and we will confirm exactly what your address can get and quote the wholesale price for it.
Is FTTP available at my business premises?
Full fibre coverage is growing fast but is not everywhere yet, and availability comes down to your specific address. We check it for you as the first step of every quote. If FTTP has not reached you, we will set you up on SoGEA or FTTC now and upgrade you to full fibre when it arrives, with no penalty for the switch.
What does FTTP installation involve?
Because FTTP is a new fibre cable rather than a repurposed copper one, going live involves an engineer visit: the fibre is brought into your building and a small termination point is fitted, which your router plugs into. We manage the survey, the order and the appointment, booked around your business hours, and your router arrives pre-configured with your static IP set. In most cases your part is plugging it in.
Does the 2027 copper switch-off affect FTTP?
No. The January 2027 switch-off retires the old analogue copper network; FTTP is the full fibre network the UK is moving to, so it is on the right side of the change. If you still rely on analogue copper lines for alarms, card machines or a number you cannot disturb, UK Wholesale can keep copper lines running until 2030 alongside your fibre, with the same line, number and equipment.
Do I need FTTP for VoIP and digital phone lines?
Digital phone lines and SIP trunks run over your broadband, so after the copper switch-off your internet connection carries your calls. VoIP works over FTTC and SoGEA too, but call quality depends on a steady connection with upload headroom, which is exactly what full fibre provides. If your phones matter, FTTP is the strongest foundation to put under them.
Is FTTP better than a leased line?
They solve different problems. FTTP is broadband: fast, cost-effective and shared, with speeds quoted as up to 1Gbps. A leased line is a private fibre circuit built for your business alone, from 100Mbps to 10Gbps, symmetric, with guaranteed fix-time SLAs, at a higher cost. If best-efforts broadband would keep you up at night, you want the leased line; if not, FTTP does the job for less, and we will tell you honestly which side of that line you are on.
Check FTTP availability for your business
Tell us your postcode and we’ll confirm what your premises can get and quote the wholesale price — and if FTTP isn’t there yet, exactly what to run until it is. No obligation, no hard sell.