What Is Business Fibre? Types, Speeds & Costs Explained

Why the Term 'Fibre' Is Confusing

Not all products marketed as 'fibre broadband' are equal. The word has been used so broadly in UK telecoms marketing that it now covers everything from a partial copper connection with a fibre component to a fully dedicated fibre circuit running directly to your building. Understanding which product you are actually looking at — not just what it is called — is essential for making a sensible connectivity decision.

FTTC: Fibre to the Cabinet

FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) is the most widely deployed 'fibre' product in the UK and what most businesses are on when they say they have 'fibre broadband'. It works like this: fibre runs from the telephone exchange to the green street cabinet near your building. From the cabinet to your premises, the connection runs over existing copper telephone wires.

The copper final mile limits speed and is affected by distance. A business immediately adjacent to a cabinet may get close to the advertised maximum of 80Mbps download / 20Mbps upload. A business 500 metres away may get 40Mbps or less. FTTC remains a useful product for small businesses with modest requirements, but it is increasingly a transitional technology rather than a long-term solution.

Typical FTTC business broadband pricing: £25–£55/month on a 24-month contract.

FTTP: Fibre to the Premises

FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) eliminates the copper segment entirely. Fibre runs all the way from the exchange directly into your building. This delivers consistent speeds regardless of distance from the cabinet, higher maximum speeds (up to 1Gbps), and lower latency than FTTC.

In areas with FTTP coverage, this should now be the default choice over FTTC for any business that needs reliable performance. Speeds from 100Mbps to 1Gbps are available depending on the infrastructure provider, and the connection quality is materially better than FTTC at any speed tier.

FTTP is available through Openreach's expanding network and through CityFibre in the 285+ towns and cities where CityFibre has built its own infrastructure. Coverage is now available at the majority of UK business premises in urban areas and is expanding rapidly in suburban and semi-rural locations.

Typical FTTP business broadband pricing: £35–£100/month depending on speed and provider.

Ethernet Leased Lines

A leased line is a dedicated fibre circuit providing a private, uncontended connection directly to your premises. Unlike FTTC and FTTP broadband, the bandwidth on a leased line is not shared with anyone. Your 100Mbps or 1Gbps is yours at all times.

Leased lines also provide symmetrical speeds — upload equals download — which matters for cloud backup, VoIP, and remote working infrastructure. They come with a formal SLA, typically guaranteeing uptime and a maximum fault repair time. This combination makes them the appropriate choice for organisations where internet performance is business-critical.

Typical leased line pricing: from £199/month for 100Mbps in a well-connected city centre, rising to £700+/month for the same speed in a rural location.

Comparing the Three Products

• Speed consistency: Leased line (guaranteed) > FTTP (very consistent) > FTTC (variable with distance)
• Upload speed: Leased line (symmetrical) > FTTP (typically 50–100Mbps on high-speed products) > FTTC (up to 20Mbps)
• SLA: Leased line (formal, contractual) > Business FTTP (some SLAs available) > FTTC (best-efforts)
• Monthly cost: Leased line (highest) > FTTP (mid-range) > FTTC (lowest)
• Availability: FTTC (widest UK coverage) > FTTP (most UK urban areas) > Leased line (requires civil works)

Which Product Is Right for Your Business?

For most businesses with fewer than 20 users in a covered area, FTTP broadband at 300Mbps or above now provides performance that was previously only available on a leased line. The cost difference is significant — £60–£80/month for FTTP vs £300–£500/month for a leased line — and for straightforward cloud application usage, the extra spend is hard to justify.

A leased line becomes the right choice when guaranteed upload speeds are required, when the business cannot tolerate extended outages and needs a formal SLA, or when user count exceeds the practical capacity of a single FTTP line. For most SMEs growing beyond 30–40 users, this threshold is usually reached within a few years of going full-cloud.

AMVIA assesses client requirements before recommending a product, comparing current and anticipated usage against the cost and performance profile of each product type.